Term time holidays court cases dropped

The decision over whether to fine rests with the head teacher, although in some areas, local authorities issue fines automatically. 

Write your comments here...And we all know the problems with the dreaded "Discretion" be it Wardens or Head Mistresses. 

There should be hard and fast rules that everybody understands, no hesitation or deviation. 

K 

In Newcastle and Sunderland head teachers here do not have any decison on fines, as far as I am aware this is the case throughout England. All heads can do is approve or not approve a holiday. There is no law that allows heads to issue a fine only the councils. The attendance data is fed straight through to the local council automatically. It is the local council who then issues a fine or not. The money does not even come back into schools. If you look at the OP and story it is the coucils who are taking parents to court and now dropping the cases not schools

From the government webiste; 

Your local council can give you a fine of £60, which rises to £120 if you don’t pay within 21 days. You may be prosecuted if you don’t pay the fine after 28 days.

I'd be quite happy to pay the £60 fine (I assume per child per holiday) to give my little Gkids a good holiday. Not that I agree with fines in the first place, but if it meant that I could take them away at a time of year that they could cope with the temperatures and not have to re-mortgage the house to do so then why not. I'd still be quids in.

Exactly why the fines need to be massively increased, I'm afraid.

Exactly why the fines need to be massively increased, I'm afraid.

poacher turned gamerkeeper eh Ian

I think that the issue of removing children from school for family holidays is very much overstated.

I had three children and during the 1980's we always took our main family holiday immediately after the August bank Holiday. I wasn't being bloody minded,  it was a work requirement.

That effectively meant that all three missed at least one week - sometimes more of the Autumn term.

I am sure that it must have seriously stunted their development.  My eldest daughter is now a bank Manager, my son is a Squadron Leader in the RAF, and my youngest daughter has her own business.

I feel really guilty about holding back their development!

By the way, - all three tell me that it took just a couple of hours to catch up on what they had missed!

TF

Speaking as a fully retired ex-teacher I agree that missing a couple of weeks (at the correct time ie. not in exams/beginning of year etc) would not strongly hinder a childs education and could enrich it - assuming attendance was normally high. Far worse are the ones who take a day of here, a day there on a regular basis - that was so frustrating and having to constantly play catch up with them was frustrating to say the least. 

I agree, nothing lost in a child with normally good attendance being allowed a family holiday. What I would take issue with in the recent court case is the definition of "good attendance". 90%? I don't think so! So that child could miss a day every fortnight and the dozy judges think that's good attendance? The school I taught in (and this was before Gove's law was introduced) wouldn't even think about granting permission if the child's attendance was below 95% for the previous 12 months.

Moulesey, I totally agree.  My Children were expected not to miss any schooling unless absolutely necessary, apart from the family holidays previously mentioned.  Obviously I have no idea now what their total attendance record was then, but I would be surprised if it were not far of the maximum apart from the family holiday.

We went by the maxim. Rule 1 = The School is always right! 

Rule 2 = On the odd occasion that the school might be mistaken.  + Rule 1 applies!

It worked very well for us. And perhaps more importantly the kids knew exactly where they stood!

TF

The worst thing about the fines etc seems to be the way they are applied.  I heard the other day of a family hammered for taking a holiday in term time even though one parent was terminally ill.  Common sense and humanity need to come into it too.  

I am not sure my children would have seen holiday brochures because of caravanning etc but I do see the sadness of a whole class looking blank on that.  Hopefully the project inspired them to dream and achieve.