Term time holiday fine question.

sedment

Is this applicable in Scotland?? Just checked my sons school webpage, Planned Absences
As part of Government Regulations we are required to record all absences as “authorised” or “unauthorised”. Authorised
absences are due to illness or family bereavement and can also include time off to attend, e.g. sporting events or music exams.
The Scottish Government has deemed that holidays taken during term time should be recorded as unauthorised absence unless
there are special exceptional circumstances. Should you wish to remove your child from school to attend a family holiday you
must request permission from the Head Teacher. On most occasions this will be recorded as unauthorised absence. Parents are
asked to limit the number of holidays taken during term time, to minimise disruption to your child’s education.
Hmmmmm!!!

merlin1

sedment wrote: »

Is this applicable in Scotland?? Just checked my sons school webpage, Planned Absences
As part of Government Regulations we are required to record all absences as “authorised” or “unauthorised”. Authorised
absences are due to illness or family bereavement and can also include time off to attend, e.g. sporting events or music exams.
The Scottish Government has deemed that holidays taken during term time should be recorded as unauthorised absence unless
there are special exceptional circumstances. Should you wish to remove your child from school to attend a family holiday you
must request permission from the Head Teacher. On most occasions this will be recorded as unauthorised absence. Parents are
asked to limit the number of holidays taken during term time, to minimise disruption to your child’s education.
Hmmmmm!!!

sounds like it. the statement is using the same wording; 'exceptional circumstances' and 'unauthorised'.

xxlouisexx56

pollypenny wrote: »

A difficult one. I have sympathy. However, your daughter is getting expensive one to one support. What happens to her support during your holiday?

I do agree with this and we are very grateful for the help. But on occasions where the one to one is ill or absent for any reason (her y1 support worker was off for 3 weeks due to a miscarriage) she doesn't get a replacement helper, so it's swings and roundabouts really in that respect.

DD's support worker helps other students when DD is happy to get on with her work by herself, myself and the school have gone for a very 'stand back' approach when it seems she can cope by herself.

Buttonmoons

I live in Scotland and my daughters letter basically said the same guff - but nothing at all about a fine, just that it would be put down as unauthorised abscense - fair enough, and at the bottom wishing her a good holiday.

We leave tomorrow and schools went back 2 weeks ago - My dad booked it, looked online for term dates, and booked it looking at English term dates thinking she'd only miss a couple of days of school - and me a little bit of college, alas, Scotland breaks up before England thus we go back earlier.

kacie

I don't get how they can fine you for not going to school when it's not against the law to not attend. Holidays can often be educational trips as well as breaks away.

angelil

kacie wrote: »

I don't get how they can fine you for not going to school when it's not against the law to not attend. Holidays can often be educational trips as well as breaks away.

If you don't choose to attend school, though, that's a permanent arrangement - i.e., you're being home-schooled.
If you choose to attend school, then that should be a permanent arrangement as well. It's not a pick-and-mix...

Dal_Whinnie

I have been trying to make sense of the Education Act 1996 (as amended) and the relevant Regulations (referred to above and as amended earlier this year).

In my son's case his former partner (who is the non resident parent) has decided to take the children away during term time and has been refused permission. She intends to ignore this and my son has received a penalty notification.

A number of people have given their opinions but I would really like to understand the legal basis for these views (relevant section, etc) because the following points do not appear clear from my reading

1. Is the penalty per offence?
2. Is each days absence a separate offence?
3. Can a penalty be levied on more than one parent for the same offence?
4. Where one parent acts unilaterally (as in my son's case) can the other parent still be liable to a penalty?

Spendless

Dal_Whinnie wrote: »

I have been trying to make sense of the Education Act 1996 (as amended) and the relevant Regulations (referred to above and as amended earlier this year).

In my son's case his former partner (who is the non resident parent) has decided to take the children away during term time and has been refused permission. She intends to ignore this and my son has received a penalty notification.

A number of people have given their opinions but I would really like to understand the legal basis for these views (relevant section, etc) because the following points do not appear clear from my reading

1. Is the penalty per offence?
2. Is each days absence a separate offence?
3. Can a penalty be levied on more than one parent for the same offence?
4. Where one parent acts unilaterally (as in my son's case) can the other parent still be liable to a penalty?

Here is my understanding based on information given by my childrens schools. The fines are per 'absense', so if the child is off Mon-Fri one week for a hol that is an absense and will levy a fine. If the child is off Mon one week and 3 weeks later on a Friday for holidays then they are 2 seperate absences and will have 2 fines.

The wording I have received is ' £60, per parent, per child'. So I have 2 children, my husband who is the kid's father lives with us. We take the kids out of school for a hol and we will be fined as a household £240. £60 for our daughter from me, £60 for our son from me, £60 for daughter from husband, £60 for son from husband'

I have seen nothing to explain what is being done in a household where the child does not live with both parents. Even the receptionist I spoke to at one of my kids schools said she didn't know how they'd do it either.

ETA - I'm guesssing here but if your son has the kids live with him, it's possibly seen that he is agreeing with a term-time hol by the non-resident parent as how would he prove otherwise? I can see it being a bit more cloudy when the kids are taken away by the resident parent.

buckster

I think this is stupid. All that's going to happen is parents will be phoning the kids in sick if they are just needing a couple of days off. At my sons school they allowed you to take 5 school days off throughout the year which I think is reasonable. I think the head teachers should be given back the power to authorise or unauthorise holiday time. I can't see the fines working at all because most won't pay it.

emweaver

My local authority says:

If your child is absent from school for 10 sessions* in a ten-week period, without authorisation from their school, you will be sent a warning letter by the school. This includes sessions where your child has arrived after the school’s registration period without an acceptable reason. If there are no unauthorised absences in
the next 15 school days, no further action will be taken. If there are further unauthorised absences there will be no further warning and a Penalty
Notice will be issued by the Local Authority.


So does this mean if we took a week away we would only get a warning but fined if we took longer than a week?