To not pay school attendance fine?

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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.

👏🏻 👏🏻 with ya

@Whatonearthdidicomeinherefor You don't get paid for holidays? How does that work?

Are you salaried? Do you get the same salary in your account every month?

I’d fight it all the way, and your daughters benefited and learned much more from the trip than in the classroom that week.
if more parents cared as much the world would be a better place
its ridiculous Schools don’t mind when they’re on strike…
hope you had a lovely time ..

No, why would I expect that….what they’ve missed they’ve missed (but surely important concepts will be repeated over and over in primary).

True they wouldn’t. But in the UK they give a shit enough to fine you.

No I didn’t call, I emailed, reattaching the request firm. The school repeatedly ask us not to call the office unless it’s something especially urgent that needs immediate attention.

I’m a teacher and this seems ridiculous and very poor from the school. You are allowed 3 days of religious leave (one day per religious festival) that has to be an authorised absence. If you state that one of your days was taken for religious observance then you will drop your other holiday days down to 4 so you might not have to pay the fine.

We will be here for the main day of Diwali, which is Sunday.

I would pay it. Hope you had a great time.

Wow that's ridiculous! Obviously your kiddos are getting the experience of a lifetime, they are so lucky! I'm in the US. I can't imagine being fined. We do stuff like this all the time, as parents hold the authority & discretion, not schools. They will send the police after us though, if we don't give notice. It happened to me once when my DD was sick and the school's phone lines weren't working properly. I had a cop on my doorstep! Also ridiculous. I wouldn't pay either, on principle...depending on the consequences of course.

OP - you’ve been asked twice did you actually go into school and physically ask about where your reply was. You’ve not answered. Given you’ve found time to reply to many posters on this - hourly - it’s rather difficult to understand your non- response. why you weren’t asking daily as the children are taken to and from school is also a bit of a puzzle. It’s not exceptional circumstances - as you well know; you were always taking this extended holiday; you knew the rules; and now you’re looking to assign the blame to a headteacher. Complete BS

The fact you knew it was term time and you know it’s an automatic fine in your area. I don’t think you will get around this. Pay the fine or they will take it further. I’m sure your family has fun so pay it and move on. The head cannot authorise absence for festivals religious or other. Extreme absence is something like a death in the immediate family etc

I think you’ll have no choice but to pay it. It’s double standards though, given the strikes last year. My child missed a week of school because of teachers strikes….it’s ok to miss a week of school when it suits them.

I live in Wales and Welsh Government has very comprehensive guidelines for this ( see https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2023-03/School-attendance-and-religious-festivals-guidance-2023.pdf ) so no doubt the same will apply wherever you are in England or Scotland.
I'd say even if you didn't get a reply, you could have checked this out. My guess is that although the specific dates relating to the religious festival may be allowed as absence, the additional days while you were out of the country would be deemed as holiday and therefore not approved. In essence, I think you need to pay the fine on this occasion and bear it in mind for future observance.

I am involved in my local school so this is based upon what I've learnt from how this school operates.

In general, the school is prone to be sympathetic to parent's requests and provided there is no ongoing issue with the attendance of the pupil in question they wouldn't want to be obstructive for just a few days on a one-off occasion.

The local authority is very much a different mindset however and from what I have been told will ignore anything the school says and seek to obtain some financial contribution from parents to maximise their revenue.

I can imagine that this puts some schools and heads in an impossible situation which some might try to ignore or keep out off!

I would politely email the head teacher and ask if at least the holiday on Friday can be authorised and it’s government policy that religious holidays are authorised, to not do so would be discriminative. Thank her for her time.
Enjoy your holiday and try not to worry.
once home I would contact your local council and state that one of the days
was Diwali and you would expect that day to be authorised. I’m sure they’ll change it, hopefully you’ll only have 4 days off then and avoid a fine..
if not then I’d pay up… there was a man who challenged his fines and won, then they took him back to court and won… he ended up paying hundreds of thousands!!

The state of schools these days why are they getting so riled up about a child missing a few days?
It's madness.
Just say they were ill in future, saves all this hassle.

I did respond to this. No I didn’t call or go in I emailed, reattaching the request form. The school repeatedly ask us not to call the office or go in unless it’s something really urgent that needs immediate attention as they don’t deal with admin or none urgent queries on the spot. Always email are their instructions.

We did speak to both teachers verbally about it too so they knew we’d requested it and wouldn’t absent. But the request forms and authorising is not within the scope of the teachers role.

Does the school website, newsletters, messages home etc outline their policy on leave of absence requests during term time?
Yes, they should have acknowledged your request but if their policy is well publicised then it can't necessarily be used as a 'defence' reason, as the information/ schools stance may be available to all parents publicly irrespective of whether a request was submitted. Ultimately the outcome wouldn't have changed your plans would it?
I agree that you may get a day or 2 authorised for religious reasons and this may prevent a fine being implemented so this is worth pursuing but if your children have further time off that is unauthorised then it can be included in the potential prosecution period and you could get a fine further down the line. Keep this in mind.

I suspect more and more people are doing this.

There was some research out a few months back saying that there was no social stigma to faking illness for a term time holiday any more. I didn't know there'd ever been one in the first place, but it was interesting anyway.

I beleive although I could be corrected if it's for religious or belief reasons they cannot deny you leave.

This is the case for the travelling community . So they must I hope make reasonable adjustments for your family

This happened to me, got a fine by the council for £60. i wrote a strong letter with a few points 1 being its alright for strike days and 2 i asked to provide proof of where i agreed that if i take my child out of school i am happy to pay a fine. the children are ours, not the council or government. I am still waiting for an amended letter (as our names were spelt incorrectly) and proof of where i signed and agreed.

Teacher strikes have nothing to do with this post. Teachers don’t authorise leave. Teachers were striking because schools are struggling to pay staff salaries because of funding issues. They wanted a fully funded payrise. Even when they accepted, it wasn’t fully funded. Yes children lost education, but if they didn’t, they would continue with not having enough staff. As it is, many schools can’t get enough staff, even if their funds allow. Also, the curriculum content still needed delivering, in less days. Teachers would make sure it was still delivered. However, one child being off in a class, will then miss out on the curriculum that is taught that week.
The children will have gained valuable experience when they were off, but the rules say the parents will get fined so they pay the fine. Schools are usually not allowed to authorise a leave of absence. It is very rare that they can. However, if I was OP, I would have taken my children, as I would have weighed up the fine against what I felt would benefit my child most, and pay the fine just as added costs.