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.

You live 15 min away from the airport you could have left then gotten the children to school on time and then gone back for your baggage.

You booked a holiday knowing your children were going to miss school and were in the cut off time for a fine and still choose to land with only 2 hours clearance. So you knew it was always going to be a risk.

You pay up

You can keep on justifying it all you want, that sounds very much like something children and teenagers do

All this was your choice

Ex attendance officer here.

Unfortunately there isn't much you can do here OP. Any holidays that take place during school time are classed as unauthorised absences and the school applies to the LA for a fine. This is a part of the protocol for holidays during term time. The school is doing what is expected of them. The 10 unauthorised absences applies to other unauthorised absences that are non holiday related. The code for an unauthorised holiday related absence is different to that of any other unauthorised absence. Therefore, taking the kids on holiday during term time regardless of the length of time will result in the school requesting a fine.

In regards to the late mark, again, lateness after the register has closed is classed as unauthorised. Had it been a valid reason such as late due to a medical appointment then the code for that would be different. But as the holiday itself wasn't authorised and the lateness was as a result of that (especially after registers closed) it will be classed as unauthorised

Yeah we could have done I guess. Would have meant 2 taxis and one person struggling with 4 suitcases though.

Lol

Totally agree with this and I'm amazed the OP thought by posting this she would find sympathy on here. Your poor kids being expected to be at school after travelling during the early hours and then rush rush rush.

Thank you @babyk2023
I'm
Just frustrated as we worked the whole holiday around re flight times etc so we would be under the threshold. Husbands just told me it was May half term, not the Easter hols. Was that long ago I couldn't remember which holiday it was. Plus thought Easter was April/May time?
Anyway we did a night flight on the way there so they only missed afternoon registration and a night flight on the way home so they could get in for 9am. It obviously didn't work out that way tho.

I sympathise but you should have paid the lesser fine & be done with it. You sound like you are trying to game the system & didn’t manage it. What’s your DCs attendance like otherwise? Maybe that was taken into account?

Just remember the nice holiday & suck up the fine & don’t book further term time holidays if your area is prone to fining.

Their attendance is 98% usually. We read every night, hand homework in on time every single week without fail, do all home learning we are asked to do.

Oh give over OP, you gamed the system and lost. You should have paid the £240 when you had the chance ( presumably you saved a lot more than that by going on holiday outside of school holidays).

Why would you let this go to court and waste everybodys time?

Pay the fine. Put it on an 0% interest credit card if you cant pay upfront.

Fining for absences that haven’t been authorised is nothing to do with the teacher though! Your child missed 5 days of school and you say the majority of the holidays fell over Easter, so why not just go in the Easter hols?
Booking a night flight landing at 7am and expecting a child to attend school straight from the airport is a really bad idea.

God it’s like the people who park on double yellow lines outside the school and then complain about getting parking tickets. Or people who speed when they know full well that they are speeding, and try to contest the subsequent fine.

You hoped you I’d get away with it but you didn’t 🤷🏻‍♀️ surely when you risk these things there needs to be an acceptance that it might not pay off?

You were marked as unauthorised because you made a poor decision of taking alight flight and hoping your child was able to get to school on time.
As someone else suggested, if you only lived 15 minutes from the airport, why didnt one of you do the school run then return to the airport to collect the other parent and luggage?

Why do you think the late arrival should have been authorised? They were late after the register closed so it's unauthorised.That's the risk you took.

If school had been open and we could have spoken to someone about the fine then I probably would have paid it. I just presumed that late was different to unauthorised and even the LA said I could speak to school and confirm with them. It made it hard not being able to ask them about that session due to the summer holidays.
They also messed up some absence before we left putting it as unauthorised when we gave them a hospital note so I don't have the greatest faith in them.

Guess I'll have to speak to them tomorrow.

And yet your children were expected to go directly from the airport to school and learn.

Well as you only live 15 minutes away a taxi would have been cheap enough, and luckily airports have luggage trolleys which are fantastic for moving multiple suitcases through to the taxi rank!

I'd have thought your best bet is to contact the court issuing the fine.
See whether there is any discretion on the fine doubling due to school being closed. See if you can do a payment plan.

🤣

The fines are issued by paid to the LA, not the school.

I understand that the fines are issued by the LA. But the education welfare officer has told me to speak to school to check whether the session they were late should be authorised or unauthorised. Especially because they had my son down as unauthorised absence when he was in hospital for 2 days and we provided a hospital letter just before we went on holiday.

Realistically if this goes to court then do we have a leg to stand on?

No lol.

This is like saying ot was the last vodka and coke that made me throw up - never mind the first ten drinks!
Sorry op but you knew you were sailing close to the wind.
Pay the fine.