Term time holiday fine question

[Cabbagesoupsucks]

I'm hoping someone knows the answer (knows rather than guessing) because I can't find the information I want on the .gov website or my local council site.

I took my children, including my dd who is 5 but legal school age as of January 2019 away for a week. I'm being fined for both kids. I am happy to pay the fine. But I thought that they could not fine for a term time absence when not legal school age.

I must be wrong or they wouldn't issue a fine. But I can't find any information on it. All I can see is that legal school age is the term after they turn 5 but nothing on term time holidays and fines.

They must have made a mistake can you give them a ring/appeal it?

How is their attendance in general? Is that the issue?

Attendance is fine so far. Only one day off apart from the week holiday.

Is it an academy? They seem to make up their own rules.

I think if you've made the choice to put her in school before the legal requirement then you've accepted that you need to follow school rules which are no unauthorised absences.

I think donkir is right.
They don’t legally have to be on roll at school until the term they turn 5 but once you’ve made that decision to send them
I think it’s a legal requirement that they attend as your school received funding per child on roll.

Receives not received.

Re-posting in legal might be better for a definitive answer as there are folks in there that know their stuff.

(I think you are right, though!)

You cannot be fined until your child reaches legal school age which is the term after their fifth birthday. Give them a call and they will rescind the fine.

Your Local Authority will have a code of conduct on the issuing of penalty notices.

Once your child is on roll in Reception, they can be fined. If they were in Nursery, they can't. We have a coup,e of children who are staying in Nursery but are Reception age. They cannot be fined.

They’ve made a mistake. They’ll monitor absence and might refer to EWO if under statutory school age, but they can’t fine you.

I wonder if donkir is right actually. I can't find anything definitive so I'll find out when I call up

You can’t be fined until statutory school age because you haven’t broken the law.

It’s other aspects of attendance monitoring that apply once you enroll in school.

If you try posting this in the primary education section someone might be able to post a link to some documentation. Although I suspect it might not be explicitly stated in anywhere that’s easy to find.

Once your child is on roll in Reception, they can be fined. If they were in Nursery, they can't. We have a coup,e of children who are staying in Nursery but are Reception age. They cannot be fined.
This is false , you cannot be fined if children are not compulsory school age.

Turns out they don't fine for absence until they are of legal school age so it was an admin error