Schools no longer allowed to authorise holidays

peachyprice

timbo58 wrote: »

I wasn't going to wade through all 11 pages: so JIC it hasn't been asked before -HOW do you get 'fined'?
Is it a real bona fide court fine, or just a speculative invoice from the council/school?
What happens if you refuse to pay?
Do they expel your children?

Genuinely interested as I though only courts could issue fines?

Yes, they are bonafide penalty notice, if you don't pay they can convict the parent, not punish the child.

Legislation
The Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003 inserts into the Education Act 1996 Section 444A and Section 444B enabling authorised personnel to issue penalty notices as an alternative to prosecution under Section 444 and enable parents to discharge potential
liability for conviction for that offence by paying a penalty.

Authorisation to issue Penalty Notices
Primary responsibility for issuing penalty notices rests with the LA.
Head teachers (and deputy head teachers and assistant head teachers authorised by the head teacher) and police, community support officers and accredited persons are able to issue the notices under the Act, although there is no requirement for them to do so. It has been agreed that the Police will not issue penalty notices to parents of truants, nor generally will schools. However, persons accredited by the Police may issue penalty notices for pupils attending their contracted schools in agreement with the relevant headteacher (or deputy headteacher and assistant
headteacher authorised by the Headteacher.

If head teachers or accredited persons feel it appropriate that a penalty notice is served, they must consult with the Legal Panel within the Education Welfare Service. This will avoid a penalty notice being issued when the Education Welfare Service is
instigating legal intervention proceedings for irregular school attendance. It has been agreed that the Education Welfare Service will usually issue penalty notices. The Education Welfare Service will administer the scheme from any funds obtained as a result of issuing penalty notice

paddedjohn

tgw1980 wrote: »

:(I received the notification from my son's school on Friday about the rule changes.

The existing situation is that the school will authorise up to ten days of term time holiday once a year.

Now, I have a big problem because, only two days before the letter came out, my partner and I booked a wedding abroad in October 2014. We are out there for two weeks (straddling the half term holiday).

My son who is 7 would never have been taken out of school during term time; but as this was a special occasion and the existing rules allowed it, we thought we were ok to book when we did.

Changing dates is not an option - mainly due to the large deposit we would lose.

As soon as I saw the letter, I wrote to the school, explaining what has happened.

I'm eagerly awaiting their response; but am not feeling very hopeful

I agree in principle with the changes but think that parents should have been give a years notice so thing like this wouldn't happen, unfortunately writing to the school may do you no good as its not them that make the decision or do the fining.

iammumtoone

tgw1980 wrote: »

:(I received the notification from my son's school on Friday about the rule changes.

The existing situation is that the school will authorise up to ten days of term time holiday once a year.

Now, I have a big problem because, only two days before the letter came out, my partner and I booked a wedding abroad in October 2014. We are out there for two weeks (straddling the half term holiday).

My son who is 7 would never have been taken out of school during term time; but as this was a special occasion and the existing rules allowed it, we thought we were ok to book when we did.

Changing dates is not an option - mainly due to the large deposit we would lose.

As soon as I saw the letter, I wrote to the school, explaining what has happened.

I'm eagerly awaiting their response; but am not feeling very hopeful

Unfortunately on my sons school forms it clearly states in bold letters not to book a holiday before you have had the slip back, I know this is not always practical (especially in the case of my sons school the form takes two weeks to be returned) but its a get out clause for the school.

If your form does not state this I would say you will have a good case.

FBaby

zagfles wrote: »

Family room for a night plus a week's parking at Stansted Premier Inn for £89. That's booking now, for August 18. An extra £10 for 2 weeks parking. Return taxi to the "local" airport 20 miles away could be almost as much.

So that + added petrol and already it is £150 extra. Add the additional costs of renting during that period and we are talking about £300 more at best. That's a lot of money for some family and can mean the difference between being able to go or not.

Spendless

tgw1980 wrote: »

:(I received the notification from my son's school on Friday about the rule changes.

The existing situation is that the school will authorise up to ten days of term time holiday once a year.

Now, I have a big problem because, only two days before the letter came out, my partner and I booked a wedding abroad in October 2014. We are out there for two weeks (straddling the half term holiday).

My son who is 7 would never have been taken out of school during term time; but as this was a special occasion and the existing rules allowed it, we thought we were ok to book when we did.

Changing dates is not an option - mainly due to the large deposit we would lose.

As soon as I saw the letter, I wrote to the school, explaining what has happened.

I'm eagerly awaiting their response; but am not feeling very hopeful

I forgot to say. Though I listed the reasons my LA consider to be 'exceptional circumstances' in an earlier post and a wedding wasn't amongst them (not even of the child's parents).

It did also state that anything the school considered exceptional but not under those stated could be referred to the LA for guidance and decision.

It may be that your child's school refers this decision to the LA who decides and then gets back to about it. I echo padded john's comments about how very little notice has been given of this change. the other things is is your child's school applying the new rules with immediate effect for a hol booked now but taken after Sept 13.I have one child in Primary and her school said they were applying it straight away and one in secondary who said any holiday requests sent in by x date (about 10 days away)they would apply current rules too. Whether they would agree that for a hol that is 2 academic years away though I don't know.

No idea if the fine is the same everywhere but we have been told the amount is £60 per child, per parent, so if it is more than £120 to move your wedding,I'd just pay the fine as worse case scenario.

zagfles

FBaby wrote: »

So that + added petrol and already it is £150 extra.

Assuming you have a magic transporter to get you to your "local" airport at zero cost. Besides which the flight from Gatwick was probably a lot cheaper if booked a few months ago - so it's probably all irrelvant!!

Add the additional costs of renting during that period and we are talking about £300 more at best. That's a lot of money for some family and can mean the difference between being able to go or not.

What additional cost? People have shown here that even in the UK, hotel prices are no more in August. In Europe second half of August is off peak.

You can nit-pick as much as you want, fact is we've been on about 25 holidays in the last 10 years, all of them in the school holidays, about 15 of them abroad, all good value holidays. No way would we have been able to afford that if they were expensive. I've given some examples.

You carry on believing it's impossible to get a good value holiday in the school holidays. I'll carry on taking them.

tgw1980

iammumtoone wrote: »

Unfortunately on my sons school forms it clearly states in bold letters not to book a holiday before you have had the slip back, I know this is not always practical (especially in the case of my sons school the form takes two weeks to be returned) but its a get out clause for the school.

If your form does not state this I would say you will have a good case.

The only guidance from the school stated:

In the current economic climate, it is understandable that parents may need to take children on holiday during term time. Teachers ‘can’t teach an empty chair’, and therefore we ask that this be kept to a minimum and only when absolutely necessary. Permission needs to be granted by the school because to not have this could result in fines levied to parents by city attendance officers.
Parents are reminded that any requests for holiday permission come with a term’s notice. Please also note that only 1 holiday permission (of up to 10 school days) will be given per year.


We would never have booked for when we did if we had known about the rule changes.

As for the cost of moving the holiday, it is about 10x greater than any potential fine. For me though, that is not the point - although I may not agree with various policies etc the school have; they are there to provide children with a good education and whereas I have the emotional side of things influencing my decision, the school will at least look at it from the point of view for my son's best interests (I would hope!).

Still not heard from them; but if it is bad news, may try and negotiate for fewer days and have him fly out with another family member. I see the fine as a last resort.

melg1973

I have read through quite a few pages but not all so apologies if this has already been said. Our school has been fining for a few years but after a call to the council earlier this year (I guess this could change from September mind you) I found out we couldn't get fined for taking my daughter out until the term after she turns 5 which in her case is this September so we have had an unauthorised but fine free week in Ibiza last month where she met lots of new friends, her swimming came on amazingly etc etc. Also a friend who has split from her partner also spoke to the council who said they only fined both parents if they live at the same address and also interestingly said they don't fine until the unauthorised absence hits 5 days for the year so tacking up to 4 days onto a school holiday would not attract a fine unless you take them out for other odd days during the year. We have also heard of people getting authorised absences for 'family weddings' (I think this is also ok in the new rules??) and all they had to produce was an invite which they bought and filled in themselves......not that I am condoning that sort of thing of course :-) but create any rules and people will find a way round it. With regards to my daughter this year I didn't feel too guilty as she started school last september a year before she legally has to be there but there is a few that got held back a term or more.....surely that is a huge amount to catch up compared to 5 days. And the other thing is where we went we wouldn't have even contemplate going in july or august as would be way too hot for my daughters sensitive skin.

paulineb_2

I had a look on my local schools website, it may be different here in Scotland but they do set out when they will and when they wont authorise leave and it all looks fair enough to me, they have certain circumstances where leave will be granted in school time and when not

Its not the schools issue that people want to take their kids out of school to get cheaper holidays. I don't think there are fines in place up here but if an absence needs to go down as unauthorised I think that's absolutely fair enough.

pinkladyof66

well i have just received my priority sun booking code so gonna try and get a easter break in hols. last year managed to get one so hoping to try and do it again means we wont have to take any term time off then