Hi Guys,

Just need some advice. My wife's sister fell very ill last December, she had to take an emergency flight to visit her. She took out daughter with her and she missed 4 days of school. We explained the situation to the school , however they passed out details on to the local council.

We have today received a fine of £180.00 each. A total of £360.00, I was just wondering, could we appeal? I think the amount per parent is excessive. Our local council is Waltham Forest.

Any information that can help would be much appreciated.

Unfortunately I don't have an answer, but I always wondered where this money goes.

Get your MP involved. They will be looking for votes this time of year.

Unfortunately if you don't pay these amounts, you will get prosecuted at Magistrates, which if you did not pay, could involved bailiffs. Ultimately if you refused to pay, they could send you to prison for up to 3 months.

Your MP may be sympathetic, but the law is the law and once a local authority has issued a penalty notice, they will continue with it and prosecute you if necessary. Even if you got a letter from the Sisters Doctor explaining the circumstances, you broke the law by taking your children out of school without the schools permission. You should have phoned them, as soon as the situation arose and if you had no choice, the school may have granted you permission.

If I were you, I would pay the £360 and then take up a complaint with the relevant people. Make sure that you enter that you are paying the £360 under protest and will be making formal complaints.

Yep sadly the fine is per parent and its at the school's discretion whether to issue the fine or not. At my son's school we have to fill out a holiday request form and the headmaster looks at them all individually. I appreciate that in your circumstances there perhaps wasn't time to make the request in advance which is probably why they have issued the fine. You have two options - pay the fine under protest and make a complaint or let them take you to Court and explain yourselves to the Magistrates. However option 2 is not guaranteed to reduce the fine, it might increase it and you might incur court costs on top

Hi good

If there are genuine reasons then you shouldn't have to pay the fine, case of convincing the Local Authority.

Here's info from Haringey Council, must be similar.

http://www.haringey.gov.uk/index/children-families/education/information_for_parents/supportingeducation/ews/fixed_penalty_notice.htm

See if you can find the info relating to your council.

Just a quick update guys.

On the back of the letter it stated you could contest the fine if there were material errors. I went through it thoroughly and found a number of errors which I sent off in an email. The end result was I paid none of the £360.00.

I would highly recommend anyone who receives such fines to go through the paper work with a fine tooth comb.

The errors I found were spelling errors in my child and wifes name.

Pleased to hear that you have avoided the fine.

I'll echo citizenB on that. Makes you wonder though if the education authorities can't get it right what hope is there for the kids of tomorrow.

Good to hear!