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!

Why shouldn’t they be responsible? It should be considered a safeguarding issue. They’re already responsible for making judgement calls and passing safeguarding info on, what’s the difference here?

Child x absent from school, visiting relatives overseas, evidence of school work while abroad. Otherwise engaged parents and child.

Child y has persistent absences and home issues. Parents do not engage with school. Absent for a week with no advance conversations with school.

Entirely different scenarios.

For the record I don’t think either child’s parents should get a criminal record but in one scenario there should be appropriate social services referrals.

It's not me asking them to. It's the law.
Some schools get around it by never authorizing anything. And that's not better in my experience.

Why would you presume that? Does your entire family have large houses with space to host entire families?

@Questionairballoon Is this for real? Surely you knew the ramifications before taking the children out of school. It seems to me you only have yourself to blame.

That's not how the law works though. The question before the court is whether OP took her children out of school for an unauthorised absence or not – and she did. All the other guff about tutors and travel being in her DC's best interest can be used in mitigation to get a lesser fine, but it's not going to stop her getting a criminal conviction if she's found guilty.

A teacher who takes her children out of school for a three week holiday wants to be a social worker!!!! Do you realise you will have to support families who struggle to get their children to school. Would you not feel like a hypocrite!

we did stay with family, yes. One of our relatives has a holiday home and let us stay there for free (we repaid the favour in other ways of course!)

That's ridiculous. The British education 'system' leaves a lot to be desired.

There are kids in other countries who get almost three months of summer holiday.

If the OP was bringing up her children pretty much anywhere else in the developed world, the parents would not have been treated as criminals either..

I was a teacher..Parents used to take their kids out for chunks here and there. It drove me mad. It's rude, disruptive and breaks that feeling of togetherness that kids have in class....the end of term is a fun time for people to share. It's not just about work; it's about social cohesion as well.

I genuinely dont feel like a hypocrite. I feel bad for breaking the law and getting a criminal record, but my children were not negatively affected by missing the last 3 weeks for a holiday that involved culture, family and learning.

And that is a superb illustration of the law being an ass.

If you don’t understand the hypocrisy I would strongly suggest that you consider your future career choice
From a social work manager

Seriously - I am not sure you are cut out for social work

Oh my goodness. There are very few social workers who are cut out for social work! I have a daughter with profound learning disabilities and the social workers swerve us mostly.

I look after her every day, day in day out. And the social worker comes and says.

"Is she eating ok"?

Yes"

"Are the incontinence pads ok?"

Yes.

"Does she drink enough"?

(Well I would imagine that because she's never been hospitalised for dehydration in the 30 years I've cared for her that she drinks enough)
I make sure she drinks enough like you would a 12 month old baby.

*OK then" says the social worker. "You're doing ok then"

And of course we are doing ok. Surviving. And the social worker has ticked off her boxes and surmised that all is well with us. But of course it's not.

We are struggling as a family. We are struggling to care for her. She needs 24 hour care and supervision. Yes, their tick boxes are only that she is eating and drinking ok. She is well cared for. And she is!!

What really fucks me off is a 20 something year old social worker coming into my house and telling me what I should do to make my daughter sleep better.
I was finding ways to lull my daughter to sleep before the social worker was born.

Who is the expert here!?

Anyway. I suppose my message is that in my experience of most social workers is that they are really very unhelpful and full of bookshit and no empathey.

I'm not saying f* the law I'm saying read the law. I suggest perhaps posters here also read the law because the council's case as it stands from the OP looks weak. (There could be other issues with attendance that aren't listed here in which case things could be different.)

So is visiting family overseas.

The one thing I’ve learned is it takes time to change things in schools. And equally, school attendance is still lower than before Covid so it’s a bit of a political issue right now.

Definitely agree that Ofsted needs an massive overhaul. I totally understand independent scrutiny can be useful but don’t agree it should be used as a stick to beat schools and senior leaders with, as a means to academise schools, and be used as a way to market schools. Most schools have improvement consultants who come in and look at schools, identify areas to work on and make them better.

Which is my impression of what is happening here - it has gone to the LA, they have a process and that is that. I really dont think it is in the remit of the school to decide on how people should be punished. And until the punishments are significant, entitled people will feel free to take their kids out of school at a whim instead of valuing the education system,

That's all fine but you asked for advice about how best to handle this. If you don't want to pay for proper legal advice then plead guilty, be contrite and stop making excuses. Alternatively pay for advice and follow that. Your choice.

The end of term is fun to “share” but also I’m their family and they spent 3 weeks out of 6 years of schooling (this was a genuine one off plan that matched everyone’s schedules and we were not planing to repeat this as my eldest is in year 5/6 and it’s arguably more important than the last 3 weeks of year 1 for example) to “share” time with us and their relatives abroad

i agree and understand the fine but a criminal record is just too much…

Sorry I have no experience of this but I think it is ridiculous they are wasting court time rather than just imposing a fine as expected. It is hardly a criminal offence. On a different tack completely my DgD has been out of school for more than 6 months because she is SEN and no school can accommodate her ECHP. Maybe my DD can take the LEA to court. The education system is ridiculous.

They more than likely learnt a lot more than they would have done at school, it would be handy to have photos of them at certain sites etc while abroad to evidence that they were still learning whilst abroad, also create a list of all the things they did / visited / were exposed to whilst there

Honestly, the ridiculous demands and expectations of parents are why so many teachers are leaving the profession in droves. They have enough to do without also being expected to investigate where a child is going on holiday if they're off on an unauthorised absence and then have to decide whether or not it's an enriching enough experience to tell the LEA!

Sure they did. Just like you’re a teacher too.

These are quite standard things to do when your child has been off...
They completed activity books/online work - not an entire encyclopaedia.

Its likely you got the court order not fine due to the length. My understanding is each period of 10 sessions you miss is one fine. If you get 3 fines it goes to court. 3 weeks would be classed as 3 fine from the information we have had from our school. Although it appears there is some difference in opinion on local authority on that stance.

If its the only instance within 3 years and otherwise attendance is good bar the odd sick day, its likely you will just get a larger fine. The community order and prison sentence are aimed at those abusing the school system and taking children out every month or so with no care for the fine.

You can't change it now so you have to take the consequences. Surely you weighed those up before deciding to take them out. We took DS out for 6 days to go to a wedding in Australia. We consulted the school to find out the ramifications before we did it (I knew it wouldn't be approved). I know we if we take him out again in the next 3 years we would hit the the larger fine.

No it isn't.