There’s some great news for UK parents who’d like to take their children on holiday during term time: the prosecution against one UK Dad for taking his daughter out of school for a family trip has failed.
Term-time holiday rules
Currently in the UK there are penalties for parents who take their children on holiday during the school term. The penalty is £60 per parent, per child and rises to £120 if it’s not paid within 21 days. Parents who don’t pay these fines can be prosecuted and may receive a fine of up to £2,500, a community order or a prison sentence of up to three months as well as a Parenting Order from the Court. I think that this system is bad for families. I’ve written before about why I think that families should be allowed to take term-time holidays (mainly because for many people it’s the only way that they can afford to take their children on holiday). I’ve also written about what happens in other countries and found that there’s generally a much more sensible approach outside the UK. So I was delighted to hear about the case of Jon Platt.
Jon Platt
Jon Platt took his six year-old daughter on holiday to Florida with other family members in April. His daughter’s school in the Isle of Wight refused permission for the absence and when the family arrived home there was a £60 fine waiting for them. Mr Platt didn’t pay the fine and so it was doubled to £120 after three weeks. When he still didn’t pay, he was summoned to appear at his local magistrate’s court.
Mr Platt’s solicitor (who sounds marvellous) argued that the law states only that parents must ensure that their children attend school ‘regularly’. As Mr Platt’s daughter had an excellent school attendance record, and missed only six days for the holiday, she clearly was going to school regularly and Mr Platt had done nothing wrong in taking her to Florida. The magistrates agreed: they ruled that there was no case for Mr Platt to answer!
I think that this is great news, although I do wonder what it means for the many parents who have already been fined for taking their kids on holiday during school time – will they be reimbursed if their children’s attendance records are good?
What next?
I hope that this case paves the way for a revision of the Government’s term-time holiday policy. At their recent party conference, the Lib Dems agreed to allow term-time holidays of up to 10 days in special circumstances – basically a return to how things were before Michael Gove introduced the current system in 2013. Parliament is due to debate the issue later this month – I really hope that MPs see sense and hand back responsibility for holiday dates to those best-placed to decide them: namely parents and head teachers.
Over to you
What do you think? Do you agree with the current rules or do you think that the previous system was better? Or do you have an idea for a different system?
As I work in a school, we cannot take holidays in term time. But school is quite reasonable with family taking holidays within term time as long as they are not frequent etc.
Unfortunately I to have to take holidays at the most expensive and busiest times of the year.
Rachel recently posted…Easiyo Yogurt making fun
my sons school puts all the teacher training days on the back of the may half term which is helpful for booking a holiday that week.
mummy little blog recently posted…Wicked Wednesday – do not take my photo
I hate how expensive it is in school holidays and how busy everywhere becomes too.
There needs to be a balance somewhere
Clare aka Emmy’s Mummy recently posted…Half term fun with our Merlin Annual Passes
I am all for taking children out for measured holidays through the year, within reason. And I do this! We have never been fined but our school is an acadamy which Ithink helps. I think fining families is ridiculous!!
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My kids’ schools are both academies but they are very strict about term-time holidays, unfortunately!
At the end of the day I feel that taking children out of school for holidays should be a parents responsibility and choice.
Abi – Angel Eden Blog recently posted…Halloween Ghost Decoration Craft for Kids
Here in the U.S. we are allowed to take our kids out from school for vacation, for a reasonable amount of time. Some schools are stricter than others on their individual policies. Last year we took an off season vacation in January and the school sent home the missed school work for completion. We could not afford a Christmas holiday so if we wanted to go, we had to go after the busy season.
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That sounds like a much more sensible arrangement. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
I read about this guy with interest. It just goes to show what a farce the current system is. I don’t know anyone that has been fined but I think the schools in my area are all pretty rational/understanding when it comes to this family needs versus government madness
They sound like good schools! Whereabouts are you?
I personally believe we should go back to the old system where if a child has good attendance they are allowed up to 10 days off. My son is doing his GCSE’s this year so we wouldn’t take him out of school anyway in such an important year. Our headteacher in the primary has bolted all the inset days around half term in May so parents can take advantage of cheaper prices which is good
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What a very kind and practical headteacher!
Gretta, I have worked in education in the UK for the past eight years. I have come to realise that parents either care about their children’s education or they don’t. Fines are never going to make people align with an imposed set of regulations. They need to believe in the validity of the system themselves.xx
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Interesting, I hadn’t thought of it that way. Thank you for commenting.
Unfortunately this will not set a precedence. As a parent I am sick of the nanny state telling me when and what I can do
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Thankfully we are quite lucky as our half terms are usually the week after or before the national half term dates so we have had some cheaper holidays these past few years.
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That’s great – I wish that my kids’ term dates were like that!
I preferred the old system, my parents could take me out of school no problem when I was younger. I would love that flexibility for Leo.
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I know, I feel the same.
I was also delighted to read about this case in the newspaper this weekend. A return to the old system seems a much more sensible plan. Most parents respect the fact that education is of utmost importance however a few days off at either side of school holidays to allow for a less expensive family holiday should be permitted.
Lisa (Travel Loving Family) recently posted…Christmas family events in Gloucestershire
Absolutely. We always used to do that before the penalties were introduced, when my daughter started school. She benefitted from the travel experiences that she had because of the old system and has always done well at school.
Oh this is great news! I hope it changes the way these things are dealt with from now on, it’s a ridiculous system.
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I hope so too!
I definitely think the old system would be an improvement – there’s just no flexibility now, which is ridiculous. Every child at every stage of their education in wildly different circumstances is treated the same for now.
Cathy (MummyTravels) recently posted…Booster seats for kids get an update
I agree, the old system worked just fine.
I don’t think that fining people has helped anyone. My 12 year old’s son’s school has the best idea and lumps up the inset days so they finish early July. I wish more schools would do that.
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That’s a great idea, what an excellent head teacher.
Unfortunately this case doesn’t set precedent being a magistrates court decision. Interestingly, a similar decision was reached in the Isle of Wight in 2014 but the press weren’t that interested then. I would caution any parent thinking that they won’t get fined on the back of this case – it cost the parent £1,000 in legal fees and hinged on 100% attendance to that point. To really get the law changed, we have submitted an application for a juducial review of the law and are lobbying hard in Parliament. There will be a Westminster Hall debate (Parliament but not the main chamber) on the subject next Monday 4.30pm – 7.30pm. if you want to see the rules changed, please contact your MP and ask them to attend to call for a repeal of the regulation which changed the rules in September 2013. If they are not happy to do that, at the very least they need to support calls for the Education Select Committee to undertake an inquiry into the evidence base for and the impact of the regulation. Many thanks, Karen Wilkinson, The Parents Union.
Thanks Karen – do you have this information anywhere online that I can share?
I think we should go back to the old system. The schools don’t need to agree the holiday, but the councils don’t need to charge fines. To be fair some councils are more reasonable than others I think.
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That’s interesting – but I guess that makes the system even less fair!
I’m a step parent and I find it disgusting at the prices holiday companies want for a holiday in school holiday time. the difference in prices between term time and non term time is horrific and is stealing from family’s!, I hope when it comes up in parliament they decide to make it legal because so many children miss out on a chance for a holiday.
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I agree, the economic factor is the main reason why I think that the penalties are so wrong.
It really annoys me that teachers can take holidays in term time as part of their statutory holidays, isn’t that affecting our kids education when they get a teacher they dont know and probably doesnt know where they are learning wise
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Can teachers do that? I didn’t realise that at all! I thought that teachers had to take their holiday during the school holidays?
It’s interesting to hear of the case of Jon Platt. I know so many parents who have been fined and whilst I agree that children should be in school in term time, if their attendance is otherwise good, the occasional few days either side of a school holiday shouldn’t warrant a heavy fine. Especially when our kids enjoy ‘Golden Time’ each week which is basically an extra playtime and no classroom learning takes place in this time, if every hour of lesson time counts then schools have to look at what message is sent out with things like Golden Time.
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