Parents face fines over holidays

Parents who take their family on holiday in term time could be fined £100 by the school's headteacher if they fail to get permission for their children to miss lessons, the Government has warned.

Taking term-time holidays without permission is truancy, declared junior education minister Ivan Lewis.

Heads can give permission for children to be absent for up to 10 days of a school year - for example if parents cannot take leave during the summer, but Mr Lewis said term-time holidays should be "the exception, not the rule".

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has teamed up with the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) to urge parents in England to book family trips in official school holidays.

With the industry gearing up to sell next year's summer breaks, ABTA has told its members to remind parents of the rules.

It is up to the head to decide whether or not to grant permission for a child to be absent during term time.

Under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act that was passed by Parliament recently, heads, from early in the new year, will have the power to issue on-the-spot fines of up to £100 to parents of children who play truant.

The fines are primarily intended to bring parents who repeatedly let their children miss school to their senses as an alternative to prosecution and a possible prison sentence.

But the DfES stressed that fines could be handed out for a first-time offence in "exceptional circumstances, for example where a parent has taken their child on holiday in term time without the school's permission".

However, it is debatable whether many parents will be fined for such transgressions, as heads have neither demanded nor welcomed their power to impose them.

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