[user104658]

Originally Posted by Livia

This sounds so ludicrous it makes me wonder whether it wasn't the result of some kind of breakdown in communication. Who in the world would deny a family this chance to share something wonderful with a terminally ill child?

Jobsworths, who wants to tick the right boxes and not rock the boat. I suppose it probably will have been a communication issue, of sorts... in that this head probably didn't even read the request fully or think about it at all. They'll have seen "holiday in term time" and immediately thrown out a "no"... because "that's not allowed".

You get people like this everywhere... generally in any system, there are the rules and then there's usually some scope for "discretion", which IMO is another word for "common sense". It seems that the higher-ups are saying that this would have been a situation where it would have been fine for the head to use discretion. You would be amazed how many people (in all sorts of roles) are TERRIFIED of using discretion for fear they might get it wrong. I've worked with people who have lost us customers worth over £20,000 in profit because they wouldn't compromise over £5. Mental. Essentially - people don't have any balls. The head said "no" because she was worried about someone higher up giving her a telling-off for it.