Term time holidays court cases dropped

I also wonder why this law doesn't apply to private schools? My brother has two kids in a paid for school, he can take them out anytime he wants with no penalty, so this will apply to most MPs, including Gove, who brought this law in, but then they don't live in the real world do they. Neither does this law apply to home educated children. Seems totally unfair to me. Rock to crack a nut comes to mind, it was all changed due to some families taking their children out of the country for months at a time.

good point, it was brought in for political reasons rather than educational ones, ie Gove thought it would attract votes.

there is a limit under which education is affected by not attending school and which triggers the law and social services

The way the system (that is now floored) was being used by schools as quite a money  making exercise,

The decision over whether to fine rests with the head teacher, although in some areas, local authorities issue fines automatically. The local authority (and not the individual school) impose the fine and receive the money. These holiday rules only apply to English State Schools.

I used to be dead set against children being taken out of school in term time for holidays, after all, I can never have a low cost holiday (hence the caravan ). But I teach in an incredibly deprived catchment area, and the children who get a holiday, any sort of holiday, at any time, are the lucky ones and very much the exception.  So my opinion on this issue has turned around and I am overjoyed if one of my charges is having a holiday experience.  Our school doesn’t fine, don’t know how we manage it, but we don’t.

 A little anecdote illustrating this: last year I taught a new topic (Brazil) to Year 5. My partner teacher and I thought it would be a lovely idea for the pupils to show what they had learned over the half term by creating a ‘holiday brochure’ style class book. We explained the task to our respective classes and were met with a sea of blank faces... not one of them had seen a holiday brochure... I was so sad, but I learned a valuable lesson. 

The only time children "may" suffer their education are the ones that will be sitting their GCSEs or equivalent.  Any kids in primary school, will not suffer for all of two weeks

I used to be dead set against children being taken out of school in term time for holidays, after all, I can never have a low cost holiday (hence the caravan ). But I teach in an incredibly deprived catchment area, and the children who get a holiday, any sort of holiday, at any time, are the lucky ones and very much the exception.  So my opinion on this issue has turned around and I am overjoyed if one of my charges is having a holiday experience.  Our school doesn’t fine, don’t know how we manage it, but we don’t.

 A little anecdote illustrating this: last year I taught a new topic (Brazil) to Year 5. My partner teacher and I thought it would be a lovely idea for the pupils to show what they had learned over the half term by creating a ‘holiday brochure’ style class book. We explained the task to our respective classes and were met with a sea of blank faces... not one of them had seen a holiday brochure... I was so sad, but I learned a valuable lesson. 

Wish I could click love a post instead of just 'like'. This is the most common sense post I have read lately, and obviously from someone who lives in the real world and who has experience of the issue. Not every family can afford holidays, having to spend their money on essentials of life.

. My partner teacher and I thought it would be a lovely idea for the pupils to show what they had learned over the half term by creating a ‘holiday brochure’ style class book. We explained the task to our respective classes and were met with a sea of blank faces... not one of them had seen a holiday brochure... I was so sad, but I learned a valuable lesson. 

Quite.

There's more to education than meeting OFSTED targets and schools' egotistical fixation on league tables.

Parents talk to each other and know which are 'good' schools. We don't need bureaucrats to tell us.

On foreign holidays my kids saw what the English Channel and shipping separation zones and harbours looked like, how to work out money rates, communicate and set up a football match with other kids speaking 'foreign' languages,  translate signs and menus, see Agincourt armour and longbows, the Le Mans race track, snow-capped Pyrenees..... things which we could afford in or out of term time but I couldn't always get leave out of term time. They still talk about it now, 30 years on, but never mention their maths lessons.

I also wonder why this law doesn't apply to private schools? My brother has two kids in a paid for school, he can take them out anytime he wants with no penalty, so this will apply to most MPs, including Gove, who brought this law in, but then they don't live in the real world do they. Neither does this law apply to home educated children. Seems totally unfair to me. Rock to crack a nut comes to mind, it was all changed due to some families taking their children out of the country for months at a time.

That is totally at odds with the policy of the (private)  schools our 2 went to.  It was made crstal clear that the children had to be at school unless they were ill (doctors letter required for longer than 3 days), and that any requests for time off in term time would be refused.

Any unauthorised absence would likely lead to the parent being requested to remove the child from the school.

One sounds like a holiday camp with educational facilities 

the other sounds like a prison but you pay for the privilege rather than commit a crime

if I had to choose it would be the first one   

It was no different to a state school expecting the pupils to be in school unless ill.  And why, especially if you are paying, would you not want to make sure your child was getting the full benefit of the education available!

Private schools generally have longer holidays anyway, especially in summer, achieved by having fewer of the shorter breaks and term time "in-service" days. 

not in England, the local private schools round here have all the usual half terms in October, February and June, together with three weeks at Christmas and Easter and seven weeks weeks in summer. This has been going on for years, OH used to teach in them.