Fine for taking kid out of school- 8 days?

[NeedToGoOut]

Just got penalty notice letters for DH and I.

We only took DC out of school last month for 8 days, first ever time. I didn’t think a penalty was given unless DC is taken out for 10 days?

DC had 100% attendance outside of that and is top of year. No effect on education at all. Had assessments the week after we returned and got 97-100%!

AIBU to be a bit pissed off the school ran straight to LA to rat on us?

@MaryShelley1818
You may not have to pay.

I could be wrong, but I thought if your child was below age 5 and not legally obliged to be in school then you are not fined.

As I said, I could be wrong 😑

Agree. And it is not just your child's education that is disrupted if you take them out, the whole class is disrupted.

Before the crack down on taking kids out of school during term time in May, June and July sometimes I had nearly a third of class missing. This affects what you can teach - you end up treading water till more are back. Even if it is just 2 or 3 kids out for a week they come back having missed stuff which the teacher then has to deal with - time given to the holiday-kids one-to-one during the lesson is time that others, who perhaps need it more, are not getting. And don't get me started on parents who think staff should supply work for the kids to take away with them. Like teachers have nothing else to do.

So potential disruption to planned teaching for around 8 weeks of the school year. Every child, every class, every year. Just think about that.

Term time holidays make me so cross. Wasting everyone's time. The fines are way too small.

There's huge sliding scale of difference between taking your kids out of school on a family holiday to repeatedly missing large chunks of schooling on a regular basis because of other issues. The two are not comparable. Parents often now factor in school fines to their holiday costs, but I think fining families is a really short-sighted response and not the answer to upping pupil attendance. It doesn't really affect the more comfortable families because they'll go ahead and do it anyway but it does affect the poorer families who have to suck up the extortionate costs of going on holiday over designated school breaks, when the prices are hiked up to the heavens.

Also don't agree with fining families where there are low pupil attendances due to domestic issues - it doesn't help these families, it doesn't address the root cause of the problem or give a supportive response. What these situations need is a personalised response from the LEA to offer children graded exposure to normality in terms of schooling, and specialist intervention to work closely with the family in question to address concerns in a holistic sense. To build trust between education partners.

But of course, that's too time-consuming, and it doesn't bring in any revenue so it's far more reasonable to just send those struggling families a fine instead. I think it does far more damage than good.

Back when DD was at secondary school, I used to get warnings every year after a half term. Why? Because her dad would take her on a family holiday with her SM and Step-sisters, who lived in a different county with different half term dates. A very strongly worded complaint by both myself and exH soon put a stop to the threats of fines. If the LEA's couldn't co-ordinate half terms then quite frankly it wasn't our problem.
Despite "being denied an education" as a PP stated, DD when on to get a 1st class Hons degree, so it didn't seem to do her much harm.

Presumably, like everything else in the education system, this is audited to death so ratting on you isn't really an appropriate term.
You saved on the trip and I can't imagine there' much you can do about this really.

How much are the fines out of interest? Not going on holiday at the moment but if/when we do it will be term time. Thought they would have dropped this rubbish tbh after covid.

If your child has SEN you could try appealing the fine if you can relate the holiday to their disability eg had to go during term time as quieter and they don’t get overwhelmed by crowds (ie autistic).

Yes this is true, we took daughter out under 5 and no fine. Just got flack from the teacher but it is what it is.

I think a family holiday is extremely important and the reality is travelling is so much cheaper in term time. Some families may miss the opportunity to have a holiday if they can only go at Easter or in the summer break! And no, generally people don’t want to go camping in the rain down in Dorset.
The government should be regulating the travel industry to make the cost of holidays fairer and more accessible to everyone during the school holidays.
Think about how long you have your children for… it’s such a short period of time before they go off and make their own way in the world. Taking them out of school here and there for precious family time during their childhood will not mean they fail their GCSEs and end up on benefits!!
If you’re worried about getting a fine just contact the school and tell them your DC has covid!!

£60 per child per parent.

I'm not sure the school have much choice in the matter, but the idea of being fined for a few days off by a state that so recently deemed millions of our DC unworthy of school attendance for months at a time is a piss take.

They think they own us body and soul. YANBU IMHO.

It is a little two faced

10 sessions is 5 days and a fine happens if go over that and get told dd attendance won’t be 100%

it wouldn’t anyway as had 3 days off fir covid , 3 fir chicken pox and a day fir ear infection

but the child who has 1/2/3 days off here and there doesn’t get fined

we have a child in our reception class who bless him gets every sick bug, covid, ear infection, another sick bug, chicken pox, another sick bug etc etc etc

must have had 20 days off at least but no fine

but yes if you take out to go on holiday you pay the £60pp fine

Do you really not see the difference between unavoidable absence for illness and optional absence for holidays?! What a bizarre post.

I don't think it's right but we all know the consequences by now so it's no good moaning after the fact.

It wouldn’t have been difficult to look up the rules.

There needs to be a cut-off and systems are automatic referral. How can anyone complain having known a fine was very likely. If you choose to remove your child from school, you know this is a likely consequence.

All this, does it make any educational impact….government thinks it does and so fines. That’s how it works. You can disagree, but still face the fines.

Just pay up. Simples.

Been there too, took a complaint to LGO to force LA to make provision whilst we waited for a Tribunal date, then told that we couldn't take a holiday as dd must be at home for the two one hour sessions per week the LA sent the tutor to the house for or we would be fined. Dd conveniently came down with a virus for the week we went on holiday.

@TriceratopsRocks I have been struggling to find exact wording in the Bill too but there have been media articles picking up on the 5 occasion thing. I will take a look. I do hope if it goes through there will be some SEND exepttions as tbh trying to get a non sleeping young child in is so hard. The school know this, our EWO knows this but once that control us taken

Sorry Thank you @TriceratopsRocks

Before the crack down on taking kids out of school during term time in May, June and July sometimes I had nearly a third of class missing. This affects what you can teach - you end up treading water till more are back. Even if it is just 2 or 3 kids out for a week they come back having missed stuff which the teacher then has to deal with - time given to the holiday-kids one-to-one during the lesson is time that others, who perhaps need it more, are not getting. And don't get me started on parents who think staff should supply work for the kids to take away with them. Like teachers have nothing else to do.

I was going to say similar. I'm not a school teacher but I have family who are. So my question is:

If you take your child out of school for a week, they will have missed at least one lesson in every subject, more in some. Are you happy for your child to sit in the class not having a clue what's going on and being expected to do all the catching up necessary on their own without school input? Or do you expect that the teacher will spend time with them so that they don't miss anything? And are you happy with that, even if it takes the teacher away from helping a pupil who was there all the week but who struggles and could do with a bit of extra support?

[Actually I may be writing this in the wrong forum. There does seem to be a lot of MNers whose child is top of the class and can breeze through it.]

My ex never got holidays in school holidays. (Police) so We did take the kids out a few times to go away there are no fines here thankfully and attendance otherwise fine. We avoided taking them in pre exam and exam years though. Now a single parent I can’t afford to go in or out of school hols joy

As a teacher, I would say take your kids out for holidays if you want, but don't then whinge and complain if it puts them behind or interrupts their progress. It's your own doing.

I don’t disagree with you, it’s ridiculous that parents get fined, but I do disagree with this DC had 100% attendance outside of that and is top of year.
Do children who struggle more academically not deserve a holiday? Or children with disabilities or medical issues who need regular doctors appointments. There parents should be paying school holiday prices because of these things, while your academic child who has no difficulties gets a cheaper holiday as a reward?

I took both my DC out of school every other year to go on holiday. Despite the threat of fines nothing ever happened. We always factored in the fine cost and it was still £1000s cheaper than going in the school holidays.

Nether were top of their class but managed to catch up and have done well in exams and then getting uni places.

Next time say they have tonsillitis. That will give you 5 days off if it's viral, the GP won't bother with viral as there isn't anything they can do.