Dad avoids £120 fine for taking daughter away in term time!

There has been lots of controversy surrounding the issue of parents taking their kids away during term time. There is a penalty of £60 for parents to pay if they do. The fine then goes up if parents refuse to pay.

Jon Platt, 44 was issued with a £60 fine by the council after he took his family to Disneyland despite his daughter’s absence request being rejected.

He took his daughters, now aged seven and 10, and his stepson, aged six, for the eight-day trip which took them out of school for six days during term time.

Obviously with the prices being so low during term time, lots of parents now feel that it is worth just paying the fine rather than splashing out the extra costs by waiting until the summer holidays. 

Jon’s fine was originally £60 but then increased to £120 as he’d refused to pay.

ITV reports: ‘The issue of the fine, which was originally £60 and then doubled because of his refusal to pay, went before the Isle of Wight Magistrates’ Court and Mr Platt won his case.

He successfully argued that Section 444 of the Education Act required parents to ensure their children attended school “regularly”, and did not put restrictions on taking them on holidays in term time.

He said: “There has been precedent set in the High Court that says that unauthorised holiday in term time is not in itself a breach of the legislation if the child has attended school regularly.

“My daughter had 100% attendance and by the end of the year because of the holiday she had 94%, that cannot amount to a breach of legislation.”

This has been a landmark court battle and the media coverage has spurred parliament on to discuss a petition later this month that was signed by more than 100,000 people arguing for an allowance of two-weeks term time leave for holidays.

In 2013 the then Education Secretary Michael Gove scrapped a scheme which allowed schools to give pupils up to 10 extra holiday days each year.

His new guidelines stated that children should only be taken out of school during term time in “exceptional circumstances”.

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CLICK HERE to read the full story in ITV News.