Do you agree with the UK school attendance policy, of fining parents?

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If you are a teacher do you agree with the current UK school attendance policy, of fining parents? What are your thoughts about the focus on attendance, 'getting the child into the building at all costs', the policy of 'not supporting home learning'?
If you are a parent, what are your thoughts?

If you have a child with additional needs, do you feel discriminated against, when family holidays during busy school times, almost always mean your child is not able to be in those busy noisy environments; and the alternative is risking a fine?

Are you writing an article, OP?

I’m a teacher. It’s hard for a child to make progress when they miss lessons. Children who miss school based on anxiety easily fall into a viscous circle as the more they miss the harder they find it. However, none of the fines are the decision of the school - it comes from the DfE. We get the abuse, but we don’t make the rules.

I don’t think rewards for 100% attendance work. I think you improve attendance by supporting children through strong pastoral practice and relationships. But schools are judged on improving attendance and when you have attendance awards in place you can answer the question of what are you doing to improve attendance?

the curriculum is planned as a sequence and missing bits means you can’t progress. That’s the simple truth. Schools are judged on progress.
There was a case a few years ago where a head teacher committed suicide after a poor Ofsted report, while that is extreme of course, it does paint a picture of the pressure schools are under.

I’m a parent too. My kids have an occasional day off if they’re sick but luckily that is pretty rare.

My friend has a child with special needs who struggles with crowds. They receive a disability benefit for him - that more than pays for the fine when they take him out of school time for a quieter holiday. Pain in the arse for the teacher when he’s back but at least the parents don’t complain when he doesn’t make progress that term.

One more thing - persistent absence is a sign of abuse. For example, keep them off until the bruises heal. Just one example. In general, all children are safer when they are in the building every day.

It’s not a UK policy, doesn’t happen in Scotland.

Of which I’m glad, I think it’s ridiculous

I’m a teacher. I think children should be in school as much as possible as missing lessons is hugely disruptive to learning for all children.

I don’t agree with attendance awards.

I think the real issue is the price of holiday time holidays in comparison with term time holidays. School staff are also hugely at a disadvantage as they have no choice but to book holidays when it’s expensive. This is what needs to be changed.

TA here. No, I don't agree with it. Especially when my child's EHCP application is overdue by 6 months. Especially when my child's a high achiever with SEND. Especially when academy trusts are run for profit by big corp. Especially when Ofsted think my child's school is shit. Especially because of only keeping compliant kids in school our 'deprived area', academic achievement has fallen. Especially when my well-rounded education was FAR FAR better than my kids.

🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼

Ex teacher.

totally do not agree with it.

it’s driving parents to de register and home ed.
it’s driving parents to send in clearly ill children who blatantly should not be in school.

madness

My niece has a child with special needs, she holidays during school holidays to places suitable for her child, such as a cottage in Scotland away from busy places.

Fines shouldn’t be necessary, but the reality is some parents do not prioritise their child’s education without them - yours being a example, you can choose to holiday somewhere quieter. What do you suggest as an alternative to fines?

Continuous absenteeism obviously isn’t good for a child’s education and that was what the fines were originally for.

Fining parents for a holiday isn’t the right stick to get parent to value their child’s education. I also don’t think a weeks holiday annually will impact them educationally especially at primary school. No one says if children are off for a week with chicken pox they have ruined their education.

Though I am a teacher I don’t our education system is right academically, emotionally, developmentally for children as it is at the moment. Children need more down time, their days are too cognitively busy.

Children should be in school as much as possible! When I was in primary school I had to have a couple of weeks off for a hospital stay. During that time the class (on maybe my group) learnt long division and even now, 50+ years later, I struggle to understand the principles.

I don't agree with it. If attendance is otherwise good, children should be allowed to take a week out for a holiday once an academic year.

Rather than punishing parents for taking holidays in term time, the government should be cracking down on the holiday companies who charge massively inflated prices during school holidays. I'm disappointed in Labour.

We have relatives in Australia and New Zealand. We'd like to visit them during the UK winter (probably a one-off visit) but the Christmas holidays aren't long enough for it to be worth travelling so far. I've heard that if we took the kids out of school for three weeks, we could end up with criminal records. So, I'm wondering if the only way to do it is to deregister the kids for a while and home educate them. If we do this, it would probably be when the kids are close to the end of primary school.

When did the government/local authorities start fining parents for this ? I grew up in Scotland and it wasn’t a thing back then and I’ve heard it’s still not a thing there.

I live in England now and don’t have kids but have worked in schools and think it’s wrong for a variety of reasons ones them being the fact it disproportionately punishes poorer family.

Richer families probably will just shrug off the fine. I don’t really see the point of the fines either - is there proof it goes direct to the schools who are able to put it in paying for more reasons?

The fines don't go to the school.

It’s not a U.K. policy.

Do the local authorities just collect it then and use it for whatever?

It's English policy, not UK

As a teacher, I totally disagree with it. The children who miss a week to go abroad are so rarely the ones I'm concerned about. If a child is greater depth across the board, why shouldn't they go and have a lovely experience with their family? Far more frustrating are the low attainers whose attendance hovers around 90% because they're kept off for every sniffle or the ones who are late most days. Those are the children whose attendance needs to be targeted, not the children who are in every day working hard but want to tack a few extra days onto May half term. (Primary. Can't speak for secondary).

Not a UK policy.

Persistent absence is also a sign of unmet needs within school. Just getting children in the building also causes harm. Its exactly what happened to my child who ended up traumatised in a setting that wasnt meeting his needs. He now gets EOTAS via the LA, but their insistence that he just had to be in the building worsened his physical and mental health to point he may never attend a school setting again.

Abuse happens regardless of school settings.

Many children cant access activities and holidays in busier periods and the complex needs school I work at recognised this and authorises holidays (LA maintained school).

There is room for flexibility but ultimately what is needed to improve attendance are schools and provisions to meet needs. This means staffing, training, smaller class sizes for some, more flexibility with curriculum AND actually working to have strong relationships with families snd communities. The adversarial system created by LA'S repeatedly flouting the LA is not helpful. Same goes for the lack of accountsbikityvwith academies that dont make reasonable adjustments.

Fines wont work.

Rather than punishing parents for taking holidays in term time, the government should be cracking down on the holiday companies who charge massively inflated prices during school holidays. I'm disappointed in Labour.

This is supply and demand. Nothing to do with Labour, Tories etc. Holiday companies make money in holiday periods and offer discounts off peak because they want to get some kind of return on otherwise empty villas/flights.

If any government (in an international market? Not gonna happen) was somehow able to insist on equal pricing all year round, off peak prices would rise to peak prices, not vice versa.

Paying financial fines for anything as a punishment is unfair because to one family a financial fine can mean rent/bills doesn't get paid or the family has to go without food while to another it's just some change in their pocket that won't be missed and there isn't actually a punishment.

I’ve been a governor at a school and persistent absence was an issue with families openly telling us they didn’t value education or couldn’t be bothered to bring their kids in on time. For those children we need strong rules as clearly there’s more going on in those scenarios.

My own DC are at a private school with no fines and are v pragmatic about holidays in term time- repeated three week holidays are an issue, leaving for half term a day early once every two years not a problem.

I’m not particularly in favour of the fines but I do think taking children out of school to go on holiday is irresponsible, if I’m honest here.

I think it’s hard to say unilaterally reasons for absence are so diverse. I do think current approaches to child welfare are very simplistic in my school (coupled with a less accessible curriculum than previously) and that we are making it harder for children to attend than it should be. SLT is not in agreement with me on this though.