School holiday fine

[Manda86]

Hi just wondering if anyone can help, I recently took my sons out of school for 6 school days to go to a caravan holiday (1st holiday in years) both have been given fines. They attend different schools one primary one high school, they’re attendance is good.
My issue however is two other mums who go to my sons primary school took there children out exactly the same amount of time and have worse attendance but they received a warning letter rather than a fine? This has baffled me and I don’t understand how the work it out?

Councils are under pressure by government to improve attendance figures. I'm guessing your local council has decided to start issuing more fines as a result.

I doubt anyone will tell you the reasons. I think you’ll just have to pay up.

are you sure? Did you ask the HT?

Family holidays can be really beneficial for children and parents, and strengthen family bonds. Time away from the stresses of work and home life allow parents time to focus more on their children with less, or little distractions, for a lengthy period of time - which is generally a good thing.

Not everyone can afford to have an expensive holiday.

I had uk caravan holidays some years growing up and having really find memories of that time.

what a horrible thing to say, caravan and camping holidays can be amazing, based on your attitude, I'd bet the OPs children have had a better holiday than yours have,

I am a teacher and I am ok with children taking term time holidays. However, when I took my children out when I was on may leave I got a fine. I appealed it and won. My children's report showed they were working at and above expectations so I argued that it had not affected their education.

As a teacher I don’t care if you take your children out of school, as long as you understand that I will not have time to teach them what they have missed and don’t kick off if they don’t meet expectations at the end of the year because of it.
The fines are issued by the local authority here, school don’t have much to do with it.

I agree with this! If your child is meeting or above then fine.

Accept the fine, pay it.

Express your opinions via the ballot box tomorrow.

Why the hell would you judge OP's holiday by making such a shitty comment?

Appeal the fine. Next time lie and say the have COVID/ D&V / chicken pox ECT. The system forces you to lie. I hate lying but we can't afford a holiday during school holidays not even a caravan one. For example Butlins for 4 nights in school holidays £750. Butlins in term time £180 (although I've paid as little as £40).

I'm currently in a dilemma about how to play our holiday. My son will miss the last 3 days of term for a holiday. I really don't want to lie as I think it'll be unbelievable but are school even that bothered?

In our home, going to school is non-negotiable unless you’re ill. And we certainly don’t lie to teachers.

Holidays aren’t that important. We have plenty of quality time at home and we enjoy our every day. If we can afford a holiday in school vacation, great. But if we can’t then we stay at home and chill / go out on day trips.

Education is much more important. Not just “adequate” grades, but a good attitude to education. My kids are “exceeding expectations” in almost every subject. That’s good. They still can’t skip school.

Well, for me growing up we couldn't have had any holidays if we didn't go in term time. That was when dad's holidays were, no school holiday option.

So me and my siblings missed 1-2 weeks a year for a uk based holiday most years.

We still all did very well academically and all have a very good attitude towards education and learning. We also know that children don't only do their learning in school and that, sometimes, other things are importantly too.

I've taught for over 25 years now. Clearly I believe education is important.

However, I have no issues with a child missing some time from school for a family holiday if that works best for that family.

Are you sure you went for exactly the same time? I suspect it is the 6 days that has tipped you into fine whereas they might have played the game better re when they took the leave (eg going to one registration to only have missed 41-2 days for example). Still essentially a week away but less likely to hit thresholds for the fine.

How long did it take your fine to come through? I recently took my son out for a UK holiday and don't know when to expect the fine coming through

I really don’t agree with this approach that your council took with you. What happens if you’re also a hard working family but your child struggles with their work? It needs to be a blanket policy for everyone.

You know it's the school that request the fine?

The council just enforce it.

What was your children's attendance figure before you took the holiday?

If you’ve been issued a fine, you need to pay it.

What’s happened to someone else (although it sounds like they might have been treated more leniently for some reason) is irrelevant to you - you have to deal with your own stuff.

I have a lot more sympathy with those who take kids out of school for a caravan holiday because that's the only way they can afford a holiday at all, than those who take kids out of school for skiiing or other foreign jaunts because it's cheaper in termtime.

As a teacher, your kids are the kind of kids I love to teach. It is a real pain when kids miss lessons. It interferes with their learning and that of others.

Did you fill out the appropriate form before you went? Did the other families have extenuating circumstances? It will be a lot more consistent from August as no term time holidays will be authorised.

To answer some questions above:

-my sons attendances are 93% one is 94%,
-we both went on holiday exactly the same time. So all children had same amount of days off.
-the fine come through 4 weeks after we come back.
-my sons have just had reports and mock GCSE results and achieving above average.
-we went on a caravan holiday to see our newest member of the family who lives bottom of the country. (Though that is irrelevant)
-also I don’t want to have to lie, I appreciate that there is a fine in place and I have to pay it, the issue is why aren’t other parents the same? Surely fines aren’t issued out of a hat or a random generator? There should be a policy and certain criteria if you hit that you get a fine. Simple! I’ve paid the fines but I just wanted more information

The other person probably said their child was sick on the first day, it's what I do and many others I know do to escape the fine