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!

I think you’ve had a really hard time. I’m in Scotland and think the systems of fines is bonkers. I don’t think dc learn much in the last few weeks. It’s recapping, sports day, movies, teachers packing up classrooms.

I feel like the legislation was introduced to address persistent school refusers/ lack of attendance and is instead just used as a stick to punish parents who take the odd holiday. Nearly 90% of fines are for holidays.

My kids took extra time off in Feb to go skiing school just said have a lovely time.

This. It also puts pressure on the teachers to tell you what they'd be missing, and potentially catch them up if you weren't able to plug 3 weeks' worth of teaching's gaps. Drives me mad. You brought this on yourself I'm afraid... deal with the consequences!

So you were a teacher, know how hard it is to be a teacher... yet took your kids out of school for 3 weeks and expected the teachers to add to their workloads by filling you in on what your kids would be missing over those 3 weeks? And are shocked there are consequences for missing 3 weeks of school, despite having apparently worked in education..? 🤨

Sacked for doing bugger all in last three weeks of term time

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.

You couldn't have got paperwork earlier because they needed to know when/whether your kids were ever coming back again or if they needed to submit a Children Missing from Education referral to the LA. Add in time to complete the paperwork, submit it to the LA, have them come back with more paperwork to complete including a witness statement from the Head and then to submit the documents for the court to get in touch.

Not everyone is a mean gossip.

You sound like you are revelling in the idea of the OP being spoken about.

Oh I can help you understand this one.
it’s because it’s the LAW that you have to send your child to school.
hope that helps!!

Seriously - I am not sure you are cut out for social work. There’s not much nuance in the system, you really do have to follow the letter of the law otherwise you undermine child protection legislation. And if you couldn’t hack teaching, I can confidently assure you that social work is harder (I have done both).

I think you ought to seek legal advice and also speak to admission for your social work degree as this is C&p from DBS advice site.

Yes, a school attendance court case can appear on a DBS check, as it results in a conviction for failure to safeguard a child's education. These convictions are criminal matters and may show on a standard or enhanced DBS certificate, unless they are eligible for filtering according to DBS filtering rules. However, this typically applies to court cases, not minor penalty notices, which are generally considered civil matters

Obvious isn’t it? A mutant cross between a baby goat and female deers.

So, when there is regular absenteeism or an irregular prolonged absence like OP's three-week holiday, it's the LEA's system that picks it up and it's up to them to pursue action against parents who don't send their kids to school for whatever reason

I disagree. Teachers don't have half enough to do to be honest. They should be the judge and jury on all absences long or short and should advise the LEA whether the absences are sort of ok - ish. If they're doing their job properly they will have a handle on every single pupil. They should have their eyes on every single pupil every day, looking for signs of everything and anything that might be amiss. So they should be able to tell the LEA that this one is ok but that one is not. After all, they have fuck all else to do.

You can tell I'm not serious because that would be ridiculous.

OP I would seek legal advice. I am sure with specialist advice, your worst fears won’t be realised.

And try and ignore the usual unpleasant comments. I assume these people are not content in life and get their kicks by being mean (I don’t mean people pointing out the error of what you did; I mean the sarcastic ones having nasty digs and finding joy in your stress).

I am not sure how helpful MN has been here but I def think you need some legal advice. And good luck with your degree.

I'm surprised that the last weeks of term at your kids' school doesn't involve much work. That definitely wasn't the case when I was at school. We watched films on the last day or two, but until then it was business as usual.

I think it is absolute madness that OP could get an actual criminal conviction for taking her young kids to visit relatives for 3 weeks. A fine, yes fair enough.

Hopefully it will be a case of the fine letter having gone missing, and you will be able to phone up and pay it.

I agree that education is important but I think the fines attached to absences is a disgrace. Fair enough to do it in cases where kids are repeatedly missing school and there is no good reason. But a once in three years holiday to see family to me seems like a good reason. My family used to visit our family in Australia every few years when I was a child. The cost of flights was obscene and it was such a long way that we used to go for 5 weeks. Given we were visiting for Christmas that meant we were missing 2/3 weeks of school. But at a time when there was limited actual learning happening and much more focus on Christmas plays, parties etc. The experience we got on our trip - visiting cultural sites, learning about Australian wildlife, getting some excellent physical activity on hikes, spending time with family - was in my view absolutely worth missing school. I really think schools should have the discretion to decide what is OK or not given the plans for any specific absence and not have to report to the LA unless they consider there is a serious issue, in which case it should go straight to court for large fines following warnings from the school that they would need to refer.

Not the case at my school either. Drives me mad when parents take their kids out early... and the one that ends up having to catch them up later down the line, in my own time. I think it's really selfish.

👏

You do realise that holidays with kids are significantly more expensive when taken during designated school holidays, yes? Often the difference is several hundred pounds compared to holidays during term times. Unless that changes (and it probably won't), people will continue taking kids on holiday during school terms.

How are overworked teachers meant to police whether it’s a “wonderful learning experience abroad for dear Tarquin” or “those troublesome parents have taken Billy out of school again for a cheap week in the sun” ?

More individualism and fanciful ideas that a holiday is more educational. I dont like it when people act like their situation is somehow special, but OTOH it's funny how children's education suddenly didn't matter at all during COVID.

Yes, that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen! All sorts of class-related prejudices would come into play.

I haven't RTFT but I have read all the OP's posts, and in all honesty, she's the one that's coming across as mean, nasty and reactive (not to mention highly concerning is she really did used to be a teacher yet is shocked that there are serious consequences to taking her kids out of school for 3 weeks!). Some of her posts are horrible.

Nobody is asking the teacher to give or deny anybody permission for absences. They would simply the people able to determine the outcome and only if it was affecting the child negatively. This is what they should be doing anyway, reporting any that may be negative parental behaviors affecting the child.

While I can agree education is holistic, I don’t think lessons twice a week is really enough. You’ll need to show how you ensured they were covering the national curriculum and time was set aside for this not necessarily the whole school day of time for education but a reasonable amount.

I think she's unhinged

Why do they need to police it at all? If Billy has been out for 3 package holidays already this year, then it's a problem. Otherwise, he's learning to swim and spending time with his folks. Doesn't need snobbery or policing.