Marked as unauthorised and fined

[anywherebutthere]

Long story short we booked a family holiday. The majority of it fell over the Easter holidays, but some of it fell the first week back.
In total we were planning to miss 9.5 sessions, which would mean we wouldn't be fined, as it's under 10 sessions.
We had a night flight home and landed at 7am. We live 15 minutes from the airport and had all intentions of getting the children to school that day. When we landed the barrage handlers were on strike and it took 2 hours for our luggage to appear. We phoned school numerous times to update them and to say the children would be late.
We finally got them to school at 9.45am (45 minutes late)
This lateness has now been marked as unauthorised even though it was out of our control and we are being fined £480. It was originally £240 but we are trying to contest it and school haven't been open as it's the holidays so has gone past the 2 weeks early payment amount.
Realistically if this goes to court then do we have a leg to stand on? I believe we should have been marked late or authorised for the 45 minutes they were late to school that day.

It's also taken months for the fine to actually appear!

But it was within your control. If you hadn’t gone on holiday the kids would have been there.

So you missed a week and are quibbling a fine because you thought it was a bright idea to take the kids straight to school after an overnight flight? Pay up.

You can still be fined for less than 10 sessions. Ridiculous really given covid and strikes.

Schools dont issue fines the local authority do. You should have got in touch with tye local authority over the summer to sort this.

We purposely chose that flight so we could get them to school in the morning.
The other argument that I have is two other parents have taken their children on holiday (in my children's class) for the same amount of time and haven't been fined.
The teacher even stated that it wasn't worth trying to fine some parents when they are on low income. How is this fair?!

The children missed 10 sessions, the fact that it was caused by something out of your control is neither here nor there. You chose to cut it fine time wise.

Late after reg is a different code to late during reg so the school can't record it like that. The la decide on fines so out of the schools hands
Highly unlikely to be worth fighting.

Your poor children being expected to go to school immediately upon landing!

Also my children have not missed one session due to strikes as neither of their teachers have striked. Other children in school have missed 5 days because of strikes. I just think it's a little unfair.

So you were going to send them straight to school from a flight?! That’s madness.

Why didn’t one of you stay for the baggage and the other try to take the kids to school?

You thought you were being clever sneaking in under the threshold and it didn’t work. You don’t have a leg to stand on.

You tried to game the system and lost.

These are the risks you take when you attempt to bend the rules this far. It didn't pay off. You win some, you lose some. Don't play the victim.

This isn’t what you asked, but “We had a night flight home and landed at 7am. We live 15 minutes from the airport and had all intentions of getting the children to school that day.”

That's awful! Your poor children.

The LA has told me to speak to school to get them to confirm why it was marked as unauthorised. Surely if you were stuck in traffic because of a crash for 45 mins you wouldn't be marked as unauthorised. Just because I was at the airport is it really that different?

Oh come on this is crazy. You were caught in a strike because you were at an airport racing to get your kids back to school to narrowly avoid a fine. Totally on you and I would have paid the early fine and sucked it up.

It's unauthorised because you were late back from an unauthorised holiday.

It's got FA to do with teachers so what they did or did not say is irrelevant. It is 100% the local authority that issues and deals with fines.

The children slept the entire flight back, and because of the time difference it's not as bad as people are thinking it would be. They were absolutely fine. Even the teachers commented how sprightly they were.

It’s not the school it is the LA. Speak to someone at your county LA department but I think you should just pay it and learn from it that schooling should be a priority. You chose differently knowing a fine was possible. The only thing you can possibly contest is the notification time taking you out of bounds and doubling it.

So when did they go back to school after the Easter holidays-the Friday morning? Was the morning register the 9.5th missed session or the 10th? Surely they were there for the afternoon register?

To be honest I think my kids primary would mark that scenario as unauthorised even if it were out of our control. They are either there or they’re not. If it was an absence for a medical need or a funeral or something agreed ahead of time that’s one thing. Sitting in a queue of traffic for 45 mins I think would be unauthorised.

You took a chance and lost.

Suck it up to experience and don't fly home the day your kids are due at school.

Your kids must have been absolutely fucking exhausted and going to school would have been a waste.

Presumably you were going straight to work that day too though?

And does anyone know if I can pay the fine in instalments?

Yes we both went straight to work.