Term time holiday court fine help please?

tinkerbellkirst

Hi,

Expect your fine to get bigger when you attend court, you will get courts fees etc added onto the fines. I have known people with an original fine of around 200 end up paying around 1k once they have been to court.

You definitely should have factored the fine into your costs and paid immediately its now going to become one very expensive UK holiday!!!

Most schools when refusing to award time out for holidays warn parents that if they still choose to go they will be fined. You are lucky that the secondary school awarded the time off as all schools should be 0 tolerance now and all issue fines for holidays.

jmhgibson123

i think there are some very rude people on here! my 13 year old son comes home and tells me he feels like he is learning very little at school...they get picked to do a day of student receptionist?? and are expected to complete homework that they were not in class for doing this student reception job so im sorry a few days off school is not going to make them stupid for the rest of their lives and what they have missed then so be in...can you honestly say that most of the stuff you learn at school other than the basic maths and english is truly useful?? until you get into the later years of school then i really think there is nothing to be lost by having a holiday. i also think that is is wrong that some schools allow kids to go whilst others will happily fine as quickly as possible..its draconian heads that are a nightmare.

mum2one

I doubt that they will lessen the fine, - they may well add on court costs, can you plead guilty by paperwork and inclose a statement of affairs.

As others have said its the 10 sessions that is the trigger for holidays, and its per child per parent... so a single parent x 1 child get fined £60, mum, dad, 1 child - £120.. same holiday xx

tinkerbellkirst

jmhgibson123 wrote: »

i think there are some very rude people on here! my 13 year old son comes home and tells me he feels like he is learning very little at school...they get picked to do a day of student receptionist?? and are expected to complete homework that they were not in class for doing this student reception job so im sorry a few days off school is not going to make them stupid for the rest of their lives and what they have missed then so be in...can you honestly say that most of the stuff you learn at school other than the basic maths and english is truly useful?? until you get into the later years of school then i really think there is nothing to be lost by having a holiday. i also think that is is wrong that some schools allow kids to go whilst others will happily fine as quickly as possible..its draconian heads that are a nightmare.

All schools should be 0 tolerance now, so no heads should be allowing term time holidays.

Also many parents will say things such as the above about how its not all learning etc, however it is the law, and complaining about what the school provide wont change that.

The only way to change it is to home educate, most parents don't want to do this or can't so we just have to live with what it is.

PenguinJim

sourcrates wrote: »

What a sarcastic, pompous, and downright unhelpful post !!
where you the school swot by any chance ?

Yikes! I'd always thought this attitude towards hard-working school students was limited to the lazy students and bullies in the class. It's genuinely saddening to see someone who (I'm presuming) is an adult to have a go at dedicated students.

When I was at school, it wasn't "cool" to work hard and be top of the class, and when fitting in is already challenging enough, this was a genuine disincentive to doing your best.

I hope if you have kids, sourcrates, you are a little bit more supportive of them working hard. Or perhaps you could consider just being supportive of children working hard at school in general?

Gaz83

Pupils being taken out of class to go on holiday has far more of an impact on the rest of the class on said pupil's return.

You either have to slow the rest of the class down to let the pupil catch up, which results in 30 bored kids who then start acting up, or you continue on at the same speed, and have one kid who doesn't understand a clue about what's going on, and begins to act up as a result.

Taking pupils out of school to go on holiday is an incredibly selfish thing to do.

matttye

Gaz83 wrote: »

Pupils being taken out of class to go on holiday has far more of an impact on the rest of the class on said pupil's return.

You either have to slow the rest of the class down to let the pupil catch up, which results in 30 bored kids who then start acting up, or you continue on at the same speed, and have one kid who doesn't understand a clue about what's going on, and begins to act up as a result.

Taking pupils out of school to go on holiday is an incredibly selfish thing to do.

Schools should be working with parents and kids on this, not against them. Could the pupil not take extra classes to catch up? Why not take some homework to do on holiday? There is inevitably some time spent on holiday in a caravan / hotel / cottage / whatever when homework could be done.

You say it's selfish but the choice for many is a term time holiday or no holiday, because holidays are so expensive during school holidays.

The current law is a shambles.

flubberyzing

FireWyrm wrote: »

Unfortunately, you cant dodge the fines, but if it were me, I would be so incensed at the judgement I would make it my business to report that head every time he took a day off! It seems teachers can pull a 'teacher training day' any time they like and parents just have to work around it, but missing 5 days of school once in a blue moon for a holiday counts as truancy. It is truly disgusting and I sympathise, but that's about all we can do.

:rotfl:Good luck with that. ^.
Teacher training days are put on the timetable, years in advance sometimes. The law states there has to be a certain number a year. It is also law that dictates the number of teaching days for the children.
They aren't, and never have been, taken "any time (teachers) like".


Speaking as a primary school teacher myself... I feel for the OP in this case, but surely they knew that a fine was likely? And perhaps they should have budgeted for that in the cost of the holiday. I suggest honesty as the best policy in court, and offering to pay the fine in instalments before being asked, should produce a relatively lenient stance from the judge.


Personally, I take a pretty casual approach to children being absent from school for a holiday. After all, it's not my education I'm missing.

barbarawright

matttye wrote: »

Schools should be working with parents and kids on this, not against them. Could the pupil not take extra classes to catch up? Why not take some homework to do on holiday? There is inevitably some time spent on holiday in a caravan / hotel / cottage / whatever when homework could be done.

You say it's selfish but the choice for many is a term time holiday or no holiday, because holidays are so expensive during school holidays.

The current law is a shambles.

Who would give the extra classes? Or set the separate homework? Are the parents prepared to pay for private tuition?

sourcrates

PenguinJim wrote: »

Yikes! I'd always thought this attitude towards hard-working school students was limited to the lazy students and bullies in the class. It's genuinely saddening to see someone who (I'm presuming) is an adult to have a go at dedicated students.

When I was at school, it wasn't "cool" to work hard and be top of the class, and when fitting in is already challenging enough, this was a genuine disincentive to doing your best.

I hope if you have kids, sourcrates, you are a little bit more supportive of them working hard. Or perhaps you could consider just being supportive of children working hard at school in general?

Penguinjim, I have 3 very hard working children, who excel at school, personally secondary school taught me very little about real world issues, and I doubt much has changed, did you read the post I was referring to ? you did ? and you still think I`m the villain ?
Education takes many forms, and stuff kids learn in the classroom does not always equip them for life as an adult, there is more to life than study, study, study, I am enormously supportive of my children, but a few days off term to go on holiday will not harm them, and people who say it will are frankly bonkers !!!