Anyone been fined yet for taking kids out of school?

Tanswell88

GobbledyGook wrote: »

I would say it's more likely they haven't updated the website since the rule change.

Nope, you're wrong. The website is brand new this year and this wasn't on the website at all last year

Spendless

Can I just say what a fab idea it was to make it a sticky and what a fab job you are doing of it alwaysonthego. :T

peachyprice

Tanswell88 wrote: »

This is what it says on my daughters schools website



It definitely appears to differ county to county.

You need to see what is says on your LEA wesbite, not the school website. It's quite possible that whoever designed the school website wasn't aware of the rule changes as hasn't put the updated info on there.

It's definitely not a county by county think, it's the whole of England (and maybe Wales?) that counties can't opt out of.

Spendless

FBaby wrote: »

That's interesting and would seem to fit with the feeling I get from the communication I have received. The Head teacher of my DD secondary school pointed everything expected, ie. authorised absence only exceptional, fines will apply etc... but it was written in a way that hinted that there would be some discretion from the Head teacher.

If you can produce the evidence under what counts as 'exceptional circumstances' from your area and submit it to the school. The HT will authorise the holiday in the same way as they used to do.

As you probably know, my kids are exactly the same ages as yours, we are going to Florida for a fortnight going the week before May half term. We are going then because youngest will have sat sats but not started transition to Secondary and eldest will have finished options process/ This is something that we'd planned as a special hol to have once and when my husband got discharged from having Cancer, coupled with restrictions in his job meant we only certain times we could go, we produced written evidence and our hol is authorised.

clingingtothewreckage

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Spendless

I am glad to hear of the improvement in your husband’s health and hope youenjoy your break.

I have posted below information, which is being provided by my son's school,which may be helpful.

Amendments to the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations2006

Headteacher discretion to allow a leave ofabsence in "special circumstances" of up to 10 school days per yearfor a family holiday has been removed. Requests for leave of absence shouldcontinue to be addressed to the Headteacher, but will only be authorised in

"Exceptional circumstances".

The head has received a number of holiday requests since the implementationof the above, which previously would have been authorised however they have hadto be refused.

I understand 'exceptional circumstances' include serious health problemswithin the family but any such request would need to be supported by evidencefrom a GP/Consultant.

Schools are obliged to notify the EA of absences and I understand it is theEA who decides if the fine is issued.

Fines are £60.00 per pupil, per parent/guardian/carer etc if paid within 28days, which increases to £120.00 if paid within 42 days.

Hope this is useful


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Bluemeanie_2

My Husband has two children with an ex. Whilst we enjoy regular contact he has absolutely no "practical" say on whether or not they actually go to school. If his ex was to take them out of school for a holiday, short of going to court for a prohibited steps order to stop her (which would cause all sorts of other issues and his only reason would be to stop himself getting an FPN) there's not a lot he could do. I really don't think it would be fair to issue an FPN to him. In fact if this ever happened I think he wouldn't pay the FPN and go to court to try and argue the case.
Before these new tighter rules came in, they did decline his ex's request for a holiday in term time based on his daughters attendance (she'd been ill a lot). Then in the Christmas term sent a letter home asking for permision to watch PG films, as every day in the last two weeks they were watching DVD's?!!!

FBaby

As you probably know, my kids are exactly the same ages as yours, we are going to Florida for a fortnight going the week before May half term.

To be fair spendless, you have much better reasons to take the children away than I do. In my case, it is just because it suits us better to go at that time (beyond the fact that I think it is a bit cheaper) and I feel strongly believe that due to the the time, they won't miss out at all on their education. However, I definitely don't expect it to be authorised because there are no exceptional circumstances, I just don't think being fined is justified at all.

I hope you have a fantastic time spendless and thank you alwaysonthego for the sticker thread.

MrsDrink

Bluemeanie wrote: »

Then in the Christmas term sent a letter home asking for permision to watch PG films, as every day in the last two weeks they were watching DVD's?!!!

I know you weren't bluemeanie, but everyone else reading, please don't assume that because this happens in some schools it happens in them all. Or even within all classes within a school. It's far easier to stick to the timetable and teach with structure than to have 'fun' days.

alwaysonthego_2

Can I ask if you beautiful people could help me with the sticky (I will acknowledge you) and send me a link of their LEA holiday rules thank you xx

Spendless

What's happened to the sticky? Earlier it had several posts that detailed the rules for each area and they were linked. Now there's just the first post and when I click on the rules for my area it says 'no found'. Hope there's no issue with you collating the info