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

I don't think the debate should solely be about this parent. The whole idea of fines stinks IMO. It's a reach too far to criminalise people for this non criminal choice.

I have former colleagues who live in Ireland. There is no such thing as fines or sanctions for removing kids for any reason, but it's mostly for out of term holidays. No sanctions at all, in fact it's accepted especially at primary level. Teachers apparently know when it's abused and the attendance officer will intervene then. The standards of education over there are excellent from what I hear. And their school holidays are much longer than ours as it is!

I think it's a money making racket here and far too dictatorial. But I'm probably an outlier saying that!

Neither is half the stuff they teach in school! Missing 1 week of school a year won't have a huge impact

I’ve said before that I actually think schools should be a bit more flexible on this. If parents get that flexibility I think teachers should too (both parents and those without children) - I think an allowance of 3-5 weeks of annual leave should be allowed to be taken (within reason) in term time, on the caveat that they then agree to run some clubs during school holidays. I think it would be beneficial to everyone. Especially children with neglectful parents who end up causing havoc during school holidays.

Maybe the only way she could afford to take the child to visit the grandmother was to wait until the holidays ended and so she booked the earliest trip she could afford and hoped the grandmother would still be with them?

Your arguments all seem to sound as if you think only the rich should have the ability to holiday - because they can afford the prices in school holidays or, as in your sisters case, they can afford the fine on top of the holiday cost.

My dd was at a private primary and there was no mechanism to be fined. The Local authority only issued fines to state schools. Not sure if it’s changed my dd left that school 9 yrs ago.
The private school used to take a sensible approach and as long as attendance was good it was authorised. The children would be encouraged to speak in assembly about where been. So if a family had extended family abroad and tagged on a few days to a school holiday it was seen as a positive not a negative for them to see family in India etc.

It’s because of bullshit attendance quotas. It’s monitored by OFSTED and the dfe. Schools get more funding if they can keep attendance levels up.

Children should be in school, and it is parents' responsibility to ensure that they are. If anything, the "punishments" are clearly insufficient, as so many parents seem to think that education is optional.

*A holiday isn’t a right but there is more to life than sitting in school and there is lots to be learned from travelling abroad even just the experience of seeing different cultures , climates and surroundings nothing to do with museums. They don't even miss much in primary school in 2 weeks. And flights are way cheaper outside of school holidays . “A holiday isn’t a right “ is such a dull attitude in my opinion . That said it’s the law so she should have just sucked it up and paid the fine.

Schools are typically shut for 13 to 14 weeks a year which is plenty of time to go on holiday. I used to take the children away at Eadter as it was generally cheaper and we had two weeks.
While I love holidays , I agree its not a right but it is a nice thing to expierence. I also agree that flights are a lot more expensive in school holidays . However, generally speaking they are a lot more expensive to go to very popular tourist destinations.

We took our kids off the the beaten path by uk holiday makers to get get some great affordable beach holidays for the kids in Europe. A little thought can make money go much further than the predictable Spain/Turkey destinations in high season. ( places i love btw)

With regards to this mum, I would not have gone through all the stress of a court case for 80 quid!

Then go for a week, not two. It’s just such a thin cover up for a cheap all inclusive

The Jon Platt case that went to the supreme ct - dad had 3 children. LA only issued a fine re youngest in state, no fine re two older in private who went on the same Disney holiday. I was always surprised there wasn’t more outcry re this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39504338

Regarding term time holidays , rightly or wrongly, the current fine system has been in place since 2013 and people discuss it a lot, it’s not new or something parents should be surprised by. I’m not against children, especially in non-crucial school years, having a bit of time off for a holiday, but the deal is you might get fined. Unless you want to pay for schooling or home educate, you suck up the term time fine and it still saves you money.

if she feels it was exceptional circumstances that should have been authorised absence, she could complain to the school. Evidently the head, LA and courts did not feel the circumstances were exceptional.

I understand term time holidays and the impact, but this overreach by school attendance stasis has also creeped into sending sick children into school or accosting their parents at home to ‘check’ the sickness.

I’d welcome governmental change to this issue and remove fines as I doubt it’s had a positive impact on parent school relationships and I haven't seen any minister prove that this has positively impacted exam rates.

Not necessarily. She might not have been permitted time off work - in my team, summer holidays are all squabbled over and booked many months in advance.

Zero chance of being allowed “compassionate time off” to visit your ex’s sickly grandmother who you have seen in over ten years.

This is an important point. Trying to obtain time off for school holidays in my team is like gold dust. So it’s not quite as simple as ‘just go in the holidays’.

The fines system in England is completely ridiculous and unreasonably penalises poorer families over wealthier ones.

You don’t ‘agree to them’ because that implies you have a choice, when no one using state schools have any choice in the matter.

I moved to Ireland to ensure my DS had a better quality of education.

Fining should be banned
Load of utter shit.

School fines sound ridiculous.
Unfairly discriminates against those who can’t afford them.

Not a thing where I live thankfully (Ireland).
I don’t support prizes for attendance either.

But during the weeks they’re off, travel companies double the price. I’ve seen examples where the exact same holiday is 4K cheaper the week before the holidays. How can average families ever afford it?! I honestly think schools should adopt a bit of common sense. If the kids have good attendance otherwise, authorise one holiday a year. Obviously don’t if the kids are off a lot otherwise.

Well then it shows that the relationship was not that close, nor was the condition that serious? I work in an office where school holidays are booked up a year or two in advance. But I know damn well that if someone had a family member dying those in the office would chip in and make sure that employee could get off to go and see them.

It suggests that in reality, there was no real need to rush out to Turkey to go and see her. Other than a cheap TUI deal after the holidays have ended! Weird how it was oh so necessary to go that she’d get in trouble with the school, but not work?

There is actually already gov guidance on this - school should not be seeking medical evidence unless there is a reason to do so. I do think that parents could well complain about this more (It’s para 365) cos some schools are overbearing about this assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66bf300da44f1c4c23e5bd1b/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance_-_August_2024.pdf

I hate the comments on threads like this, which say: 'she knew the rule- if she didn't like the policy don't go to that school'. If comes up when parents complain about stupid uniform obsession, fines, religious observation policy, etc.

There is no real choice; most families, it's the local school or no school.

@MightyDandelionEsq i know someone whose dad had a heart attack in her home country; she waited hoping he lived (he did) and flew back home with her child in the Easter holidays but she couldn’t really afford it, so she booked a flight home 4 days into the term time and she messaged school and said the kid was sick.

The school knew the circumstances and were suspicious that the child was late returning from holidays and phoned her three times to check details of the illness and demanded a doctors note otherwise they said they would fine her (she managed to get a doctors note and in the end school shut up!)

The child in question is at least 18 months ahead of average academically.

It just seems like a waste of time..

But during the weeks they’re off, travel companies double the price. I’ve seen examples where the exact same holiday is 4K cheaper the week before the holidays. How can average families ever afford it?! I honestly think schools should adopt a bit of common sense. If the kids have good attendance otherwise, authorise one holiday a year. Obviously don’t if the kids are off a lot otherwise.

I agree with you that's why I said we went to less popular places. The flights did go up a bit but no where like the prices for going to
Spain/Turkey/Florida etc

But you can’t apply the rules based on academic achievement. That then leaves certain children disadvantaged.