Anyone been fined yet for taking kids out of school?

Gra76

According to a letter we recieved last week, we'll be getting a fine for taking our (100% attendance) 9yr old son out of school when we go on holiday in June. My wife can't get time off work unless it's in June (she was told by her manager that it was the only 'holiday slot' left) and as we've not had a proper family holiday in 8 years we figured we'd live with the fine. Looks like we'll be getting fined £120, which is still over £1,000 cheaper than it'd have been to have gone to the same resort during school holidays.

We had a family holiday every year when I was at school and it wasn't detrimental to any of us. It's just another stealth-tax on parents which I could rant on about forever, but I'd just raise my blood pressure if I did...

FBaby

I was speaking with a friend yesterday who said that he had taken his two kids or of school 4 days the last day of term 2 years ago, one in primary school one in secondary. He wasn't fined for the secondary school pupil but was for the primary one. Both were unauthorised absences but he was told by the school that was fine they would inform the LA. It would therefore seem to be up to the school to decide whether to retort the absence for the purpose of the fine (besides the normal reporting for the purpose of statistics)

ViolaLass

Gra76, you can't go on a 'proper family holiday' without going to /that/ resort?

If schools shouldn't fine parents, where do you draw the line? How much absence is too much?

apesxx

Anyone have any idea if it's different for an academy? My children's primary school is an academy. We are going for 2 weeks oct/nov. 1 week half term and 1 week of school. I have been told by my school that they will not fine me but had the holiday been 2 weeks I would have had a very stern talking too and over 2 weeks they would fine me!

Buzzybee90

I'd still take them. I went on hols every year & as did almost everyone else.

FBaby

Mentioned here. No different. The school still have to report absentism to the local authority and still their discretion to decide whether to ask the LA to fine or not.

Gra76

ViolaLass wrote: »

Gra76, you can't go on a 'proper family holiday' without going to /that/ resort?

If schools shouldn't fine parents, where do you draw the line? How much absence is too much?

The resort is irrelevant as we can only go in June anyway, regardless of where we go.

I don't see any harm in 10 school days being taken off for kids in a year to go on holiday. Schools never used to fine parents for absence, although I agree that kids need to go to school, I just don't think it's fair to fine parents for taking the family on holiday during term time.

ViolaLass

Gra76 wrote: »

I don't see any harm in 10 school days being taken off for kids in a year to go on holiday. Schools never used to fine parents for absence, although I agree that kids need to go to school, I just don't think it's fair to fine parents for taking the family on holiday during term time.

So what measures would it be reasonable, in your opinion, for the school to take to make sure that attendance stays high?

10 days off school means two weeks. For my subject, it means a child will miss 6 lessons (8 if they're in Year 10), which means they could easily miss an entire topic or the end of one and the beginning of another. It might be that the next topic they come in for builds on the one they missed, putting them at a disadvantage.

What measures are you putting in place to make sure that they catch up on all of this? Or are you expecting the teacher to do something in their own time to fix a problem created by you?

Mojisola

ViolaLass wrote: »

So what measures would it be reasonable, in your opinion, for the school to take to make sure that attendance stays high?

10 days off school means two weeks. For my subject, it means a child will miss 6 lessons (8 if they're in Year 10), which means they could easily miss an entire topic or the end of one and the beginning of another. It might be that the next topic they come in for builds on the one they missed, putting them at a disadvantage.

What measures are you putting in place to make sure that they catch up on all of this? Or are you expecting the teacher to do something in their own time to fix a problem created by you?

And it's never just one child per class.

So it's Monday on week 22. Gra Junior has missed weeks 20 and 21. Young Smith was off for weeks 19 and 20. Jones and Wilson are on holiday now and won't be back til the start of week 23. Four others missed a couple of different days because of sickness during those four weeks.

The children who had 100% attendance are getting bored because they've covered all the work but the kids who were on holiday don't understand the current topic because of what they missed so the progress of the whole class suffers.

Gra76

ViolaLass wrote: »

So what measures would it be reasonable, in your opinion, for the school to take to make sure that attendance stays high?

10 days off school means two weeks. For my subject, it means a child will miss 6 lessons (8 if they're in Year 10), which means they could easily miss an entire topic or the end of one and the beginning of another. It might be that the next topic they come in for builds on the one they missed, putting them at a disadvantage.

What measures are you putting in place to make sure that they catch up on all of this? Or are you expecting the teacher to do something in their own time to fix a problem created by you?

When I was at school you were expected to catch up in your own time when you got back from holiday, including any homework that had been set in the time you'd been off. When you got home from your holiday you opened your drawer at school and it had all your homework to be done in it. You caught up in your own time. It worked perfectly well. That's how it used to be and as the old saying goes, if it aint broke, don't fix it. As far as I'm concerned, if a child has a good attendance for the rest of the year it shouldn't even be an issue. My opinion is that the government have taken it a step too far.

I agree that if a child is habitually off from school for no reason then something has to be done, but I think it's very unfair to penalise the majority of parents who make sure their kids attendance is high if not perfect.

As an afterthought do you agree with your colleagues proposed strike in March and if so do you think it's fair that I (and countless thousands of other parents) have to take time off work to look after the kids that you and your colleagues should be teaching? Don't you think this is damaging to the economy of the country as it'll mean huge amounts of lost working hours across the country? What measures are you putting in place to make sure that they catch up on the schoolwork they'll miss out on? Or are you expecting the parents to do something in their own time to fix a problem created by you?

It all feels very hypocritical. You can't have it both ways.