Holiday Fines!!!

[KatieGiraffe]

Hi There!
Has anyone on here receieved a fine from their council and challenged it?
I'm looking for some guidance. My son is in year one and has had 1.5 days unauthorised absence plus our week holiday.
Thanks in advance

I think its now something that has to be built into the cost of the holiday.

Our school doesn't do this thank goodness (independent) and everyone takes their children out during term time. It doesn't seem to have any negative impact on their education.

Our state school ignored low level absence. I know at least 8 people personally who have taken DC out for a week (skiing/beach hol etc) or a Friday for weekend away etc. Nothing ever said. They fill request in. Comes back as unauthorised. End of story.
Whilst we benefit, the inconsistency is wrong

we live in Wales & there is a choice for heads

I didn't realise Wales is different.

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/can-take-children-out-school-9266821

The rules seem to vary as to which area your in - I can only suggest you read up on your area and look at what happens if you don't pay and if anyone else has manage to challenge the fines in that area.

Factoring it in as a cost of the holiday is the way to go. Ours refers you to the local authority attendance dept if attendance drops below 85%, guess that means they fine you.

We take about 7 days unauthorised every year and have never been fined. But if we were would be happy to pay.

Don't stress about it, just pay is my advice.

OP, have the school or the LA actually said that they are intending to fine you?
In Wales it is still at the school head teacher's discretion to allow up to 10 school days holiday in term time, unlike England. Most schools are now cutting back on allowing this discretion because of the need for pupils to be there all the time. However I would be surprised if for the level of unauthorised absence they were actually indicating they are going to fine you. What is your overall attendance ?

I thought in wales there was no fine?

The people I know of who've taken term time holidays have factored in the fine into the cost of the holiday.

Not being able to afford a holiday during school holidays doesn't count as an exceptional reason when it comes to appeals.

Round here (England) if you have two unauthorised absences they ensure that it comes up on your CRB (or whatever the new name is) check when you go for job interviews etc as the fines weren't enough to put people off!

Where do you live Flossie?

I thought the fines are statutory penalties, and, like parking tickets, do not feature in checks. Unless you don't pay/dispute unsuccessfully and it follows from court action at that point.

You're very defensive, OP. You seem to be interpreting simple questions about what your reasons for challenge would be as people judging you, when they're perfectly sensible questions.

We won an appeal!! However we could prove the holiday was booked before the rules changed. Cheaper holidays aren't considered a reasonable excuse. Pay up!! I agree with the rules. School is important and parents should send that message pud and clear to their kids. 2 weeks in Spain is not educational and can be done in the 13 weeks holidays.

Just to be clear, it isn't the school being nasty for nasty's sake. Attendance figures of less than 95% can a) trigger and ofsted and b) will preclude a school from being judged oustanding.

so writing to ofsted would seem fairly pointless.

Unfortunately not being able to afford holidays and/or being a single parent is not a valid defence against the fine.
Every single person on here could agree the fine is unfair ( which won't happen) and it would make sod all difference to you having to pay or not.
If you don't pay promptly it will just go up with court costs etc so the best thing to do would be to just pay up.

I will be taking dd out for a fortnight next term. I may well be fined. I don't care. I will pay it happily.

I have many reasons for wishing to holiday during term time and have done so since she started school and will do until Year 5. Her attendance has never fallen below 94% except for the year she was diagnosed with autism and we had loads of appointments and in fact she has had a number of terms of 100% attendance and punctuality.

I have been reading these kinds of threads for years and I have yet to be convinced that taking my child out for a couple of weeks a year has any discernible impact on her or anyone else.

My DS has aspergers and we apply for holiday from school as he cannot cope with going to busy resorts so it is easier for us to go away off peak.

The head allows it

(FWIW, i'd rather have to pay extra and be able to go away in busier times)

We had a funeral to go to this year. We wrote a letter to the headteacher to request leave and they wrote a letter back, to my DD, to say that she had great attendance, and they would happily allow her to attend the funeral of our close family member. What a shame it would be if this sort of leave had to be stopped, because people wanted a cheaper holiday. But I guess if the school had already had over 5% absence of this type, then our response may have been different. Which would be a great shame. I come from a single parent family. I never went abroad until I was 20. I was never once taken out of school for a holiday. I don't think I missed out.

Same reasons here Dragon but two with ASD. It's never been authorised but I still do it. Have not been fined so far.

I also think the head should be able to approve 10 days for children that have good attendance (not including time out for medical reasons etc) and that we should go back to being sensible about things like this

Surely you applied for the holiday and were told in advance it wouldn't be authorised and you could be fined?
We go camping in this country as we can't afford a holiday abroad out of term time. HTH.

Do you word it carefully on the request form NickiFury?

It's not as if the sanctions are clearly spelt out-if you take your child away in term time then you will be fined. Bleating your hard up and a single parent is tough really. You can't break the rules and expect a reprieve.....

I've never actually mentioned the autism as an issue Dragon she was only diagnosed last year even though I knew she had it and I home educate my other child so don't need to seek permission for him. Do you have any advice on how to word it? As it is certainly the reason for this years term time holiday as we are going to a very typical holiday destination and dd simply would not cope if we went in peak season.

we put something like

"As you know, XX cannot cope with noisy areas and finds it very upsetting, we are unable to go away when places are busy"

then once you get approval from that school, you can then go to the other school (if you DCs are at different ones) and say "the other school has given permission due to XXreasons above... "

Not judging, your business, but just pay the fine.