‘Cheap travel is not a defence’: the parents facing court for school absences in England

In one court in Kent, most cases relate to term-time holidays, but non-attendance is a complex issue and post-pandemic rates remain high As the long school summer break approached its mid-point recently, Margate beach was crowded with families enjoying the brief reprieve between the year’s fourth and fifth heatwaves. For most, thoughts of the classroom were probably not at the forefront of their minds. But for the seven mothers and two fathers who were summoned at 10am to a stuffy room in the town’s magistrates court, set just behind the beachfront strip of arcades, the subject was unavoidable. They were among hundreds of parents due in courts across England this month for failing to ensure their children had regularly attended school over the course of the last academic year. They faced fines, or in extreme cases the theoretical possibility of three months in prison, depending on the reasons provided for the absences. The first defendant to be called in admitted that he had travelled abroad with his partner and daughter for 10 days at the start of the summer term. Taking her out of school to go on holiday for the third time in three consecutive years had pushed her annual atte