To not pay school attendance fine?

[NameChanged456716]

And what happens if I don’t. There is no statutory right to appeal.

i submitted an ‘exceptional leave request’ first week of September, requesting 5 days leave for my 6YO and 8YO daughters. We are in India this week participating in Diwali and the religious functions that lead up to it. It’s not the same in our area the U.K. and we wanted the kids to fully experience their cultural traditions at an age where they wouldn’t miss too much at school, with family and friends that live in India.

the head was meant to respond to let us know whether or not the absence would be authorised and give reasons. We didn’t hear anything and then chased up a few weeks before half term, but no response.

today we got the standard ‘why have your kids not in school email’, which I responded to and finally got confirmation that the absence has not been agreed and so will be unauthorised. No reason given other than they see it as a family holiday.

in our area it’s an automatic fine by the LA if we take kids out for 5 days. I’m a bit annoyed at the lack of communication from the school. We can’t control that Diwali is in term time, it’s only 5 days and this is really important to us as a family.

what would happen if I don’t pay the fines (it’s more the principle that I don’t think we should have to).

in terms of missing education - kids attendance is 100% otherwise and both are greater depth so I do think this week in India is a better experience for them than any impact of missing 5 days of primary school.

Didn’t you ask on MN at the time of booking and the consensus was you just have to pay the fine as you could celebrate it in the UK.

A quick google tells you if you don’t pay within 21 days the fine is doubled.

YANBU, personally, though I also don't think I would have expected you would get leave for it because it probably counts as a holiday. You could try pushing on the 'religious' grounds argument but if you don't get anywhere I would pay it to avoid escalation, but maybe that's just me. But definitely YANBU, sounds like a great thing for your family to have experienced.

You don't really have a leg to stand on, you knew taking them out would result in a fine and now the fine has been issued.
It doesn't matter if taking them out was important to you.

I think if you don't pay they can prosecute you

Pay the fine.

Could they authorise one of the days at least so you don't get fined?

Check the school absence policy. It should specify (i) how authorisation should be requested and (ii) the timescale for receiving a response. If you complied with the policy and the school did not, then it seems unreasonable to fine you. I don't know what the process would be for getting the fine overturned, though.

I wouldn't just ignore the fine, though. In your place I would probably contact the school and the local authority, providing evidence of your request and citing the school policy assuming it supports your case, and ask for the fine to be cancelled, or failing that for guidance on how to appeal plus how to proceed next time.

Just pay the fine.

Just pay the fine. That's the price for term-time holidays. I'm sure you'd factored that into your budget anyway when you decided to go.

It's really poor form of the school not to have got back to you - have they explained why they didn't respond to your emails?

How did this make any difference? OP was taking the kids out for 5 days regardless of whether or not the absence was authorised.

The law is that you have to pay the fine. Pay now to avoid paying more, and/or bing prosecuted and paying costs.

I don’t think your trip is unreasonable at all, but you have to accept it breaks the law in your area. By all means lobby to change the rules in future but you will only waste your own time and money by not paying now.

Think of it like a parking fine- you may not agree with local parking restrictions but you pay the price if you contravene them.

I think you would BU not to pay the fine if the absence wasn't authorised before you left. (The fact that the school didn't respond is crap but not a sufficient argument to say that you thought it would be authorised.) Presumably, you could be prosecuted if you don't pay it, and I don't think that would be worth it.

However, yanbu for thinking that your dc will benefit much more from a week in India to celebrate Diwali than they would from a week in school. Head teachers used to have the discretion to authorise this kind of absence, and ours always did.... and dd benefitted immensely. However, that discretion has sadly gone now.

I understand your annoyance but on this occasion, I think you might just have to suck it up.

Happy Diwali!

Gee, this country. The state doesn’t own your children.

I agree with this. Very unprofessional of your Head. Appreciate they are very busy but that’s very poor form.

You risk prosecution. I'd just consider the £120 a worthwhile price for all the benefits that came with it

Then homeschool your children. You don't have to enrol your children in a state funded school, but if you do you are agreeing to their terms and rules.

No they don't but you apply for a school and they have terms you agree to when you accept the placement.
If you break the agreement you pay a penalty.
If you are not happy with the terms you campaign against them, remove your child from that school to home educate, private school or another state school with alternative rules.

Not paying the fine will escalate the problem.

Pay the fine unless you want to eventually be taken to court. Some parents do defend the absence in court but usually when there is a good reason for it such as illness.

Wow people are REALLY angry someone has taken their kids out of school for religious purposes.

Thetes no way to appeal this OP? Usually with these fines there is an appeal process.

The school’s lack of response is not great and probably should be complained about, but it is irrelevant to the fine unless OP is saying she’d not have taken the kids out if told it was unauthorised.

Absolutely this.

I’ll pull my own eyeball out before I let an organisation dictate judge or reprimand how I raise my children

You’re assuming here that if the school had notified her the absence would be unauthorised, she wouldn’t have gone.

I don’t think anyone is criticising OP for taking her daughters to India for Diwali. They are just pointing out that she has to pay the fine.

OP was told it doesn’t matter that her religion is important to her

What thread are you reading?? I can't even see one angry comment. People are simply pointing out OP knew what she was doing them when she took them on the trip and the fine isn't a surprise and will need to be paid. That was the choice she made.