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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to be angry about attendance charge from school

562 replies

HidingInTheBathroom · 07/02/2014 15:36

I am very upset at the minute. Received my fine today for taking my children out of school four days before they break up for Christmas.

Me and my husband have received a £60 fine for each child for each parent.

We are being charged more for being a couple. Which I think is wrong. The last week of school they only watch films and went to a pantomime. Oh and had a school disco. The holiday was far more educational than watching films and family time is hard to come by with work.

When I have requested a meeting with the head teacher I have just got a mouthful of abusive from the receptionist.

OP posts:
LouSend · 07/02/2014 20:24

OP, you knew that schools are no longer allowed to give children time off for a simple family holiday.

You knew that if you took your children out for a simple family holiday then that would be recorded as an unauthorized absence.

You knew that an unauthorized absence could well result in a fine of 60 per parent per session per child.

You have been fined. That is not unexpected. You are lucky that your school/LEA has taken the four days as one session and not as four.

These fines are not fair, IME. Parents who can't otherwise afford a holiday-time holiday (be that a week in Skegness or a fortnight in the Seychelles) are being denied a holiday. Parents who cannot get holiday-time off work are being denied a holiday. There are other reasons why a holiday in term time would be better for parents, but is denied.
The point is, the class teacher cannot authorised this. The HT cannot authorise this.

Teachers' training days do not affect holidays. Schools should be open for a set amount of days in the year. Your child should attend school on those days.

Teachers do not strike because they want a day off. They strike because they want to be treated fairly. Because they work very hard and provide an essential service and deserve to be treated accordingly.

You could try fining the school for absence during a teachers' strike, but as it is not the school fining you for your absence during a holiday it would be futile.

You could try fining the LEA for absence during a teachers' strike but as the LEA isn't authorizing the strike, and as the teachers are, in effect, being fined themselves as they do not receive that day's pay, it would be futile.

Or you could accept that you have been given a fine, with good reason, and simply pay up.

LifeIsForTheLiving · 07/02/2014 20:25

YABU.

You should have called them in sick.

Misspixietrix · 07/02/2014 20:25

TheGruffalo2 The one thing that pisses me off with people that bring that up as a lame excuse is that if you asked them what the reasons (note the plural) for the strikes they wouldn't bloody know!!

ClockWatchingLady · 07/02/2014 20:26

The state education system is the only viable option for many people, including me/my DC. Is that argument not a bit like saying "you don't like the Tories? Well, f* off to live in Holland (or wherever), then?"

JugglingFromHereToThere · 07/02/2014 20:26

"Continuing in state education is acceptance of those terms"

I wonder whether this whole issue will be (has been?) challenged in the courts.

It is interesting that we have a right to home educate our children, but if we choose to send them to school we can now be fined if they aren't there every day.

I sense a real moving of the goal posts on this.

TheGruffalo2 · 07/02/2014 20:28

PRESS RELEASE
PARENTS LETTER

jacks365 · 07/02/2014 20:29

Juggling yes it has been challenged in the courts and yes parents have lost.

TheGruffalo2 · 07/02/2014 20:29

Most striking teachers do know.

Frogbyanothername · 07/02/2014 20:30

Clock But if you want the right to take your DCs out of school for holidays and other things you believe are important, then state education is not viable for you either, is it? It is no more suitable for your circumstances than home or private education.

Perhaps there isn't an option that meets your needs precisely - but as you are required to live within the law, then you have to choose the least worse option.

JugglingFromHereToThere · 07/02/2014 20:31

Thanks jacks
What do you think about that ?

ChocolateWombat · 07/02/2014 20:31

So what are all you objectors to the OPs fine suggesting she should do in response to receiving one?
Should she pay up?
Should she refuse to pay and what reasons should she give in Court for that (I wonder if the reasons you object are the same as the reasons she doesn't like it)
Should she take out her annoyance on the Head, by complaining about a Receptionist being rude to her?
Should she write to the LEA (and say what exactly, about why she is objecting)

And finally, what do you think the OP will actually do?

jacks365 · 07/02/2014 20:31

m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-25733272

These parents probably wished they'd just paid.

JugglingFromHereToThere · 07/02/2014 20:36

I think she should pay the fine and vent discuss it here Smile
Fines only get worse if you don't pay up however unfair they are

< bitter experience, such as with train fares and multiple train companies operating on one line >

ClockWatchingLady · 07/02/2014 20:38

I do see your point, Frog. However, state education is the default - a part of the state into which I and countless others willingly pay substantial taxes. As such, it seems to me it should be designed to meet the needs of the people. I don't think it is doing this very well, and that its priorities are very wrong. I think it's perfectly acceptable to have a problem with the way the system is without rejecting it (or, in fact, being able to reject it) completely.

ChocolateWombat · 07/02/2014 20:40

clock, what do you think the OP should do next?

Stevie77 · 07/02/2014 20:41

What exactly is the point of this fine?

Has it been devised to stop truancy and make some parents care and do something about their children skipping school?

Because from what I see and hear so far, it's not quite hitting those it was intended for (IF that was the intention), but rather indiscriminately affecting a lot of other people.

ClockWatchingLady · 07/02/2014 20:44

I think it's a difficult question what an individual should do, Chocolate. She won't be able to beat these rules alone. To be honest, in her situation I may well just pay the fine (grumpily).

But, collectively, I think the objectors could probably get together and be as difficult about this as possible. How about huge numbers of people all taking their children out of school for a day at once and all refusing to pay the fines? How would the courts cope?

ChocolateWombat · 07/02/2014 20:47

The fine is a policy to persuade people to keep their children in school and not take them out for non illness reasons.
Government has previously had schools appealing to parents to choose to send their children, but parents have continued to take their children out. Therefore penalties are required to alter behaviour.

It is like any other policy which needs teeth in order to be effective. Compare it if you will, to fines for people who speed or talk on mobiles whilst driving. Government wants people to stop doing it and fines deter people. Taking children out of school is damaging, just in a different way.

JugglingFromHereToThere · 07/02/2014 20:48

That's an interesting idea clock, a kind of parental strike over this ?

Misspixietrix · 07/02/2014 20:52

.

amimagic · 07/02/2014 20:52

Chocolate Wombat you always appear on these threads with the same self righteous views.

Im still unclear why you feel so strongly about what other parents do with their own kids. How do other children being on holiday affect you and yours?

This rule change is outrageously stupid.

ChocolateWombat · 07/02/2014 20:53

People felt strongly about the Poll Tax and protested. The government eventually scrapped it.
Protests can work. However, the government now is just tryi g to get people to send their kids to school. Most people know that really this is a good thing. They don't like the fact they can't have a cheap holiday anymore and they don't like being fined....but I really don't think the masses will protest.

JugglingFromHereToThere · 07/02/2014 20:54

Well, I don't think it's a good analogy Wombat because I think if you choose to drive you have a responsibility to do so responsibly, and speeding or using a mobile whilst driving is incompatible with that.

However I think you can take your child out of school and still be a responsible parent, and even completely committed to your child's education - just as PP have said a good education doesn't only happen in school

jacks365 · 07/02/2014 20:56

I'm not even convinced the masses are against it. There are plenty of parents on this thread who don't have a problem with the fines.

IneedAsockamnesty · 07/02/2014 20:58

Gruffalo2

This may interest you

www.newbusiness.co.uk/articles/legal-advice/the-legal-ramifications-recording-conversations