Rise in fines for term-time holidays won’t stop us, say parents

Megan Hall and her husband Michael got their first fines after taking their two children on a ski holiday in March and have now booked a two-week holiday later this month.

“The kids will be missing 10 days of school, which is a worry because of the new fines,” Mrs Hall told the BBC.

The couple run a pub and bed and breakfast in Northumberland and said if they took their children – aged four and eight – away during their busy summer season they would incur a cost to their business as well as higher holiday prices.

“I won’t stop doing holidays because that’s what family is about,” said Mrs Hall.

“The alternative is to not have family time, or to teach your kids to lie, saying they are sick, which is something I’m not happy to do,” she added.

Nearly 400,000 penalty notices were issued to parents in England for unauthorised school absences during the 2022-23 academic year. That is much higher than pre-pandemic levels and unauthorised absences have remained at a similar rate over the most recent academic year.

Speaking at a school on Monday, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said “persistent absenteeism” was “a big problem”, adding that “it’s important that all of us pull together [and] make sure children are here in school”.

Poor school attendance can hit academic achievement, social development, and children’s future prospects, Carly Speechley, Barnsley’s executive director for children’s services, has previously said.

Research has indicated that tests and exam results are showing the pandemic led to a widened gap between children from the highest and lowest income families.

That suggests missing days at school will have a bigger impact on some children than others.