Kids missed 3wks school, council taking me to court!

[Questionairballoon]

Hi all,

I am very unsure about what to do.

DC aged 6 and 8. I took them on holiday this summer. missed the last 3 weeks of school (July 2025).

For context, their attendance is always good. Only time they ever miss school is when poorly. They enjoy going. Last time we took them on holiday they were 3 and 5 and they missed maybe 2 weeks of nursery/school.

Before we left this time, I emailed the head teacher and spoke with the staff partly to apologise and also to find out what they might miss for the last 3 weeks so I could cover with them if needed. For what it’s worth, both kids do well in school. Teachers wished us happy hols and we left on a positive note.

The holiday was 2 weeks in Europe and 2 weeks in America. They had some fantastic experiences and got to meet relatives who live abroad. We were back in August, they had almost a month to recoup and then back to school business as usual!

We expected a fine but got nothing. This week, I’ve received a court order telling me to expect paperwork where I’ll be “pleading guilty or not guilty”.

I’m gobsmacked tbh. Has anyone been in this situation? Any advice at all? I don’t even know what to say!

sigh

It’s the law. Laws have to apply to everybody.

And no, teachers should not be put in harms way by having to decide whose holiday is worthy and whose isn’t. That is a stupid idea.

I’m not surprised

It will be the talk of the school gate when it gets out!

No I’m advocating that teachers know which cases are genuine of truancy or absenteeism for nefarious or neglectful reasons and those are the children who need support in terms of bringing their parents to account.

What is so hard to understand about that?

Why? Because I took a holiday I don’t care about my kids?

Do you understand the difference between law and policy?

It's not about adhering to policy, it's about adhering to the law, whether we agree with that law or not.

The "for what?" for many people is so we don't fuck up our careers and future travelling freedom by getting a criminal record for a really stupid reason.

@Ontheedgeofit

Is that all that matters when raising a child? How much school they attend?

That's a complete strawman argument: no one has said that. Of course it's not all that matters but its pretty important. It certainly is more important than a three-week holiday.

It's more the signal it sends to the kids that education is optional and its fine to sweep it aside because you've had a better offer. And that you can break the rules because they are inconvenient to you.

The court order may be OTT and the LAs can be very OTT on absences but in this case I agree with them. There are so many parents at the moment who seem to feel school if important but not as important as Disneyland/mental health/duvet days etc, no wonder they overreach.

People are so harsh. The OP seems reasonable and is just looking for some advice. Unfortunately OP I think the government is making examples of people and this will happen more and more. I have no legal advice but I think it's disgraceful there's a huge backlog in the legal system and things like this are being prioritised. I do think people are taking the mick when it comes to school attendance but it's ridiculous there's not even an option to appeal in writing beforehand. This is very different to someone taking their secondary school child out in the middle of the year.

But that is what you’re saying? Teachers know which parents are ‘decent’ and which aren’t. So they should make the decision.

@MissScarletInTheBallroom

The "for what?" for many people is so we don't fuck up our careers and future travelling freedom by getting a criminal record for a really stupid reason.

This. I can't understand why people can't grasp this. Yes there are sometimes genuinely good reasons to break the rules. This isn't one of them.

3 weeks of school is always better than 3 weeks of a family holiday? Are you raising identical robots?

You should have taken them in school hols - no idea why you’re surprised

Read the post I’m referring to 🙄

The bit about you getting an tutor for your young children for the entirety of the holiday 😆

You'd be surprised. My experience was the secondary sector, but parents don't realise that children will spill the beans on everything. (Yes, sometimes children will exaggerate, but not always.)

It's not for teaching staff to try to discern whether there is any educational purpose in a holiday organised by parents. All we can do is report safeguarding concerns as and when they arise.

A prolonged absence constitutes a concern.

Hi there, as you were a teacher before you know there are people who teach with criminal records. Sadly for you, the law change has made term time absence much harsher. I think the school has probably handed over the entire attendance data and because it's both kids for an extended duration, the council are probably proceeding to deter you and others. As for the social work degree, I would speak to your uni/ training provider about it. It does demonstrate a lack of detail, knowledge of the law and judgement which is not nice to hear but in this instance, true

You will do a lot of this as a teacher or a social worker. It worries me you work in either profession and think this is ok. I agree with others I think you should delete this post.
I think sharing those things will only anger people more. Absence and safeguarding in school is why these laws came into force.
We all know the awful stories of children not in education. This is why a national attendance was put into place. And why we have attendance officers in schools. Please reflect and just accept. Some good advice here but I think saying you do these jobs is going to upset people that you have done this in those positions.

I paid for an online tutor (even for extra things like Languages as my children are being realised bilingual) during the entire time we were off and this includes the month before school started when we were at home.

hairy bollox

And if you claim that to the council, be prepared to show some proof! So maybe don’t claim it

But it's impossible to tell. You can have a star pupil in your class who comes in every day looking well groomed (because not being well groomed is a sign of neglect) and happy and appears to have a great home life, but the parents plan to take her abroad in their extra week to have FGM performed on her.

Good post

Even if they’re not bothered about the absence, the OP feigning wide eyed bafflement puts her in a pretty poor light

I never said they should make the decision about who gets fined and gets prosecuted criminally and who doesn’t but they certainly know who is at risk and who isn’t.

A child who is loved and doing well at school is not the same as a child who is neglected and struggling. It’s not rocket science and handing both cases to the law does not make sense. Life is more nuanced than that.

Some children need protecting more than others and the focus should be on those kids.

But this is exactly the current system apparently. Schools supposedly do have discretion to report or not.
The law is absolutely universally applied to everybody as it stands.

I’m a teacher and school leader. I’m not that surprised it’s a court matter because of the length of time you took. I do, however, think we have a huge issue with holiday pricing in the school holidays and it’s difficult to be too critical of families who take their children out of school so that they can afford holidays. While school attendance is extremely important and schools have to report unauthorised absence, and I have encountered extreme examples of this (e.g. families who take multiple holidays throughout the school year during in term time), in principle we have not got this right as a society. I don’t know what the answer is because capitalism means that prices will go up when demand is highest but holidays and travel are a hugely important part of children’s cultural and learning experiences. It is incredibly galling that school-holiday pricing is exclusionary for so many - it only
widens the disadvantage gap. One of the most upsetting things as a teacher is talking to children about what they’ve done in their holidays and so many saying ‘nothing’.

@Ontheedgeofit

3 weeks of school is always better than 3 weeks of a family holiday? Are you raising identical robots?

You're being obtuse: by that logic you could skip school altogether because other things are "better". Skiving off all day to go to the park/arcade/shops/beach might be "better". Six months in Bali is probably "better" by that measure.

Teaching your kids that they can opt out of school because it's boring/difficult or you want to go on holiday is signalling to them that education isn't important. You don't have to be an "identical robot" to want your kids to be educated.

I don't understand what's difficult about this.

3 weeks is an incredible amount of time. You really deserve the sanction. No child needs or is entitled to a holiday.

my entire family lives on another continent, and even though my kids are at an independent school and we have much more choice here, I would never do this for a holiday.

And you saying they never take a holiday, as if that means anything. You shouldn’t be doing it in the first place and it’s not a big achievement if you haven’t. I’m actually shocked you thought this was a good idea in the first place

True, but as a social worker/ someone with some experience in this sector the OP will have also seen firsthand how rarely the letter of the law actually gets followed and how rarely things ever reach court. Especially in the case of a first offence so it's not unreasonable to be shocked by this. I think people on this thread are being very dishonest acting like they wouldn't be surprised if they received a court summons instead of a fine for a first offence.
The previous absence cannot be taken into account as the kids weren't statutory school age.

As someone who has advanced cancer, I couldn't agree with this more.
I'm a bit slack jawed at the tone of the replies here and how people are worn down by authority. We moved about quite a bit and had time off to travel, we have well adjusted mainly adults who didn't suffer educationally. I'm glad we had that time together and we had experiences that far outweighed sitting in a classroom.

A good parent who is providing enriching experiences for their children is not the same as a feckless parent who lets a child truant on a frequent basis. And to suggest that they deserve a criminal record is utterly ridiculous.