School Term Time Fines

cceg

If you rung in to say the child was ill, it will be found out soon enough when you got back.
The child will prob have a tan and do you really think they will be able to keep quiet about going to America?
My little boy tells his teachers EVERYTHING!

rinroo

Our school you get fined £15 per week for taking a holiday in term time. I'd rather pay the £60 for both sons to miss 2 weeks than pay hundreds extra. we are going eary july so they are on wind down anyway ready for finishing.

bluenitsuj

I have taken my child out several times. One was three years ago to take her to Taiwan for chinese New Year. ( partner Taiwanese ). As this was part of her religion it was ok.
Last year we went to Africa in April. My Daughter missed 10 days of school for a wedding. Again authorised, I was told by the Head that weddings and Funerals are authorised at this school. At the end of August/ beg september we are going again to Taiwan. Probably will not be authorised but unless the school is prepared to pay the extra £1000 to go away in July then we will.
I would not worry about threats from the school.

Belt-tightener_2

you could always remind the school education is compulsory under the law school is not, if the school is not over subscribed you could threaten to de-register your child the day the absence starts and re-register them the day you return.

I hate the way the system is in bullying parents when they can easily work with them, we work hard for our holidays my husband can never get holidays in the school holiday time, so we have to miss out.

pogofish

What powers do they use to fine you?

I would be inclined to insist on something like this going to court as I would think they would need to prove some sort of wilful neglect.

If it is the upshot of the terms of one of those home/school contracts, I seriously doubt that would be upheld.

henm01

busiscoming2 wrote: »

Ringing in to say they are ill is fine, but if they are in secondary school you have to phone each day to record the absence, could/would you want to do this whilst on holiday and with a time difference too!

Didn't work for me. I took my daughter out of school for 1 week and called in every day to say she was sick. When I got home received a call from HeadTeacher's PA to say that they wanted a doctors cert (obviously they didn't believe me!). I couldn't produce on so came clean.

Consequence was I was placed on a list which was sent to the local authority. The PA told me that as it was my first offence, I more than likely wouldn't receive a fine. I wanted for weeks and was quite nervous but nothing arrived and that was last June. I guess they fine serial offenders.

I makes me sick as it's my big birthday this year and would love to take the kiddies out of school again (to keep the cost down) but won't do it. Holiday Co's should be ashamed of themselves.......

spiro

Belt-tightener wrote: »

you could always remind the school education is compulsory under the law school is not, if the school is not over subscribed you could threaten to de-register your child the day the absence starts and re-register them the day you return.

I hate the way the system is in bullying parents when they can easily work with them, we work hard for our holidays my husband can never get holidays in the school holiday time, so we have to miss out.

I think that you will find that if a parent's employer has an enforced holiday (i.e. 2 week factory shutdown) then you can take children on that holiday if it is in term time and schools accept and understand this. What schools are trying to clamp down on are parents who constantly take their children on holiday in term time partly because it tends to become infectous.

soolin

What annoys me about this is the amount of times that my children apparently watched DVds or had 'free time' due to supply teachers not turning up or PC equipment for the white boards not working.

A few years back when my children were younger I planned to take them out of school a few days early at Christmas and the school kicked up a fuss. I asked for the timetable for that week, with the names of all the guaranteed teachers and the lesson plans..obviously they said they couldn't do it so I asked them to confirm in writing that my children would receive every hour of scheduled schooling they were due, and they backed down.

Turned out I was right as other parents confirmed on my return, many of the teachers that had family overseas also took a few extra crafty days off, some of those that were left went sick and several classes ended up having quiet time watching DVds in the school hall for several days.

One of my children even sat an GCSE level where he had never had a real teacher, it was all from self study overseen by a PE teacher, those children that could manage passed, those that didn't know where to start were just shipped to other classes and were not allowed to sit the GCSE as it would affect the school league tables.

Sorry rant over, this is incidentally from a highly over subscribed school!

phatbear

4 years ago we took our 2 young'uns out of school 2 days before the xmas holidays and saved over £1500 on our holiday because of it on this occasion we "asked" permission and got the all clear.

However in the last year we needed to take the kids out 2 days before easter hols and on this occasion, senior school this time, and they refused, however I wrote back and pointed out that I was'nt asking permission to take our kids out of school I was just being courteous and informing them that the kids would'nt be atl school.

Im not a fan of taking them out during term time, these 2 occasion have been the only time, however the travel industry puts such a premium on holidaying during school hols that on these occasions we had no real choice.

As far as the fine they did try but a well worded letter put an end to their plan.

Zziggi

It is £50 per child, per parent, per week. So 2 kids with 2 parents with a fortnight out would be £400. I make no comment on whether it is a good idea to take kids out or not.

What i don't understand is, how can the school fine you if you ring up and say the child is ill. Then if they ask for a sicknote you just tell them that your child did not have an illness that required a GP appointment so you cannot produce a sicknote and you stick to your story that the child was ill. How does LEA prove you took them away?