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.

Ironic from someone who can’t spell absence.

It's an unauthorised absence because they arrived after the registers closed. Otherwise, children could arrive at any time and there would be no " consequences ".
And children who arrive after the register closes are still recorded as present for fire purposes, we record the exact time of arrival onto the management system. So we know that they are in the building but arrived after the register has closed.

They both had 6 hours sleep on the flight. They both had plane pals which turn the seat into a bed. That's probably more sleep than they get at home some nights when they are waking up twice a night playing musical beds.
They're hardly neglected!

IP it comes across that you think nothing is your fault. Everyone on here has told you to just pay it but you are still arguing. Now it's the schools fault you didn't pay the cheeper fine because they were shut 🤣.

I don't think you'll get anywhere OP; classing their lateness as authorised after an unauthorised absence is unlikely to work.

I would have probably sucked it up and paid rather than risk it escalating or going to court. The reality is that this is the system that we have in this country, it doesn’t matter whether you agree with it or not, if you use the state school system you have to abide by it. (If you don’t agree then go to your MP.) As you’ve already delayed it, it’s probably worth seeing if you get a response from the school, but don’t expect them to change it, because they were late due to an unauthorised holiday. But I’d pay rather than get taken to court, chances are you won’t win.

You can point to other cases all you like, but that’s not going to affect yours. You did take them out unauthorised and the LA (not the school) has decided to fine. My LA is now draconian with fines and now looks to prosecute for second offences. I suspect others will go the same way.

• You have the responsibility to ensure that a child of school age receives a suitable education Age
• Ability
• Aptitude
• any special educational needs that they may have

(education act 1996, section 7)

You can choose to do this through home education, private or state school. If you choose state school then you accept that you abide by the law relating to school attendance.
Local authorities should ensure children get that education one way or another. Yes it is the welfare state and when done badly it leads to tragedies of children known to be absent, not followed up and then harmed or even dying.
You might say a term time holiday is completely different but if a parent that can afford to do that has no consequences why should another who just can’t be bothered for 9 or 10 days?

Yeah, I think this too. We've been open that provided our son is doing ok in school and has great attendance then we are open to booking a holiday in term time (we haven't had a holiday in years and it's the only way we could afford to consider going abroad). If we do then we fully accept we may be fined. You can't be grumpy because you tried to outsmart the system OP. In our school 45 minutes late would be considered an unauthorised absence.

You won't get anywhere I'm afraid OP as the 45minutes will be included in the holiday. We do it most years and pay the fine it's one of the reasons we are considering private from 11. He's always exceeding expectations and usually gets 100% on tests so doing him no harm.

Lawyers have tried to challenge it countless times and lost even for their own kids so I would just pay up.

A crime punishable by a fine is only a crime if your poor sadly hence I can see them wavering it for poor families as it's going to hit them hard but other parents add it to the cost of the holiday. In future they might get a sickness bug on the plane back 😉

Maybe it's time for a petitions against the fines see people organising them to ban dog breeds so this seems more relevant.

So there should be a rich tier system ?
Too poor for holidays
Only rich enough to buy a term time hoilday
Rich enough to pay for an out of term holiday.

The rule is not there to protect the children who can pop in and out of school and still keep up.
The rule is to protect children who need the (extra) support from the beginning of term and so that teachers are not expected to hold back a class while Johnny on holidays gets up to speed on the classes his parents did not think were important.

missing school for holiday is not the same as missing school for strikes.

and you definitely don’t get “credit” because your kids teachers didn’t strike.

The limit is 10. You hit 10.

I wasn't just talking about them

Yes. It is different. Because it is different. You weren’t stuck in traffic.

You have no grounds to appeal. You’re going to lose.

Its annoying for you but sadly its just one of those things.
you'd have been better just paying up and accepting it was a pain, but one of those things.
I suspect you easily saved the £240 by being away in term time.

OP if you take nothing else from this thread, I'd really advise ignoring those posters who say you should go to court to stick it to the system.
I would assume - and hope - you would end up with a bigger fine for wasting court time. We don't have to like the rules or indeed agree with them all, but the price for accessing free education in the UK is abiding by them.

They should quadruple the fines imho, they are far too lenient.
They should also ban teachers from striking too though, for balance.

And you sound like my 17 year old who is learning to drive when you go on about other parents. I will tell you what I tell him which is focus on your own lane and make sure you're doing the right thing. Everyone else can worry about themselves.

That isn't "an argument you have" because you know nothing about it, it is none of your business, and has ne bearing what so ever on YOUR case.

How many children? How many parents? It will go up massively if taken to court. At that point it is likely to be per child, per parent. So 2 parents and 2 children, £120 per child, ( £240) per parent (£480) doubled for late compliance, plus court fees.

So you would most likely be looking at a couple of grand if it goes to court.
As well as a potential criminal record. And a hit on your credit rating.

How on earth were you expecting to do a night flight and they go to school the next day?? YABU just for that!

You where cutting it fine. The flight could have been delayed, it normally takes us 2 hours often more from the plane landing till we actually leave the airport..then you have account for rush hour traffic. The odds where against you arriving at school on time.

İt's a stupid rule to fine someone for a week of missed school once a year, but just call in sick next year for some of those sessions.
For those saying about how important one week of school is - how much about the Romans from year four can you actually remember?

They will have been marked as absent by the class teacher until they arrived late, then the office staff will have marked them in as late present. A decision will then have to be made to determine if the absence / lateness is authorised or not.
OP, did your school know the children would have been absent in term time beforehand?

I don't think someone going on a holiday that is more than 6 hours flight away is "poor". Someone who is "poor" wouldn't be going abroad on holiday at all...

Was the intended holiday authorised?

If not, then this falls under play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

@Soontobe60 if there is a discretionary element on how the absence was marked, then I'm wondering if OPs attitude might have tipped the scales towards unauthorised.