Term-time holidays see 50 parents punished

DOZENS of parents in Macclesfield have been fined for taking their children on term-time holidays.

Between September 2015 and May 2016 a total of 53 fines were issued to parents with children at three secondary schools and eight primary schools in the town and surrounding villages.

It was part of a huge rise in the number of families in east Cheshire who are being fined because their children miss classes without permission or reasonable excuse.

During the same period the local authority issued more than 739 penalty notices.

It follows a crackdown on term-time holidays brought in three years ago.

The rules were changed in September 2013, meaning headteachers could no longer grant up to 10 days holiday in special circumstances.

Instead they could only grant term-time leave in exceptional circumstances.

In Macclesfield the biggest offenders were parents with children at All Hallows Catholic College, where 13 fines were issued, while Fallibroome Academy had 10 and Tytherington School had six parents punished.

Fines were also issued for: Ivy Bank Primary School (six), Gawsworth Primary School (five) and The Marlborough Primary School (four), Hollinhey Primary School (three); Bollingbrooke Primary School (two); Gorsey Bank Primary School (two); St Gregory’s Catholic Primary School (one); and Worth Primary School (one).

In 2012-13, before the new rules were introduced, 256 penalty notices for absence were issued across east Cheshire.

But the most recent figures, for the 2014-15 school year, show the figure was 819 – three times higher.

Failure to pay the fines has led to a sharp spike in court prosecutions from 49 in 2012-13 to 138 in 2014-15.

Last week one parent’s viral campaign for schools to be allowed to authorise term time holidays was debated in Parliament after his petition reached 200,000 signatures, including 343 people from Macclesfield.

A council spokesperson said they are following national guidelines.

A spokesperson from the Department for Education said: “Evidence shows that every extra day of school missed can affect a pupil’s chance of gaining good GCSEs.”

Manny Botwe, headteacher at the Tytherington School, said: “The attendance at Tytherington School is significantly above the national average. This explains why we get strong results. We use a range of strategies to keep attendance high. Ultimately, the most successful strategy is ensuring that we have a warm, welcoming and stimulating environment which means students want to come in and learn.”