Are Religious Holidays Valid Excuses for School Absences?
Are Religious Holidays Valid Excuses for School Absences? Wednesday February 20, 2008 Recently, a primary school in the London suburb of Islington made headlines when they allowed a parent to remove her six-year-old from classes for three days in order to visit Stonehenge for the summer solstice. The mother says they’re Pagans, and that the absence was for religious reasons, and so the school allowed the child time off — in the past, Newton Green Primary has allowed absences to children of other faiths for religious reasons. However, now they’re beginning to crack down on parents taking their kids out of class, and according to spokesperson Jennifer Slocombe, parents “will not be given authorised holidays within term time unless there is a very good reason for it.” The question here is twofold: what constitutes a “very good reason”, and who makes that determination? The United Kingdom has over
