Should parents no longer be fined for taking children on holiday during term time?
In England parents face a £80 fine per parent per child (rising to £160 if unpaid within 21 days) for unauthorised term-time holidays causing 10 or more missed sessions in a 10-week period under the 2024 national framework. Penalty notices hit nearly 500,000 in 2024-25 and continue rising in 2025-26 despite the rules. The government maintains fines are essential because missing school harms attainment while a petition to abolish them has gathered over 138,000 signatures.
4 Opinions
This is all about control. not education. Children will probably learn more from being exposed to other cultures than they would in a few days of school.
Honestly, I know my kids' educations are really vitally important. But taking them out of school for a mere five days is categorically not limiting their outcomes when they grow up and conflating this as severe absenteeism is ridiculous. If the govt actually cared about school attendance, they’d fund collapsing SEND support and CAMHS waitlists instead of penny pinching from parents who don't want to pay 300% for a holiday in school holidays.
Family is more important than state, this rule is only to show who has a final word over raising your children. Maybe the state would ban all kids from schools that do not speak English? This is causing disruptions. Or stop promote to next year the ones that didn't learn curriculum enough?
The fine system clearly doesn’t work, it penalises the poorer families, who are forced to trade off between fine cost, the need for an holiday and the extra cost of non-term time holidays.