Holiday fines for taking kids out of school, is the government missing the point?

[Supersares]

With the government announcing today they’re increasing the fine from £60 to £80 per parent, does anyone else think the government is missing the point here? I assume that the reason most parents have holidays during term time is to avoid the extortionate cost of going during the 6 week summer break. Wouldn’t it be better to clamp down on holiday companies hiking their charges instead… or am I missing something?

Yep, as I said - deluded.

The significance of the situation I described is that governors are statutorily responsible for attendance. The idea, therefore, that a governor would a)actively impact attendance in a negative fashion and b)promote the view that only bright children deserve holidays is appalling and she should not probably not have been a governor at all, in that scenario.

How do you suppose they can 'clamp down'? Supply and demand means holidays are more expensive in the summer. It's basic economics

It’s most likely that the government or a politician will get some sort of back hander from super rich holiday companies! Punish the working class once again!

I would like to know who I send a fine to when my daughter misses out on education because teachers are on strike!
Kids missed the best part of one year at school due to the scamdemic and now they are being rushed to catch up, who’s piling the strings here, as a responsible parent I will choose wether I can take my child away not the local authority

Have you tried a Facebook group? I'm sure you'll find one churning out the same old irrelevant stuff over and over again. You sound like a tin hatter so I'm sure you'd fit right in

And in an unrelated note SPAG is often sacrificed in those groups ime

No, you are not missing something! I don’t really know why parents put up with being so mistreated. There is a very, very small and very complex percentage of families where parents simply don’t care. Poor attendance for the vast majority is either 1) plain bad luck with viruses, sickness bugs etc, 2) special needs children who need specialist support and often aren’t getting it 3) parents giving their children a lovely family experience.

For none of these possible reasons are fines a sensible solution!

I would be fine with teachers having a week off in term time. In fact I would positively encourage it. We have teachers leaving the profession faster than we can recruit. We need to make a more sustainable career and I am sure my child would cope with supply or a week of art or whatever the HT decided on. Far better one week without an experienced teacher than years without one because we can’t retain them.

Holiday companies don’t hike up their charges in the school holidays. They discount them at non peak times to encourage more bookings then. It’s supply and demand.
If your child misses something key in the week they are off, it can be very hard to recover from that. Eg a key maths teaching on what decimals or fractions are.
It’s unfair to expect an already over stretched teacher to give up their break to try and catch the child up all the key concepts they may have missed that week. Or to spend time preparing resources for a parent to take away.
People say their child learns much more by going on holiday than they would in school, but in reality they are usually just eating ice creams by a swimming pool.

The teachers strike is in your child’s long term interest though.

Not sure where you get only an extra £100, for example take myself and three children to centre parks say next week Price £399 and thats not even a last minute deal which i could get cheaper. Now roll on and put begin of June ie Half term same holiday £1299 and thats the cheapest option. So i can save £900
Second holiday I looked at Disney, same next week I could go for below £4000, begin June one of same deals, same room April deal £3860 - June £6450 no difference in package just date so I could save £2600. Travel never harmed me, I did go out of school when younger, guess what, now director of two companies, left school many years ago with grades a and b's. Travel also gave me a cultural experience that could not have been gained in a classroom. Last few days before school breaks and my children are sat in classrooms playing games, watching tv etc, whats that teaching them..

Your daughter isn’t ‘missing out on education’ on those occasions, because there isn’t any education to miss. That’s the whole point of a strike - no one is being taught.

When you choose to take your daughter out and all the other children ARE being educated, she misses things. Very possibly the same bits of SPAG that you did!

Teachers ARE fined when they strike - they lose a whole day’s pay. It also counts against them when calculating their pension. It’s a sacrifice, as another poster has already pointed out, and one made to protest about the state of education for all children - including your daughter.

The design of the curriculum is entirely different now compared to how it used to be when you were a child.

Where are all these schools that watch DVDs in the last few days of every term?! I don’t know any. Most teachers who have to move classrooms would love to stick on a film for even one day to clear out cupboards, etc, but can’t.

With regards to the 2 fines in 3 years then it's prosecution - will this be for fines from August 2024 or does it take historical fines too?
We went away March 2023 and got fined and want to go May 2025, woukd it class as the second fine or first due to rules changing?

The day I hear someone say they took their child out of school to have a tent holiday in the UK because that was all they could afford, then I will object to them being fined.

I've never heard of anyone taking a child out of school for a holiday for which the fine, even at £60/parent would be insignificant compared to the cost of the holiday.

If I were the government I'd put the fine at double the difference between the out of season price and peak time. Make it not worth it.

In order to make the fine worthwhile they would need to make it around £500 or throw in a risk of jail time.

£80 is nothing compared to the savings made.

Personally I disagree with not being able to take your child out of school for a week. Obviously certain times of the year are unsuitable and exam years are probably best avoided. But overall I think the benefits of family time together out weigh the negatives of a 5 year old missing a week of school

It is for fines from August this year.

Does that include authorised absences? So if a child has a days illness authorised. (So 2 sessions) but then goes on to have a 4 day holiday (so 8 sessions) would that be 10 or would it still be 8?

With regards to the training days . Our school does five a year. Could they not take place in the school holidays when teachers are not teaching? Obviously it would require TA's to come in and be paid extra.

No, authorised absences cannot be fined.

Government sleight of hand at its best. Not addressing the many and real issues concerning children who can't or won't go to school at all.
But instead picking the soft target, parents who take their kids out of school for a few days for a family holiday. Still, it must be a nice little earner for councils.
And gov't can claim to be doing something about attendance.

It would be at least £120 as per child and if she has a partner £240 as it's per child per parent. On the sort of holidays I can afford £360 or £480 under the new fines (3 kids x 2 parents) is not a small percentage of the holiday cost!

@ineedtostopbeingdramaticfirst
They DO take place in the school holidays! Children were always taught for 190 days a year and teachers attended school for those 190 days. When INSET ( or Baker days as they were originally) were introduced, children continued to attend for 190 days and teachers for 195. So the days were taken from teacher holidays and not children's teaching time!

Ok genuinely didn't know. So if we stick them in the holidays teachers would lose a further five days

They ARE in the holidays! Your child will be in school ( or at least, should be in school!) for 190 days. The rest is holiday. Teachers have to be in school for 195 days.

Well, yes, but you can’t take them away again 😂.