Unauthorised absence of children

I think my daughter has quite a severe cold brewing.....poor girl will be in bed for a week by Jan i think.

Snapzzz wrote:I think my daughter has quite a severe cold brewing.....poor girl will be in bed for a week by Jan i think.

And a dose of mountain air will be exactly what she needs. -)

Snapzzz wrote:I think my daughter has quite a severe cold brewing.....poor girl will be in bed for a week by Jan i think.




And a dose of mountain air will be exactly what she needs.

Then because she has been sick for more than 3 days you will need a doctors note -)

Dids1 wrote:

There was an interview on radio today with a woman fined £360 for taking her kids outl of school to go to Florida, but not sure if the fine was for the choice of destination or the fact they missed school time as I forgot to listen.

I will see if I can find the article somewhere

haha, I tend to agree.

Thing is, how can they actually fine her? Its all well and good sending her a letter telling her they propose to fine her, but how do they enforce it? They cant take money without her permission, and it would need to go to court to be potentially enforced surely, and that would take time and money the education authority/school don't (apparently) have????

bald-eagleman wrote:

Snapzzz wrote:I think my daughter has quite a severe cold brewing.....poor girl will be in bed for a week by Jan i think.




And a dose of mountain air will be exactly what she needs.

Then because she has been sick for more than 3 days you will need a doctors note -)

Our docs wont issue a note in the first 7 days so they can whistle for that one......plus i am sure the docs will have something to say about that as they have enough to do.

I work in a secondary school that rarely authorises holidays in term times......yet I can tell you that many of our children are still taken out in term time with no apparent action taken against them. I have never been able to go myself in term time therefore my chidren have never missed school for holidays. Except possibly for years 10 and 11 and important yearly exams I see no issue with parents taking their children on holiday.. On the subject of fines.......February half term this year cost me £300 per person more than the week before a total of £1200. A fine of £60 per parent per child would have cost me £120 for my school age child.....no brainer.....if only I didn't work in a school tho. Keen skiers will always find the money so even if the costs are raised during non holiday timesI don't think the industry will suffer.

Tony_H wrote:

Thing is, how can they actually fine her? Its all well and good sending her a letter telling her they propose to fine her, but how do they enforce it?

you answer it yourself

you wrote: it would need to go to court to be potentially enforced

that's precisely what they will do, no different from any other statutory fine (say speeding or parking or litter dropping or smoking).

They don't have to issue the letter, that part is at their discretion, but once they have I suspect its too late..start preparing a defence (or pay-up).

Well all I can say I am glad my kids did their time a while back. I'd love to see them enforce something through the courts which isnt actually a criminal offence.