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?

AFIAK it’s five days (10 morning and afternoon sessions) of absence that trigger a fine. So if you take off on the Friday before half term three times a year, you are unlikely
to be fined.

I think the government should look at regulating holiday prices so all families can make use of the school holidays.

How? Using what law? Holiday companies may or may not have uk hqs. Unless a package holiday company owns its own planes and properties outright, they will be charged for the plane seats and hotel/villa rooms at the prevailing rates at the time. Airbnb owners set their own prices, as with other similar sites (cottages4u or whatever)

So again - how?

This.

But then I have no problem with attendance awards either. 100% attendance should be celebrated. Just like the kid who runs fastest, get highest marks etc. Doesn't mean the kid who doesn't get the award is shit. It's just not their thing. Some people take it very personally. And yes, some kids will never win it (looking at you ds2) but that's the same with all awards.

Attendance is important for lots of things. Safeguarding, academics, respect etc. Poor attendance across a school needs addressing at its cause, not just fines.

They can't regulate it. It's market forces, supply and demand etc.

I would love to take a 4 week holiday in January with my kids. Because the weather is best in parts of the world then, flight cheaper in term time. But I don't, because I value my kids education and I accept that I can't afford it in the summer (plus monsoon). That's life.

Nobody is entitled to a cheap foreign holiday.

I absolutely do not agree with it.
I take education seriously and my children all had excellent attendance but school is not the only place to learn.
They are mine and i know what is best for them, i strongly object to how the government try to dictate what i should be doing and when with my children.
On the grand scale i do care that many children don't attend school often and have parents that think differently to me ,who don't give their children what they need but other peoples children are not my responsibility or problem to fix and i do not want to conform to rules which are probably there predominantly for feckless parents to 'encourage' them to get their kids in school.
Of course i am not suggesting free rein but i think 5 days off in one year as long as decent attendance makes absolutely no difference whatsoever.
There are so many inset /voting etc days off in a year as well as the watching a video /bring a toy -(you know the kind of days i mean) that the argument that a few days off does matter has no relevance to me.
Also due to finances those 5 days off in term time could make the difference between no holiday at all or a few wonderful days out of one year in a different environment for a curious child .

I don’t agree with the policy but seriously, I’ve worked in primary schools for 25 years and no one is showing two days of films either side of every half term. Every day is full of curriculum content.

No, I don't agree with it. As with everything so ill-thought out and punitive, it DOES impact mostly on those who experience social, health and economic disadvantage more. If the overriding concern is that education is suffering due to attendance, then punishment - especially per child, per parent punishment - wouldn't remotely feature.

Evert parent thinks they know what’s best for them and many don’t.
I know of families taking multiple term
time holidays, taking children on holiday who are kept off ill at the drop of a hat, children who are massively struggling with work who then have a week off. You can look at children and their families at the age of 4 and know that they are going to go through school struggling and their parents don’t care and see it as schools job to sort out.

It’s not the whole of the UK.

I think all holidays should be authorised. A week at an all-inclusive can still be beneficial to a child in many ways - time spent with parents, doing sports, swimming. I think parents should be allowed a week per child per year where they can take them out for a holiday if they wish (wasn’t there talk of this happening?) I think it’s the travel companies that are to blame here, for pricing people out of being able to afford a holiday.

Yes, it is hugely important that children are at school, not just for academic reasons (though that is vitally important) but also for pastoral reasons. Teachers, classroom assistants, canteen staff, etc. all look out for children, can spot changes in behaviour or health that may be important signifiers of something serious. Teachers might be the first port of call for a pupil with a problem. School is a safety net for some kids. If parents weren’t fined some of them wouldn’t send their kids in at all.

So who’s going to teach them the material they didn’t cover during that week they missed class - and do they have to do it with every other child in the class?

DH used to work in youth justice/mental health the children he worked with had appalling attendance and the families were never fined, they also rarely worked so didn't have the finances to pay fines even if they did receive them and there were concerns because school was a safe place for them. The problem with the system is that it doesn't address this or safeguard those children, yet the ones who have 100% attendance , supportive families and who are doing well do get fined if they want a week away in term time because despite mum and dad working full time a family holiday in school holidays is beyond their financial stretch.
The system isn't working for anyone.

The last week of term last summer ds didn't pick up a pencil, they had a water fight, watched films, played games, had a class disco in the hall. But if I'd taken him out on holiday (for example we are going to Rome later this year where he will learn a lot) I would've been fined.

I’m in Scotland where they don’t fine. I assume I’m prettty average in thst DC all attend regularly have odd days off for sickness. We have taken a few days here and there over the years to go on holiday early or extend a half term break.I don’t feel like I take the piss though as I want DC to have an education. Attendance this year is at 98% for example.

The fining system seems unnecessarily adversarial to me. Parents and schools should be working together to create best outcomes for the children.

Did you query why the syllabus was suspended? At DT’s school lessons continued until lunch of the last day of term.

He's in Y2 now and it's been there same every year since reception, the last day of term before all holidays is non uniform, games and films too

Different from one day as opposed to your earlier post referring to a week of no syllabus.

I think it’s the travel companies that are to blame here, for pricing people out of being able to afford a holiday.

Which people? If companies weren’t filling or nearly filling their resorts and campsites at the holiday prices charged, they would lower those prices.

And again, there’s not a few omnipotent travel companies here. It’s not like water supply. There’s car hire and coach operators and airlines and villa owners (who may well be individuals, even on a resort) and Airbnb and Landmark Trust and hotels and caravan sites etc etc.

My youngest is 10 eldest 15 and over the 11 years of primary school they’ve never done work on last few days of winter and summer term. It’s just fun, games and videos.

Especially in summer the teacher uses the last week to strip the classroom so they often stick two classes together and they watch something fun and teachers bring treats.

It’s quite nice for the kids and I think it’s valuable bonding time. They have a board game day and are allowed to bring one each in to play and this is much debated and planned and my dc would be upset to miss it but I think proper lessons would be a rarity.

Yes that's the summer term is a week, other half terms it's the last day which over the year equates to two full school weeks

Why shoukd they be treated the same. I think fines full stop are nonsense, those that can afford it just pay and dont care. They dont help families who are struggling with attendance especially not as is common whrn its due to unmet needs either educationally or needing support from social care systems.

But the reason children with Disabilities can sometimes have time off authorised is so they can access things that those without disabilities can access easily in holiday time, but they cant.

A term time holiday or day off can be a reasonable adjustment so a family can access things that they simply cant during term time. My own child and their sibling had a day off, as I explained previously for a Christmas activity, the only SEN friendly quiet sessions were run on school days. Thankfully both schools saw the importance of them doing a lovely activity that met needs as a family. Every other family could go to all the sessiins that ran every weekend over a 10 week period. We had the choice of 2 days, both were school days. Maybe if organisers put on sen friendly quiet events at the weekend we would have more hope of going. But no the sen friendly sesssions wre invariably at the awkward inconvenient time when no body wants.

Some children just cannot cope with places in school holidays, my youngest included, beaches, parks, museums, any kind of activity that most people can just go to he simply cannot manage when its busy. Same with public transport etc.

There is a reason we have laws about reasonable adjustments.

I would assume that the school plan these in such that they can still cover whatever the national curriculum requires and accommodate these “fun” days. And that if there was still learning to be covered at that final week, it would be a couple of fun days, not the whole week. That’s materially different to Katy missing addition one week and Fred missing subtraction the next week and the teacher needing to catch each of them up.

Or they could say in the last week of term we won't be doing anything meaningful so if you want to take them out we won't fine that week

I don't think the school makes the decisions about fines.