School Absence Penalty

[michaeldu]

I had to take my 5 years old son out of East Ham school, to go back to Vietnam as my mother-in-law, collapsed and was taking into A&E. Unfortunately she did not pull through and so we had to stay back to deal with the funeral and my wife had to deal with her mum's estate. So James was out for 24 days in total. Now I have received a fine of £60 from the council. I have written moving letter to headteacher of school but he is stubborn and will not cancel fine. I could take my son back earlier if I could but my hands was tied. My wife state of mind was not right as on several occasions, she told me, she wanted to end her life and so that she can go with her mother, while we were back in Vietnam. So no way I could have taking my son back earlier and to leave my wife back in Vietnam with her state of mind.

Yes. he is in year 1.

Oh ok. So the advice is null and void sadly.

Yes. He is in year one.

I would probably just pay the fine, technically the LEA (who does the dining not the school, so once you have received a fine it is out of the ehadteachers hands) could have fined you for each day AND per parent so you could have legally been fined £120 x 24 days (or lets say there was 3 weekends in there so 18 days = £2880!!!
It is annoying and probably does seem heartless but I would just pay the fine and not waste any more energy on it, concentrate on your wife.

That's what I thought. Brie. At least they had decency to fine for just one set of fine.
The fine doubles in set time(21 days?), so it maybe better just pay it and forget about it, and concentrate on your family.
I really think it's no point going to court over 60 pounds.

The head is an arse. It could absolutely be authorised.

If your dd school authorised it and they are the same council then I would politely inform the council you are not paying their fine, give your reasons, include flight stubs, emails and death cert then wash your hands of them and get on with life.

I would bet my bottom dollar the council will take it no further.

It could absolutely be authorised

It seems the school are saying they did not receive the letter the OP sent and are saying he did not request permission. The OP clearly believes he sent a request but it would appear that the first the school knew was when his child stopped turning up. If that is the case it could not be authorised. Heads cannot authorise absence retrospectively.

Yes. He is in year one.

I would pay the fine. The head is treating it as a holiday...which is only a £60 if paid within 21 days, otherwise it is £120... they could have asked for a penalty notice for persistent absence which could be anything up to £1000!

I have decided to pay the £120 fine. £60 per parent and finish with it. I could go to court but too risky as I could be hit with a larger fine. Still think it is unfair but what can you do. Happy talking to you all.

I do not want to argue with you, Floggingmolly but you are the same as the headteacher. No heart. I hope that when someone in your family pass away and you see it first hand. You get all the help you can get. Then you can see what this all mean.

You aren't being fair to Floggingmolly here. Maybe it is a culture thing but bereavement seems to be treated differently in the UK. 24 days of absence is an inordinately long time.

When my own mother died I was granted three days compassionate leave plus one more for the funeral. When my children's great grandmother died I was told that as she was not an "immediate" relative then they would be unable to authorise any absence for the funeral because of the rules imposed by the local authority.

I work in a school and there is no way we could legitimately authorise 24 days of school absence unless the child themselves were sick (and backed up by medical evidence). In your circumstances we would have authorised 3 days but the rest would have HAD to be unauthorised due to legislation.

Fines are not issued by the Headteacher and they have no power over them. Fines are issued the local authority not the school.