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Many families struggle to take trips during school holidays because of the cost. For mum Kelly, it’s her job as a circus acrobat. She works seven days a week and only gets January and February off each year. The 32-year-old was fined for taking her daughter Kaida out of school for a two-week holiday to the Canary Islands in January 2024.
Kelly says it is important to her that Kaida is in full time education, but she says it’s tiring. “That January and February is super important to us, to have that downtime,” she says.
Linda Castle and her husband Nick run a coffee roastery in Leeds and say their “busiest time of the year” is the summer holidays, when they work at festivals across the UK. “We do about six festivals and we only got a four-day break in the middle of that,” she says.
Lucy, a mum from East Sussex, says it’s tricky to go away during school holidays because of how they farm. “The week to 10 days we go away in January is important for us.”
In August 2024, the Department for Education introduced a new national framework, bringing councils more in line with each other and raising first-time fines from £60 to £80. However, it says it is the local authority’s responsibility to decide when to issue fines to parents.
The government says, in most cases, schools and local authorities will try to provide support to help improve a child’s attendance – but if this is ineffective or the absence is for an unauthorised term-time holiday, parents may face a fine.
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