Fines for term time holidays

[Yumyumcakes]

All new to me, but can they fine you when your child is in nursery school, ie under 5. We’ve booked WDW when my daughter will be in nursery school, it’s 2 weeks, she’ll be 4.5. Thought it would be ok but now a bit worried.

secondly if it’s £60 per parent per child, is that per day or for the entire time they are off?

i read it’s the LA that issues the fine, not the school? How does it work? Surely parents just say their kids are ill? I’m confused

No, not until the school term after they turn 5.

Usually only £60 per parent per child.

It would be very unusual for a child to be off that long. School have a duty to ensure a child is safe so they would be asking if they have accessed medical care and probably visiting the child at home. School will know if you lie.

As far as I’m aware children under 5 are not fined because they don’t have to legally be in education until they are 5.
Ive only ever taken term time holidays and have never been fined.
The fines aren’t calculated daily. They are £60 per parent no matter how long the holiday is. They only increase it from that if it isn’t paid after the fine has been issued.

You'll be grand u til the term after they return 5. But factor in the funeral going forward if you intend to do term time holidays once they are older.

They’d arrange someone to come out for a few days off school? That surprises me

The funeral?

everyone I know has taken their kids a few days out of school for a holiday and never been fined. This is all confusing to me with nursery ages kids

Sorry funeral should say fine. I think they only fine if you have 5 days in a row, the odd day here and there doesn't get fined.

It's a fine of £60 per parent for the whole adbsencw but you won't be f8ned as your child doesn't legally need to be in school.

People would generally not lie and say illness for 2.5 weeks because that would be a very severe illness that needs that much time off school and you wouldn't be able to evidence it with Drs notes because they're not I'll.

Just tell nursery that they won't be there because you're going on holiday. You will still have to pay for the nursery space if you pay usually.

A private nursery wouldn’t be fining parents.

@GCWorkNightmare which is why I said 'but you won't be fined as your child doesn't legally need to be in school'

I'm a nursery nurse and you can't be fined under 5.
As for the 'how would they know?' Children tell us everything! We know lots of secrets 😂 they'd never be able to not come back and tell everyone where they had been!

I don’t know if it’s LA dependent, but in East Sussex, it used to be that under 5’s parents were not subject to a fine. The fine was £60 is per parent, per child. For over 5’s if 10 school sessions are missed, so 5 school days, that could trigger a fine, which usually takes quite a few months to come through. So if for example your child lost 3 days of school, so 6 sessions, you won’t be fined, and your holiday will still be cheaper than in term time. School won’t like it though, you will get a letter etc.

I’m an ex teacher. My old school employed some full time and this was the vast majority of her role.

So she was employed as a teacher and her whole day was just going to parents houses? Wow, did she sign up for that??

Schools check attendance every day! If they don't know why your child isn't in or is sick for more than one day you'll get daily phone calls and home visits for sure.

My brother used to cut school all the time and no one every turned up, this is super surprising to me
, high school though and 15 years ago but still.

id imagine lots of kids parents just say they are ill

My understanding is the head in theory cannot authorize holidays during term time, so it's recorded as unauthorized and if the absence breaches the official LA penalty threshold it's up to the LA whether to issue the fine.

Policy varies by LA. Ours is £60 per parent if 5 or more days (10+ sessions) are missed within a certain rolling period. The fine applies once per absence period, not per day. Just Google something like "term time holiday X area" and an official page should come up with the location-specific info.

The role isn't necessarily done by a teacher, usually people who have previous experience in school/welfare/safeguarding.

Google attendance officer vacancies and you'll get an idea of what they do.

It was the concept of a poor teacher hired to teach but then was actually just having to go door to door checking up on kids, could see the burnout and how frustrating that could be. But that’s me derailing my own thread haha

It's not teachers who do it. It's the office /attendance staff who do it.

Under 5 so you're fine.

LAs are never going to take parents who refuse to pay the fine to court though.........

No, she was an ex social worker and her job title was family support worker. School’s employ a lot of staff who aren’t teachers.

Phew thanks all, Disney Is saved