Do you agree with school absence fines?

Yes and no. I do think in primary school you should be allowed 5 days off but invariably parents will take the piss

secondary school no

No, they disproportionately affect poorer parents and break the bond of trust between school and parents.

My ds missed months of school due to a mh crisis. Luckily we live abroad and weren't charged, only helped. I know parents in the same situation in the UK who were threatened with fines making an already stressful situation much worse.

The holiday companies need taking to task for increasing prices unreasonably during school holidays.

Easy metric for government to show education is improving and education target is being met. Also, cash flow to local councils.

Harder to show real impact quickly on :
SEN support what is in place, changes and improvement.
Funding for teachers and TA.
School building work and repairs.
GCSES subjects and specialists teachers.
A levels subjects.

Most children do absolutely fine. If they don't a week or two won't do a lot anyway.

You just punish families not able to pay the fines or expensive holidays. Most likely rich people make and pass the laws.

It used to be like that when mine were at school, I'd go away at Easter and October, it meant booking before the start of the official holidays, would save the equivalent of my spending money. Being spread over two different years, meant very little missed.

I'm on the fence. When I was a primary teacher, it was annoying to have children away for a whole week but generally didn't create huge issues. If it were really true to that missing a week of school had a massive impact on learning, all the children who miss school due to illness would also be falling terribly behind. That generally isn't the case. A child missing two weeks is much more disruptive and rarer so I'd say that's more of a concern.

The real problem - at least in primary school - is children who miss a Tuesday one week, a Friday the next week, three days the following week etc etc. Essentially parents who are flakey as hell and are either too scattered, ill or drunk or high to get their child to school consistently. A child who barely attends will suffer hugely in the long run - fines generaly make no difference in those situations as parents don't pay them at all and they need help much more than they need punishment.

I will add that closing schools in 2020 has not helped. It's a bit ridiculous to say that children must not miss school and then close schools for months on end.

For most individual children it has no impact but it has to be looked as at a whole class/ school. If you have each child off at one point or another then various children off with the usual illnesses it’s impossible to make sure that the whole curriculum is covered for every child.

We all have failing parents in our schools and see children being let down, by a lack of safeguarding. It's galling when your child is doing well, is in unless really ill, you get involved, give donations, then get told they can't have two days off, to book a holiday, early, at a affordable price. Meanwhile there's families who rarely get their children in on time, the child isn't set up for learning (fed, had enough sleep etc), have to stay off for tooth extractions, 'accidents', don't participate in anything going on and their child is regularly off, because they've pulled a all nighter in the house, or the latest partner has had a kick off, or one of the parents has been arrested, and you don't want the child to tell anyone what's gone on. Then there's the SEN children who aren't getting an education while there, so might as well be on holiday. Most parents don't want more than a few days either side of the holidays.

It just punishes the poorer families who get less opportunities to have holidays. Everyone takes the fine or pays the premium.
when my DDs were young (late nineties/ early noughties) at their primary school you could have a discretionary 10 days off providing attendance didn’t drop below a certain percentage. That seemed fair to me, we preferred to holiday in June when it was cheaper/ less hot/ less busy.

Sadly some do phone them in sick but then asking their children to lie to trusted adults at school puts the children in an awful position!! They’re excited about their holiday and want to share but have to lie because their parents told them too! Wrong on so many levels!
And TBH we know they’re on holiday anyway!! No one is off for a whole week with a cold!!

For most children it has no impact at all to have a few weeks off.
In other countries school systems it's more or less normal.

I’m a teacher abroad. Kids here routinely go on holiday once or twice a year and are expected to take any important schoolwork with them and hand it in on return. Much better system. The fines in England are just another example of a pointless policy that the “wash your shopping” brigade live for. Ineffective officiousness that makes them feel good that someone somewhere is getting punished for not being a good little worker drone. Countries with a different outlook are doing better economically. 🤷‍♀️ I know where I’d prefer my kids to grow up so I’ve voted with my feet.

I don't agree with them, they don't work and it's just a money making exercise for councils.

Agreed the fines aren’t necessarily making a marked difference yet but without them even more people would be taking term time holidays!!

I think it’s hypocritical. My DS with SEN currently has no school place and the LEA have said they won’t be able to find him one before school starts back in September. They should be focusing on appropriate schooling for SEN pupils but they don’t seem to care as much about that.

They work well to control poor people.

There has to be something to put parents off taking term time holidays, fines are as good as anything.

Family holidays are important but I don’t believe they are completely unachievable unless parents take children out of school. There is no benefit to the vast majority of children of going in school time instead of during the many holidays. They either need to choose a cheaper holiday or save up for longer. It is not impossible.

Many children can take time out of school and it has no impact on their education, but unfortunately that isn’t the case for all children. Some children need every day in school they can get. Especially when they are struggling to keep up academically due to SEN or simply low ability, it is just irresponsible for parents to take their children out. School staff are expected to plan and facilitate interventions and extra support only for parents to shove two fingers up and go on holiday.

Patents need to think beyond their own convenience and bank balance and consider the real impact on their child, the class and attitude it shows towards education and the school.

Which is why the Law was changed to be able to escalate for those wealthier families as well - they might not bat an eye at £160 a couple of times, but they'll take notice when they're off to court for a £1000 - £2500 fine and a criminal record.

Yes. I work in a school so see the other side of the coin. If a child misses 2 weeks of school they have missed 2 weeks of learning. Topics are often only covered for 1 week so the child has missed out. If you then get multiple children off on holiday over different weeks of the year plus illnesses that all children get, it’s impossible to catch everyone up so standards across the board slip.
The add in, if we allow children to have term time holidays then school staff need to be allowed the same and it just becomes completely untenable!
I completely understand that holidays are more expensive during the school holidays, DH and I just booked our holiday for next summer and it’s several hundred pounds more that if we’d have gone 3 weeks before during term time. But it’s one of those things that comes with the territory of working in a school or having children. We save every month for holidays so it’s not a big deal come the time to pay for it.
Maybe the anger should be directed at the holiday companies hiking up the prices during school holidays? Surely it would be better for them to have 1 peak season from say May to August rather than peak April-July and super peak in August?

Also on the flip side we’ve had letters for school trips abroad in the thousands which are in term time. I would rather utilise that money for a family trip.

How would that help a child?