To not feel sympathy for this mum?

[imreadytodive]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-school-holiday-criminal-record-37163490.amp

a mum has been given a criminal record after taking her daughter out of school for two weeks to “see her sick grandmother” and refusing to pay the fine

Surely she realises nobody buys that excuse? If her grandmother was that unwell why wouldn’t she travel to Turkey in the 6 week school holidays leading up to September? I’m

Also, she’d not seen the woman since she was a year old!

Honestly, the fines are ridiculous. They are only a deterrent for the poor, who already can't afford holidays during school breaks.

I don't "feel sorry" for the woman, as she knew the consequence. But I do think the consequence is bloody stupid for the 'crime'.

I do and I don’t. She should have paid the fine and then argued. But it does sound like she was messed around by the school and it took too long for a reply to come through.

I took my children out of school for two weeks to go abroad to the funeral of a grandparent they didn’t really remember, I don’t think the closeness of the family relationship is relevant.

I do think the rules are a bit silly, but you agree to them when you enrol your child in a state school. My sister paid a £160 fine for taking her children to Disneyland, but it saved her something like £2500 so she justified it. £80
per parent per child isn’t that bad, when you consider you shouldn’t really be making a habit of taking your children out of school.

She waited a long while to tell them. 20 days isn’t that long!

I find it interesting it doesn't say the grandmother subsequently died. How ill was she? Also whether you agree with it or not pay the £80 fine and be done with it what did she think would happen, it would just go away?

It’s her own fault, she should have just paid the fine. But I agree that a criminal record for taking a child (temporarily) out of school is outrageous!

It’s almost 3 weeks. People’s health can deteriorate very quickly, you can’t always wait.

I do somewhat doubt your sincerity when you immediately say that your sister took her kids out of school to go to Disneyland, yet you’re slamming this woman. Are you bored today?

Last year I was estimated to have 4 months to live. And yet I am not writing this from beyond the grave. Doctors don’t have a crystal ball.

She should have just paid the fine. Everyone knows the rules. Whether or not fines for unauthorised absences are reasonable it’s long been the case and she got in trouble because she thought she was special. Her past job doesn’t give her a pass to break the law. Laughable. And as if it was an emergency 🙄

I have no sympathy. The daughter hadn't seen her father or grandmother since she was one. The mother should not have assumed she could go without written authority from the school and should have just paid the fine.

It does seem odd. If she gave 20 days' notice for a two week holiday in September, that implies she knew in August. If they were so desperate to see Gran, surely they could have gone then?

She hasn't got a criminal record for taking the child out of school, she has it for ignoring the fine. The consequences of non-payment will have been explained to her, so it does seem to have been entirely her choice.

Fines are so ridiculous and authoritarian. As others have said they discriminate against those who cannot afford to pay them and go on hols etc. at a less expensive time.

Extra homework for every day taken outside of term I say! 😊(more work for teachers though...)

On the fence about this tbh. Why hadn't the Dad or grandma made any effort to come and see the child in the past 10 years?
On the other hand since when did schools start behaving like the Gestapo?
They were told that the grandma was very poorly but still declined permission to take her daughter to visit

My issue isn’t with the illness, it’s with her refusing to pay the fine “out of principle” - what principle?

Exactly! She wanted a cheap all inclusive in Turkey and the fact that she waited so long is only testament to that.

I remember when I was at school holidays were encouraged by our headmaster, but with a caveat. We had to come back and do a show and tell to the class (in the normal show and tell slot) explaining things we’d learned while aware. It meant that our parents would put an effort into making sure we did at least one day of cultural things. We used to have great fun picking out things to do!

To be fair nowhere does the article say she was terminally ill. It lists “cancer and diabetes”, so I think she’s exaggerated the severity!

Well, I suppose that there's the principle that many parents are simply accepting the fine as a cost of entry to an out of term-time holiday and so, in effect, it doesn't have the effect of engineering behavioural change and is simply a back hander to local authority coffers.

I'm just here for the rage posting though, we just go in the holidays.

Honestly I disagree with fines and strongly disagree with criminal records for taking children out of school. Children aren’t the property of their schools or the local authority, and it should be up to their parents where they spend their days. That doesn’t mean I think that teachers should have to jump through hoops to catch up absent children.

This is the kind of attitude which makes me lean more towards home educating my son, and the kind of approach which leads to parents approaching schools with mistrust and as an adversary.

"and the kind of approach which leads to parents approaching schools with mistrust and as an adversary"

But this is on the nose. It pits schools against parents. That is a serious point.

People shouldn't have to lie. Families should be allowed holidays. Children need to understand there is a world outside the area they grow up in.

A holiday isn’t a right though and if you want to prioritise that over their education then something needs to be done. I highly doubt the vast majority of parents are taking their children abroad and then taking them to museums and the like!

But you are okay with paying for that right, as your sister does? The same amount of classroom time is lost, but one is alright because they paid the fine.

I'm not sure you have a firm grasp of what a principle is.

Who said anything about museums. Kids learn from the world around them. I don't think missing a week of education is going to significantly impact a minimum of 12 years of education.