Term-time holiday parent wins at the High Court

This is a significant ruling:

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 judges dismissed the council's challenge.

Lord Justice Lloyd Jones and Mrs Justice Thirlwall ruled that the magistrates had not "erred in law" when reaching their decision.

Campaigners say the case could redefine the way the law is applied in England.

Since 2013, tougher government regulations have meant head teachers can only grant leave of absence to pupils during term time in "exceptional circumstances".

According to local authority data, almost 64,000 fines were issued for unauthorised absences between September 2013 and August 2014.

Many parents complain that the cost of going away in the school holidays can be four times as much as during term time - but the government says the rules are needed because missing lessons can harm pupils' chances of getting good qualifications.

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

Reply 1

the bear

Mr Platt must think he is really clever.

Reply 2

tengentoppa

This is good news. My parents always used to take me out of school during term time because otherwise it is prohibitively expensive.

It wasn't an issue because I wasn't an idiot and I caught up on what I missed when I came back. So long as the child isn't struggling there should be no issue.

Reply 3

Tiger Rag

Why aren't the parents lobbying the holiday companies? It's much cheaper to just book flights and a hotel yourself. I did that last year.

Reply 4

AlphaSteel

Original post by jneill

Daf*q why do you have to pay a fine for taking your kid out of school for a few days?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 5

Doones

Original post by AlphaSteel

Daf*q why do you have to pay a fine for taking your kid out of school for a few days?

The government introduced a law that changed how this works a few years ago with the result that they required school to fine parents if necessary

https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence/overview

It seems the law was flawed, or the interpretation was flawed.

Either way, it will have to be reviewed as a result of this ruling.

Reply 6

joey11223

I don't think it's a huge issue in primary school tbh, I remember when I was in Year 6 and my mum asked the teacher if I might be able to miss a week, his response was "well we both know he ain't going to learn anything here he doesn't already know.". I can't really think of a specific topic you'd miss over a week which would significantly impact anything.

Reply 7

sr90

Volunteer Team

We went on holiday in early July every year, never did me or my siblings any harm.

Let's be honest what kids are ever learning in July anyway? I left school many years ago but for me, the last few weeks of term were always doing things like drawing posters or watching movies because the teachers couldn't be bothered anymore.