My kid will learn more in one week away with ME than in a month of worksheets and if I take them, the government now wants to fine me.... Per parent. Per child, WHAT THE FUCK. Five days out of school without permission and that's it, penalty notice. Family of four? £320. Don't pay inside 21 days and it doubles to £160 each. Do it twice in three years and it's £160 flat, no early-payment discount. Third time and they don't fine you at all - they take you to court. Up to £2,500, and a conviction that can show up on an enhanced DBS check. For taking your kids to see the world (WHICH IS BETTER THAN USELESS SHIT AT SCHOOL) Last academic year councils in England handed out 492,800 of these fines. 459,300 of them - 93%!!! were for family holidays. Nearly half a million households. Still think this is about education OR is it about scamming tax-paying families??? And here's the bit that properly grinds me. Yorkshire and the Humber has the highest rate of penalty notices in the entire country, London has the lowest.... Work that one out. The regions with the least money spare are the ones getting hammered hardest for trying to save a bit. Meanwhile nobody fines the travel companies. Same flight, same hotel, same room. Move it into the school holidays and the price goes through the roof - on plenty of routes it near enough doubles. That's not supply and demand doing its thing, that's a business model. They know you're legally cornered and they price accordingly. So the working family cops it from both ends. Can't afford peak prices, get fined for going off-peak. And what actually sticks with a kid? Things like this... 1 - Working out the exchange rate at the counter 2 - Reading a map that isn't a screen 3 - Ordering food in a language they don't speak 4 - Standing in a place they'd only ever seen in a book 5 - Weeks on holiday with their mum and dad, phones down, actually present. Not one of those goes on a spreadsheet. There's no column anywhere for "confident, curious, been somewhere." I'm not saying school doesn't matter (it does) - Course it does. I'm saying 100% attendance is a target for the school. It isn't an education for your child.
