Do you agree with school absence fines?

[Dreamyseptember]

I honestly don’t have a strong opinion either way. I work term time so I can only go away in the school holidays anyway, plus I’ve never been keen on mine missing school.

However, I can totally understand why for many people they want to go on holiday during term time. A family holiday can be a magical experience, visiting somewhere new, spending proper time together, experiencing new things, getting away from the daily grind. And for many this would be unaffordable in the school holidays. The other thing is that parents can’t always get the time off work.

I do think it’s important for children to attend school, I know they missing large chunks at school can mean them falling behind, miss out on learning as well as time with friends.

But tbh, I know people whose children missing large chunks school frequently anyway. Any sniffle, tired day, weather too hot or too cold and the parents are ringing them on sick. There are other children who attend 100% of the time and is one week away for a family holiday, possibly at a time of year when learning is wrapping up anyway, going to really make that much difference.

When I was at school in the 80s/90s it was quite normal for children to disappear for 2 weeks for a holiday abroad and no one batted an eyelid.

I’m sure that there are lots of arguments either way but do you think it’s right and fair that parents are fined for taking their children on holiday during term time?

Yabu - the fines are correct
Yanbu - it should be the parents decision

School tuition is not "free", we all pay through the tax system. If education is not valued then the whole of the population suffers. It is the greatest gift a nation can give to it's children.

Holidays away from home are a luxury and should NEVER be put above education. The punishment for depriving children of an education should be very severe.

I DO NOT take term-time holidays.

My eldest had 99% attendance in Y13 (missed a day due to a stomach bug). My youngest had approx 83%. This is due to well-documented health issues. The school has had these documents (from multiple professionals) on file for years.

And yet they issued me with a Section 444 Final Notice to Improve. So I'm living under threat of a fine, doing my level best to make sure my teen is okay, clean up the puke, get new clothes, get the meds down, make sure she leaves on time, oh and doesn't PASS OUT on the way.

If you think fines are working as intended, and only for "people who go on hOliDaYYYY" you are either stupid as shit or having a right fucking laugh.

Like take them out. But pay the fine

It’s because policy makers can be seen to be doing “something” without putting their hands in their pockets. A child can be put in isolation for a week without appropriate work for a uniform misdemeanour. The main reason attendance has gone down is illness. As for why absence has gone up since covid….covid is an obvious answer. How can it be the same when a percentage of children have been, are being and will be affected longterm by covid infections? Access to healthcare is also more difficult. Staff attendance has also decreased at a similar level to pupils. In opposition, Labour spoke more candidly of the dangers of covid to children and their attendance. They slammed the Tories for not addressing air quality in classrooms asking why HEPA filters hadn’t been installed (about a tenner per child). They do have an impact on attendance.
I wish I’d taken my kids out of school for a week before the holidays so we could have one break from school (not even going away) where we all didn’t go down like dominoes from whatever shitty virus was brought home again. For the first time, some people in one of my DC’s class took their kids out at the end of summer term…they missed nothing. If someone is going to ruin their life’s chances by missing a fete and a movie, it’s a pretty shit system. Until recently, successive governments were happy for most kids to have a week off with chickenpox, finally moving in step years and years after other countries and offering a vaccine. Education is vitally important - however, I REALLY resent the implication that it’s always more important than health and family.

This is not fair at all for you. I have heard similar from others with mental health issues - well documented.

holidays - yes, need sanctioning
genuine health / difficult circumstances - obviously leave the poor parents alone

Yes, but if we all decided we wanted term-time holidays, think how long it would take to write personal plans (which are actually meaningful for the child and clear to implement) for 30 children. The problem is that holiday-taking-parents never think in these terms. It’s not just about them! What if we all decided to save THOUSANDS of pounds and book holidays in term time. The system would be chaos, even more teachers would feel disillusioned and we’d be communicating that education (and hence work ethic) are unimportant.

When there were no fines in the 90s, people (at least at my school) were allowed to take time out for holidays. I remember in Year 3 my friend’s parents surprised her with a three week Disney cruise around the Caribbean. The point being that that was a memorable event because it was unusual for someone to go on holiday even though holidays were allowed. It wasn’t like every child was taking a week or more holidays in term time just because they could 🤷🏻‍♀️ I think most still went away during the summer holidays.

Said friend still got top marks in her Sats, as did I, who had two weeks out in early December of Year 6 to go on holiday. Neither of us had any form of catch up work provided.

Whilst I do see where you’re coming from re teachers not being able to provide personalised work for multiple students and I agree that education is important, surely there has to be a workable solution that the majority would be happy with?