A student in my form's father is dying. Well, probably. It's advanced stage cancer, detected very late, and it's not a sort with a good prognosis. Hairy Boy is 13 and he has a younger sister, and their uncle, who has no kids, decided to buy them a family holiday to make the most of the months they have left with their dad. Fair enough. Lovely plan. Only, it's in term time.
We can't say 'Wait til Christmas' because it's already payed for (and they're not wealthy), and, well, Dad might not have that long, at least not in good enough health to go on holiday - but we can't say yes.
New rules came in at the start of this month that say that no holidays can be authorised apart from in exceptional circumstances, for students who have never taken a holiday in term time before, and whose attendance for the last 12 months is over 90%. And Hairy Boy's attendance is 85% - he was really sick last term for a week. So we can't authorise, and there's no appeal system or higher-up power to appeal to, just the rule. You can't. Teacher's can't be trusted to use their professional judgement, so we end up with absolute regulations like this and have nowhere to turn when we find a situation in which they are clearly devastatingly misguided.
We can't say 'Wait til Christmas' because it's already payed for (and they're not wealthy), and, well, Dad might not have that long, at least not in good enough health to go on holiday - but we can't say yes.
New rules came in at the start of this month that say that no holidays can be authorised apart from in exceptional circumstances, for students who have never taken a holiday in term time before, and whose attendance for the last 12 months is over 90%. And Hairy Boy's attendance is 85% - he was really sick last term for a week. So we can't authorise, and there's no appeal system or higher-up power to appeal to, just the rule. You can't. Teacher's can't be trusted to use their professional judgement, so we end up with absolute regulations like this and have nowhere to turn when we find a situation in which they are clearly devastatingly misguided.
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