A father who was fined £120 for taking his daughter to Disney World during term time has had the punishment overturned in a court victory.
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Sandown dad Jon Platt was taken to court by the Isle of Wight council, after he refused to pay a fine for taking his children on a family holiday to Florida in April this year.
Platt refused to pay the initial £60 fine, which doubled to £120 when he failed to pay it within a certain number of days, and appeared before magistrates on the Isle of Wight.
“Some people will think that I found a few clever loophole, there’s no clever loophole, the law says I was charged under 444 of the education act 1996, you can look it up, it’s very simple language and says “a parent has committed an offence if a child does not attend school regularly”.
Jon Platt, from the Isle of Wight, said he won his case because there was no legislation that makes it illegal to take a child away outside of the official breaks.
This clip is originally from the Stephen Nolan programme on 17 October 2015.
“Our evidence shows missing the equivalent of just one week a year from school can mean a child is significantly less likely to achieve good GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) grades, having a lasting effect on their life chances”.
“I’m not interested in the guidelines, I’m interested in what the law says”.
“My understanding is the law doesn’t say anything about holiday time but most parents blink at the fine and pay the expense, even though a significant proportion of them are probably people whose kids actually attend school regularly”. My child needs to attend school regularly. I’ve got more than their education welfare to consider.
The Department for Education insist headteachers have discretion to allow parents to take their children out of school in “exceptional circumstances”, should they deem reasons acceptable.
He had requested the time off from her school, but they did not authorise it.
“Parents should never simply discount a possible penalty notice from the cost of a cheaper holiday”.
The DfE said the Isle of Wight decision did not set a legal precedent, because magistrates’ decisions were not binding on other courts. The result has been a surge in fines and prosecutions of parents for unauthorised absences, as well as an improvement in the overall attendance record of state schools in England.
Manchester council handed out 1,911 fines in 2013/14 to parents who ignored the ban on term time holidays – a rise of 54pc compared to the previous year, from 1,234.
‘This case could be the turning of the tide that we’re hoping for – the more that these cases are won, the more the government will realise that these policies don’t work’.
The Isle of Wight council is reviewing its decision to prosecute.
“I had to prove nothing – they just had to prove my child’s attendance was not regular”, he added.
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Parliament will this month debate a petition signed by more than 100,000 people arguing for an allowance of up to two weeks’ term-time leave from school for holidays. But he decided on spending the £1,000 on lawyers’ fees as a matter of principle.
