Term-time holiday father wins at High Court

[charitynjw]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-36277940

Term-time holiday father wins at High Court

By Judith BurnsEducation reporter

• 8 hours ago
• From the sectionEducation & Family
• 2050comments

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Media captionJon Platt: "Is there really 100,000 parents who are so criminally incompetent that it warrants dragging them to court?"

A father who refused to pay a £120 fine for taking his daughter on an unauthorised term-time holiday has won a High Court ruling in his favour.
Magistrates had ruled that Jon Platt had no case to answer as, overall, his daughter had attended school regularly.
Isle of Wight Council had asked the High Court to clarify whether a seven-day absence amounted to a child failing to attend regularly.
The government says it will now consider making alterations to the law.
"We will look at the judgement in detail but are clear children's attendance is non-negotiable so we will now look to change the law," said a spokesman for the Department for Education.
"We also plan to strengthen statutory guidance to schools and local authorities."

[Ripped-Off]

Re: Term-time holiday father wins at High Court

This is a victory for common sense. Kids need some practical life experience that a holiday can provide, so what if they miss finger painting at school, that's not to mention the massive cost savings.

The labour party (I think it was labour that introduced the regs) thought we were all stupid; that we couldn't make decisions as to our own children's education. Don't tar me with the same brush as the obese scumbags whose 10 kids run amok whilst they sit on the couch watching daytime TV, smoking and talking, with an iphone stuffed conveniently down the cleavage. It makes my blood boil...don't get me started!

Enjoy it whilst it lasts because the regs will no doubt be updated to overcome the court's decision.

[Amethyst]

Re: Term-time holiday father wins at High Court

I'm pretty sure a majority of parents have the sense to know when it is okay to miss a week or two of school and when it's not. In years 10 and 11 it's likely not to be suitable for example as GCSE coursework and exams are going on, but all schools have some downtime, school trip weeks, work experience weeks etc where those not involved on the trips do sod all constructive. Just let parents use their own intelligence and stop treating everyone the same, if you run peoples lives for them, they end up relying on the govt to tell them what to do, when, and what's right and wrong, and won't actually develop any responsibility or ideas of their own, and their children will follow. Yes some people will be nobs but most people do actually have some common sense that hasn't yet been beaten out of them by the 'system'. Labour always seemed to want to put people into the lowest possible denominator box, and the bloody Conservatives seem to have been trying to do the same lately. Encourage work, encourage self responsibility and thought and allow people to create opportunity for themselves and others, and the main thing, stop penalising people for doing better, or trying to do better, than others.

Back on topic, a much better idea IMO is to allow schools to chose their own holiday and term dates.

[PAWS]

Re: Term-time holiday father wins at High Court

And stop the travel industry pushing up their prices during regular school holiday periods.

[Celestine]

Re: Term-time holiday father wins at High Court

The government is now talking about 'changing the law'. That would be a mistake and is unlikely to gain much support from MP's. Any further tightening would only criminalise decent parents.
The law is fine as it is, it gives the courts scope to decide what is reasonable and quite correctly it found in favour of Jon Platt.

The problem comes when central government make daft election promises about school attendance and performance, then tell the LEA's they must achieve these targets.

Instead of targeting the troublesome parents as described vividly (!) by Ripped-Off, the LEAs are targeting reasonable parents and making a few quid in the process. They can say they've improved attendance, when they have made zero impact on the children who need help.

On top of that, the strict implementation of this fining system by LEAs mean that virtually no family holidays are taken in term time; which has only worsened the supply and demand pricing hike in the holidays, so one could argue that the LEA's and government have contributed to the significant problem of high holiday prices during holidays.

And the real problem remains unchanged. The vulnerable children whose parents don't support them in attending school regularly, providing structure....they remain just as unreachable as ever, as this holiday policy does not affect them at all.
So decent parents are criminalised for a failed policy to improve attendance of the children of bad parents?!

[Openlaw15]

Re: Term-time holiday father wins at High Court

And stop the travel industry pushing up their prices during regular school holiday periods.

Poorer parents might not have choice when they book their holiday, as Paws alludes if the price is cheap enough for them to afford a holiday they will book that holiday. When are the best deals likely, hmm at the tail end of summer am guessing.

[Kati]

Re: Term-time holiday father wins at High Court

I'm so glad I home-educate my lads when I read stuff like this :nod:

When they were still attending school, there was no way I would have been able to afford anything BUT a term-time holiday ... now I can take them anywhere at any time!!

I feel sorry or the parents who cannot give their children the experiences and benefits that would come from holidaying due to the eejits in the travel industry hiking up the prices so much. Many parents cannot even take their kids on a weekend away in somewhere like Blackpool or Skegness (let alone abroad) during school holidays because of the extortionate prices

[Ripped-Off]

Re: Term-time holiday father wins at High Court

It is still cheaper to pay the fine than the increase in travel costs. Did a bit of research........

• 2 adults, 2 children to Costa del Sol, for 2 weeks starting first week in August = £4,984.00
• Same holiday first 2 weeks in July =£3,334.00.

Cost Difference = £1,650.00

Fine @ £60.00 x 2 parents x 2 kids = £240.00 if paid within 21 days.

You don't need Prof. Stephen Hawking to tell you which to choose!

[Ripped-Off]

Re: Term-time holiday father wins at High Court

And whilst I still have my soapbox out..........

If the child is sick and is kept away from school, this counts as unauthorised absence. The only way around this is a doctor's note! A doctor's note for a child when the average waiting time to see a GP is 2 weeks! Not sure if this due to immigration or a lack of funding on health, but that is a different topic altogether.

I remember the bygone days when, if your were sick, you went and sat in the GP's surgery. You might have to wait an hour or so but at least you'd be seen.

[MIKE770]

Re: Term-time holiday father wins at High Court

pity the state of education/teaching in a lot of areas is poor, everyday use of shops and nobody can take away a few pence from a pound without use of a calculator, took 3 people to try using calculator, then a manager came up with the same answer I had given 10 minutes before, no apology mind you for the wait at the till, (the till operator made a mistake on entering goods) .. says it all

[Openlaw15]

Re: Term-time holiday father wins at High Court

I'm so glad I home-educate my lads when I read stuff like this :nod:

When they were still attending school, there was no way I would have been able to afford anything BUT a term-time holiday ... now I can take them anywhere at any time!!

I feel sorry or the parents who cannot give their children the experiences and benefits that would come from holidaying due to the eejits in the travel industry hiking up the prices so much. Many parents cannot even take their kids on a weekend away in somewhere like Blackpool or Skegness (let alone abroad) during school holidays because of the extortionate prices

I wonder if the privileged kids are remotely affected.. as long's their parents keep paying their expensive fees am sure those posh kids can go on holidays when said parents book them without being penalised £60 (or whatever it is) by the gestapo dinner lady with attendance officer duties. How many GCSEs do they need to do that job, hmm a GCSE u grade in catering perhaps.

[MIKE770]

Re: Term-time holiday father wins at High Court

as well as grandson fell over in school hurt his leg, school put ice pack on his leg and end of school day sent him home with a note ===albeit reading lateness on one or more occasions,

No note regarding accident at school, and the boy trying to hobble around,

hospital stated he has a broken leg! any more for any more?

[Ripped-Off]

Re: Term-time holiday father wins at High Court

hospital stated he has a broken leg! any more for any more?

A similar 'accident' happened to a family I know......

Middle of winter, ice everywhere and not enough money or resources to grit the playground. Some bright spark of a teacher decides to do PE outside and oddly enough all the kids begin to fall over. One child in particular is in tears after falling so the teacher tells him to toughen up. He had broken his ankle but no-one knew until he went home 4hrs later and his mum took him to the hospital. You would have thought that him being carried from class to class by his school mates was a bit of a giveaway!!

[leclerc]

Re: Term-time holiday father wins at High Court

From my reading of the case it hinged on the definition of "regularly " attending school. What Jon Platt argued was that according to the Department of Education his children had been there for more than 90% of the time, the DoE define less than that as truancy, and he was right. I would suspect that this will cost the DoE quite a bit of dosh if all parents seek to reclaim that money back based on the issue of 90% attendance in the previous 12 months prior to the holiday. I'm sure that they recently said that fines from parents gave the Education system a pretty decent income(well, it won't now ).

[Openlaw15]

Re: Term-time holiday father wins at High Court

From my reading of the case it hinged on the definition of "regularly " attending school. What Jon Platt argued was that according to the Department of Education his children had been there for more than 90% of the time, the DoE define less than that as truancy, and he was right. I would suspect that this will cost the DoE quite a bit of dosh if all parents seek to reclaim that money back based on the issue of 90% attendance in the previous 12 months prior to the holiday. I'm sure that they recently said that fines from parents gave the Education system a pretty decent income(well, it won't now ).

What about a disabled child who needs to go to other places for their disability, they may not be regular attenders owing to those types of issues.