School fines

[Durham1989]

Good evening. Im taking my child out of school (age 8) as I'm taking her to Manchester to attend the Jonas brothers concert. These are her favourite band and she's so excited. The only nights they do Manchester are through the week. Her attendance at school is great, and she's never off. The headteacher obviously didn't approve the time off, and this will go as unauthorised. She will be off for 2 days. I'm concerned in case I get a fine, or go to court! Can anyone advise?
Thank you

Read your LEA rules, most are 10 sessions missed to get a fine.

I would imagine it’s unlikely that you’ll be fined for two days, but I’m sure you understand why the head can’t authorise the absence.

That has to be the most ridiculous reason to miss 2 days of school.......

I hope you do get fined.

Its not enough consecutive day for that fine
If you take her out again, it would be included in the day count.

You can't just go there after school then and come home afterwards, she will be tired but in school. Why two days

Oh get a grip. It's two days of school vs an experience with her mum that she will cherish for a lifetime.

Finds kick in after five days within 10 weeks (don't need to be consecutive and half days add up too) OP - so you're ok.

(Five days = ten AM/PM sessions within ten weeks)

Do you live near Manchester? Does she actually need two full days off school to attend the concert?

An 8-year-old can have a late night and go to school a bit tired the next day.

I’m part of a group doing our best to oppose the school fines and lobby Gov to allow an annual allowance for term time leave without fines/prosecution. Please share details of this posts event if you can. 💖

You are a lobby group for low attainment. Missing days of school harms the poorest the most.

Thank you for sharing your comment and giving me the opportunity to highlight a magnificent misconception.

There are at least three sets of data, all since the introduction of the fines for term time absence, that prove family holiday does not impact attainment. Including a longitudinal study as recently as last year conducted with over 4,500 students that specifically asked ‘does absence type matter?’. They found that, as you’d entirely expect, it’s the diversity of socioeconomic and psychosocial challenges experienced by students that causes absence. And those self-same challenges mean that educational needs are either a) not met appropriately in school or b) are sadly not a priority for that student for a plethora of reasons. Maybe they suffer from depression, maybe they have a caring role for a parent or sibling, maybe their poverty means they disengage with many factors of society, not just the ones they can’t afford to participate in.

What the analysis does, time and again, is show us that these complex factors do not justify branding parents as criminals when they a) intervene to advocate for their child’s needs or b) do their best to spend quality time with them against the challenges of needing to work and make ends meet.

There are many legitimate reasons why families can struggle to access time off work due to flexibility and/or affordability.

Regardless, ALL children deserve quality time with their primary care givers. ALL children deserve to be holistically supported by policies that respect the diversity of their needs. And the blanket/routine criminalisation of parents is wrong.

What she said.
And I do work in education.
But I find the emphasis placed on attendance to be plaster not a bandage.
I really wish some of my dysregulated kids (the ones I teach), and my own bless 'em, who desperately need a day to decompress on occasion weren't being demonised.
The emphasis on mindfulness and mental health is lip service only.

Why the 2 days? How much are your concert tickets? Probably really expensive so my thoughts are if you can afford a night out like that you can probably afford a 60 quid fine. And this is the reason that fines are pointless. People will just pay them and do the same next time. That's IF the LA have capacity to follow through on all the extra the paper work.