School fines

[Carlaclough1982]

I'm due in court on Wednesday over my 8 year olds attendance at school, at the beginning of term she had 10 days off as she had a horrendous cough during the year she had 2 or 3 days off sick and then at the end of term had a week when she went on holiday with my mum. I was warned if I take her I could possible be sent to court which obviously they've followed through with. I'm jut wondering what would happen if I didn't go and they did the proceedings in my absence. The cost of a solicitor is £300 and then I will have a fine and court fees, so just wondered what would happen?

[wales01man]

Re: School fines

Maybe guilty in your absence or adjourned for you to appear its not something you should ignore at least in court you can have your say

[Carlaclough1982]

Re: School fines

Just nervous to be honest, and dreading going.

[samsmoot]

Re: School fines

Courts are a dreadful place to be for ordinary folk.

I'm wondering why they are taking you to court, as they usually fine you and then only take you to court if you don't pay.

The best advice I have is to check the court document/s - a summons, I presume - and see if it has any errors which would make it void. Maybe a long shot but it's not as uncommon as you might think.

A solicitor may get you a lighter sentence by giving the court some sob story perhaps - I don't know. Attending yourself would be very hard to deal with. Not going and accepting the consequences seems a bit of a gamble.

But you asked what would happen, and it's:

'You could get a fine of up to £2,500, a community order or a jail sentence up to 3 months. The court also gives you a Parenting Order.'
https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance...ool-attendance

This applies whether you attend court or not.

I'll just say while I'm here that one definite way to ensure you don't get a fine for taking your children on holiday during term time is to deregister them from school and home school them for the duration. Not sure what will happen if you want to get them back into school though.

I would definitely examine the court papers closely for any errors. Two examples:

A train company stated on the summons that the offence was travelling from station A to B without a ticket. when it was actually from station B to A. Case withdrawn.

A litter fines enforcer stated on his penalty ticket that litter had been dropped - an offence. But he failed to tick the box overleaf identifying which particular offence it constituted. Ticket void.

As you have no real defence as far as I can tell I might be tempted in your position to plead guilty with a grovelling letter.

[Lara93]

Re: School fines

I'm due in court on Wednesday over my 8 year olds attendance at school, at the beginning of term she had 10 days off as she had a horrendous cough during the year she had 2 or 3 days off sick and then at the end of term had a week when she went on holiday with my mum. I was warned if I take her I could possible be sent to court which obviously they've followed through with. I'm jut wondering what would happen if I didn't go and they did the proceedings in my absence. The cost of a solicitor is £300 and then I will have a fine and court fees, so just wondered what would happen?

What happening here? what penalties, for what? it's just unfear!

[hatedmace]

Re: School fines

Thanks for mentioning important information! This summer I'm going with my colleagues to visit different places of education for special siminars and conferences and make a list of the similar problems in the schools in the form of a review for official site, because it;s important I need to learn more for my students such stories as you, your post seems to be priority for many teenagers.

[Emmway]

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