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!

And still cover childcare for the other 12 or so weeks of school holiday in the year...

What was the head’s response when you emailed them @Questionairballoon? They should hand told you that it would be unauthorised and that the LA would impose a sanction, be that a find and /or a court summons. No head it going to say “fine, you go and have fun” when told about a three week term time holiday.

I think you needed to have written confirmation / permission from the school.

I took my DD out for 2 weeks last year and gave notice, explained my reasoning, had permission granted.

Will be doing the same again next year although I do not expect them to give permission again and will face the consequence.

Not sure why it has gone straight to court action though instead of a fine.... that I'm confused about.

Clearly OP is worried about the letter she has received, I don’t think people should be shaming her and making her feel bad about it. Would I do the same, no personally I wouldn’t take them out for such a period of time, that’s my parenting choice but I also wouldn’t knock someone for it either, it’s the children’s parents choice. & yes parents know there are ramifications but clearly didn’t realise court would be expedited so quickly and did expect a fine however. OP was looking for advice and if someone had been in the same position and looking for guidance. The holiday is done, they had a great time. That parts done with but going forward does anyone have any constructive support for OP.
Holidays cost a fortune now and years ago there was no ramifications to this extent not in my area anyway, I went on plenty holidays as a child and had miss school, given not three weeks but I did miss two weeks at one point and my parents did not even receive a telling off.
They should take into account the children’s attendance history and that’s my opinion. Although I wouldn’t make the same choice as OP I certainly don’t think people should come down on her when it suited her family.

Taxpayers pay for the education system. We don't appreciate it when parents fling it aside, as if it's nothing.
The OP keeps using the children's previous good attendance as a reason to wreck their record, not realising that the majority of children have a good attendance record and their parents make sure they maintain it. Missing out for illness is NOT a perk.

surprise!, classic case of fk around and find out?

Personally I think the thing that should never have been allowed to be normalised is holidays being quadruple (and more!) the price in any school holidays. If they didn’t over-inflate the prices in the holidays through greed, knowing it’s the only time families with children have free for holidays, people wouldn’t try and take holidays in term time in the first place.

What are you on about? I just said I work part time hours. My children are important to me and I like to spend as much time at home with them as possible while they are young. When they are in secondary things might change but for now my job is my second priority and my children are my first. I am privileged that I can work around their hours, for sure. Not going to apologise for that. I have taken pay cuts to be where I am.

I’m not 100% sure OP - but I think you will get forms through and they will clearly set out your options, something like:

1. plead guilty and accept the consequence set out in the letter, like a fine of £X.
2. plead guilty but they’ll set set out a court hearing to determine punishment
3. plead not guilty and they’ll send you a date for a court hearing.

You then select the option you want and send the forms back and they progress it from there. Just bear in mind that pleading guilty will give you a criminal record. If you’re offered a fine you should probably consider it, as the legal fees for further advice and representation with no guarantee of an outcome are likely to be almost as much as the fine if not more. I think you just need to take it as a lesson learned and make sure before you do it again you read the school absence policy and the local authority guidance for the council the school is in the area of.

Not in my class.

We don't own our children, they are not belongings. Giving birth to them and having parental responsibility over them does not give us the right to do whatever the hell we like with them. This whole attitude of 'they're mine, so I can take them out of school/go on holiday whenever I like, I know best' seems to completely ignore that most of these laws are about protecting children's safety and best interests from feckless parents.

Unless there's a technical error (unlikely) the the best solicitor in the world can't do much about it.

The level of fine you get will depend on your income. The magistrates use sentencing guidelines which will give you a pretty good idea of the calculation.

We moved to Wales and we had kids in primary when welsh governmnet suddenly gave out that list deciding that even contagious diseases were fine to be in school with. Did have to stand in reception a few times while incredulous parents were being told their ill kids often contagious were fine to be in school.

So Wales did have a mad period - I think after the huge backlash they got a lot better. Though didn't hear about them being diffcult about family funerals which English primary had been.

I am constanty surprise how many of DC friend got taken out for days out and holidays post covid but it was never as long as three weeks.

I think three weeks might raise safe guarding concerns- if kids aren't visible to HCP in that time. I suspect it will end up being a fine - just schocked OP seemed unaware she could be taken to court and fined.

We don’t take holidays during the school year but I assumed this was a less-bad possibility and the worst I’d get was a fine.

er...

Look. You did the thing, own up (you can hardly say you didn't do it) and pay the fine. And don't do it again.

They're 6 and 8, 3 weeks off school is going to make no difference at all to their schooling or future. We didn't opt in to schools, we chose to home ed, and this just strengthens my belief that we made the right choice. The experiences they will have had on this adventure far outweigh anything they could've learnt at school. It's unfortunate that by subscribing to this system, you lose so much autonomy over your own family, but I suppose you face the consequences as you signed the contract.

no, you need to go in the school holidays, and if you cannot afford that, can't go. it really is that simple.

I’m normally pretty easy going but three weeks is too much.

I don't know why you are surprised, OP. Three weeks is an extraordinarily long time for a term time holiday. Most people don't go on holiday for three weeks at a time full stop.

I get that you have family on different continents and that going away during the school holidays is expensive, but three weeks is still taking the piss. And you basically took two separate two-week long holidays to visit family on two continents, back to back?

You could have done one set of family this year for two weeks, ideally during the holidays, or if not, missing just the last week of term, and the other set of family next year.

Your court fine is likely to be greater than the cost savings you achieved by going away during term time.

100% this.

I am ok with paying the fine but a criminal record?

To answer your question, what you do is apologise, pay the fine they will issue and learn from this + don’t do it again. No idea why you’re so surprised. They missed half the term 🙄

Frankly you're lucky you children have a school to return too. I know of schools were if there's unauthorised non-attendance for over 2 weeks the child is de-registered.

Yeah, let’s criminalise them instead. Oh, wait. We already do.

If you're OK with paying the fine then you could have afforded to go away during the holidays in the first place.

If you come out with nonsense like this in court then they are going to throw the book at you!

These were not the only options at all.

Ignoring the fact that the best option was to go outside of term time, you could have done 1 week in the holidays and the last week of term over 2 years.

And it is more than a little ironic that your fine is likely to be more than you saved by doing as you did.