P-04-576 Allow Children in Wales to Have a Family Holiday During Term Time, Correspondence – Petitioner to Committee, 20.11.19

Thank you for your update,

the action that we would taken is very clear, we want the power to approve leave during term time for pupils, to be given back to the Head teachers, we want the Welsh Assembly to stop claiming that they still do have this power, most of the education consortia have prevented them from doing this by removing the 'H' code from the attendance forms, thus leaving the Head teacher the choice of putting the absence down to unapproved or lying about the reason the child was not in school and putting their job in jeopardy. Neither of these options is acceptable and this can easily be remedied by the 'H' code being reinstated without further delay. We also believe that the Welsh Assembly should take attendance out of the Pisa survey, which would take pressure off the hugely demoralise teaching workforce, who are frightened to talk on the record because they fear for their jobs if they do, but are most eloquent about it in private, and the pupils alike.

B Walpole-Wroe