Our kids refused time off school during term time - please advice

geek84

Hi Folks

My wife and I are planning to go on a 2 week holiday to India with our twin children, in late October this year. The two weeks would be made up of the one week half term holiday plus the week after. So in reality, they would only be missing 5 school days. Going to India in late October is very popular and the travel agent advised us to book the holidays asap since it would have been very difficult to book a reservation after the month of May. We booked our tickets in mid May. We do know that it is difficult to get reservations for late October, if you inquire about them in June - so the travel agent wasn't telling us any false information.

Anyway, before booking, we rang the school, and the receptionist said there shouldn't be much of a problem with getting time off school, since it would only be 5 days. She said, when making the decision, the school mostly look at grades achieved so far and the attendance record of the child. Both our kids have satisfactory results in the school work and have almost 100% attendance record. She also stated that we need to give definite dates for our holidays, so both my wife and I decided to book the holidays before giving in the kids school holiday forms.

After booking and paying for the tickets, we gave in the holiday forms for the children to school. However, today we received a letter from the school stating that they would not allow the kids time off school !!

Both my wife and I are very upset about this, since we were hoping that our kids would be allowed time off school, especially after speaking to the receptionist, and it is now very likely we will not get the money back from the travel agent either !

Would this be the end of the matter or can we take things further i.e. appeal again the decision?

Any advice offered would be greatly appreciated.

Mojisola

You can still take your holiday - the children's absences will be marked as "unauthorised" in the register and you and your wife will have to pay a fine.

Check your council's website for details.

liney

Unauthorised absence. Pay the fine.

[Deleted User]

You may have to pay a fine. We didn't when we took our son out of reception for a week.

btw - never trust a school receptionist

Marktheshark

It is NOT A FINE.
Its is a penalty charge.

Courts fine people.
Authorities charge a tax called a penalty.

[Deleted User]

Marktheshark wrote: »

It is NOT A FINE.
Its is a penalty charge.

Courts fine people.
Authorities charge a tax called a penalty.

Government website calls it a penalty, and a fine https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence/legal-action-to-enforce-school-attendance ;-)

It's a bit pedantic quibbling about the terminology...

Nicki

You may be fined (penalty charge).

You could also be prosecuted, where the maximum sentence is 3 months imprisonment and up to £2,500. There is a test case going through the courts at the moment, where there has not been persistent truancy, but the parents took their 3 children out for 3 weeks for a holiday as a one off assuming they would just pay the penalty notice and were shocked to discover that instead they were prosecuted.

Schools haven't been able to authorise absence for school holidays for a long time now, and the change in the law was widely publicised, so no real excuse for not knowing that you shouldn't book holidays in term time.

The penalty notice is £120 per child per parent, so even if not prosecuted this could still cost you an additional £480 to go in October rather than in the 6 week holiday in July/August.

j.e.j.

On what grounds are they refusing?

j.e.j.

Nicki wrote: »

You may be fined (penalty charge).

You could also be prosecuted, where the maximum sentence is 3 months imprisonment and up to £2,500. There is a test case going through the courts at the moment, where there has not been persistent truancy, but the parents took their 3 children out for 3 weeks for a holiday as a one off assuming they would just pay the penalty notice and were shocked to discover that instead they were prosecuted.

Schools haven't been able to authorise absence for school holidays for a long time now, and the change in the law was widely publicised, so no real excuse for not knowing that you shouldn't book holidays in term time.

The penalty notice is £120 per child per parent, so even if not prosecuted this could still cost you an additional £480 to go in October rather than in the 6 week holiday in July/August.

Seriously??? :eek:

We live in a mad world.

chris_n_tj

Twist it round and see what you think?


All teachers at OP's school decide they want the week after October half term off go to on holiday to India. Imagine the outcry from Parents.


OP, take your holiday whenever you wish but take the consequences. x

suejb2

How old are your children? They don't have to be in school until they are 5 years old.