Can I be fined - has anyone actually been fined?

[Weathergames]

Hi, I want to take my 3 kids away in July - meaning they would miss the last 3 days of term when all they do is watch films DS1 will have left by then anyway.

Can the school actually fine me? Has anyone been fined for taking their kids out for a few days (kids have 100% attendance).

I work for the LA (not the same as where kids are at school) in attendance and I know the LA I work for would not spend money prosecuting me for 3 days absence.

And fined? Not me personally, (have missed 9 sessions!) but yes, 2 other farming families I know at school have, and another is heading for a fine for missing 2 weeks in early July (before the winter barley harvest if anyone gives a shit!)

"(I took mine out last summer and doing it again this year, can't wait. No way am I being dictated how to parent my kids or be ripped off for a holiday)"

"You sound delightful."

And that makes you sound snooty and catty.

OP, there are some terrible sickness bugs going around at the moment, I believe.

Have a fantastic holiday.

"Question: If you've had your "holiday" in term time, what do you and your kids do for the 12 weeks a year they are not in school?"

Talkinpeace, have you ever stopped to ask that question of those who can't afford a holiday at all? Maybe the answers will be quite similar.

The science is right - it's £60 per child with accompanying adult . NOT £60 A DAY!!!!

havent read the whole thread. However, if you work in the attendance dept for the local authority, one would hope that you would be disciplined for bringing the authority into disrepute.

i used to work for a not for profit company tackling a specific issue. we all knew that if we had done something against that, we would have been disciplined for mis-conduct.

I expect £120 for DS14 who was off 14 days. The other 2 schools either gave AA or indicated that they wouldn't fine.

I know it's not relevant to the op but my child watched DVDs last Friday afternoon. Middle of term DVD watching not even last day of term DVD watching.

So, what happens if there are separated parents and one of them decides to take their DCs on an unauthorised holiday without the other parent's consent? Does the non-consenting parent also have to pay a fine? Seems harsh.

I'd be a bit miffed at the possibility of being fined because; if there is a duty for the child to be educated, how does 'teacher training' or 'inset days' fit in with this? As parents, we're expected to mop up the arrangements for having children out of school for this reason.

I think it would be a better system to allow a small degree of flexibility for parents to take children out of school, subject to child's performance being within bounds and/or showing ongoing improvement. If not, then no permission given and a 'fine' would kick in. It would possibly help to focus the parents' attention sooner if it needed to be focused and also the child's.

I remember the whole week before Christmas doing nothing useful at school - also the week before the Summer holidays. I think the school should either perform to the curriculum up until it breaks up or not be so fixated on a child's attendance during periods of 'idleness' because that's what it is.

Lying - inset days are actually part of the holidays, not taken out of the 195 (?) days of education.

Thanks TheScience, I haven't come across them except on MN.

Just for clarification, I'm not picking at any teachers, not at all - it's the 'fining' system, it's unfair and misapplied, stringent sometimes for even one day off. Either education is important or it isn't - and that applies to ALL curriculum days.

I think it would be a better system to allow a small degree of flexibility for parents to take children out of school, subject to child's performance being within bounds and/or showing ongoing improvement. If not, then no permission given and a 'fine' would kick in

Trouble is, there used to be a bit more flexibility than there is now, but the sheer abuse made the current arrangements necessary. And what's a "small degree"?? Authorise, say, three days for parent x and parent y will want five because their case is much more important - then parent z will say y only got it because she's a big wheel in the PTA, so she wants eight or it's not fair

If parents can't accept the part they played in the changes, they'll hardly be happy to be refused because their child's performance isn't up to scratch ... that would probably all be the staff's fault too and the screams of "unfair!!!" would be even more deafening

How do children get caught up if they miss sessions due to schools offering 'a small degree of flexibility'? Doing so effectively costs money. Maybe the fines parents get could be put back in to funding lunch time/after school catch-up lessons for children who have had term-time holidays.

Possibly but then I'm of the opinion that it's a parent's job also to educate their child so if their child's performance isn't up to scratch, that's down to them also to work to make it improve. It's supposed to be a partnership; teaching and parenting, I'm sure it is.

Thinking about how you'd apply flexibility; when I was in school and there were sometimes interesting jobs to be done that took you away from the classroom, these would be given to the children who were ahead of the others so that there was no disruption to those who needed the extra teaching time. This was accepted without question.

Child doing ok/showing signs of improvement (as determined by headteacher) - 5 days per year. That's it. No additional days granted. Doesn't matter who you are. If you want to use it for holidays, fine, keep it for disasters, fine.

I'm sure there are measures in place to deal with sickness and funerals and it's pointless to lump these in with the 'holiday days'.

I'm sure there are measures in place to deal with sickness and funerals and it's pointless to lump these in with the 'holiday days'

There are, yes - there always have been and that's not changed

I totally agree with you about teaching a good work ethic, and the idea about giving the "interesting jobs" to those ahead is a great one - but as you said, that was when you were at school. Holiday leave perhaps wasn't cracked down on so much, but then you probably didn't see multiple attacks on teachers by people annoyed at some small inconvenience

Unfortunately the "entitlement" of too many parents has now got to the point where even a reasonable refusal won't be tolerated, no matter what it's about; worse still, they teach their children the same approach under the guise of "explaining which rules it's okay to break"

I work in the same team that deals with attendance I don't personally deal with it.

As a team we do not want to deal with parents who have a couple of days at the end of term for a holiday.

We deal with families who have children who have a couple of days a week off, are consistently late or who refuse to attend school.

There is a MASSIVE difference and as a LA we have the discretion to recognise that.

Puzzled... actually, even though it was a long time ago (I'm 45), there wasn't 'holiday leave' at all. If it was school term, you were in school and that was that. I don't ever remember schoolmates being away for a week at a time or more, unless they were sick.

It was probably halcyon days back then because parents used to leave the teachers alone and used to back them up. It was very rare for a parent to go to the school and if they did it was because they were asked to; none of this...

... and yes, there were a few schoolmates who would buck the system but they weren't 'idolised, not at all. They were sort of left to it by other pupils who wanted to work. The parents of the rule-breakers didn't seem that bothered but there weren't many; one or two in each class of 30?

Exactly, LyingWitchInTheWardrobe - on the whole people accepted whatever they'd signed up to without excessive whining Nobody's suggesting that things shouldn't be queried if they don't seem right, but that's the point: reasonable folk challenge and discuss rather than crying "they can't say that to me" "It's not faaaaiiirrr" and so on

Schools don't fine people. Councils don't fine people. Only a Court can fine people. And if you did get fined, you would be having a criminal record too.

Not all schools/counties are fining.

That's rubbish you would not have a criminal record.

Everyone who was fined for speeding would then also have a criminal record