British school bits and bobs

For the most part, British school has been great. I still get a chuckle out of how their vocabulary is a bit different from ours. Below is a page from one of Adam's books:

So cute!

One of the downsides is that they are very strict about attendance. Below is the form I had to fill out prior to pulling John out of school for the afternoon to spend with my mom. 

Notice that there is no provision for unexcused absences. So in America it is okay to take kids out to school for short trips and "mental health days." As long as it is rare, and the kid makes up any necessary work, it is no problem. Well that isn't the case here. They are known to give out the fines listed above for any unexcused absence... so anything that isn't illness or death-in-the-family type of thing. They indoctrinate the kids on the attendance issue too in that they give out awards to the class with the highest attendance each week and they really want to get it. The challenging thing is that school is practically year-round here (beginning the first week in September and not getting out until July 22). Of course there are school holidays, but that doesn't always line up with "life", per se. So we tested the waters this week to see how strict they would be about fining us for this unexcused absence with Grandma. She was only here for a week (more on that later), and I thought it was crazy that I couldn't take my 7 year old son out of school for an afternoon to be with her. We'll see what they say.