I know it sounds harsh, but perhaps being this tough will actually make people think twice - if it's just a fine, and then it turns out you can milk it and get out of paying a fine, where's the deterent? Obviously they aren't just going around jailing everyone who has a child skip a day - it must be pretty bad for them to go from giving you a fine to giving you a jail term
I think if it's a regular thing then some parents might deserve a fine or to go to prison, but I'm not sure that would actually help the kids involved, and surely that's the point? I guess I agree with the teachers, that it's better to work with the family - both the parents and the child - because it can't be good for children to see their parents go to jail.
But on the other hand, I wonder if seeing their parents getting into trouble because they're not going to school would make children feel guilty enough to start going...
Why don't holiday companies give families a break? The cost of going abroad is what normally seems to prompt parents to pull their kids out of school - maybe the Government could step in and do something there instead of prosecuting parents??
Truancy is not a simple black-and-white situation and it's not necessarily the parents who are to blame. Yes there are some irresponsible parents but I've also known of many children who regularly skipped school and their parents were none the wiser until they either received a letter in the post or the truant officer called round. I even know of one boy who was so bad that his father physically took him in to school every single morning. It didn't stop him disappearing off school premises as soon as registration was over. Sometimes there's only so much a parent can do ad in such cases maybe it would be a better idea, rather than fining the parents over something they may know nothing about, making the children themselves (provided they're old enough to understand - I would say secondary school age) to take responsibility for their own actions.
As for taking children out of school for holidays I don't blame parents for doing so as the costs during school holidays are way beyond a lot of families' budgets. It really needs looking into. Or maybe if schools were to reduce the summer holidays to 4 instead of 6 weeks and then allow each child to take 2 weeks off at a time of their choosing providing the school grants permission (i.e. if the student is progressing well at their studies, they are likely to catch up on their return and they generaly behave well). I'm sure this would be an incentive to work hard and behave in school and would lead to less truancy.
Personally I wouldn't think twice about taking my children out of school for a holiday if I felt it would be beneficial to their education. For example if they were studying German I may wish to take them to Germany to experience the food, the culture, the language etc.
Why not take kids out of school for holidays? The school is forever closing down for heating problems, teacher training, snow days etc etc and they never get in trouble for it. We should start sending the head teachers to jail every time they close the school during term time..., a lot of time the children do nothing at school anyway, especially at the end of the terms when they have a whole week of doing playtime, watching movies, plus teacher training days. why dont they do them in the school holidays too? When i was at school, it started on 1st September and we never had extra days off for teacher training, now school starts 10th September. We went whatever the weather, rain, snow, frost, sunshine.
in my opinion a jail term or a fine for parents is stupid. I mean if the parents are purposely keeping their children off school then yeah go for it it's the parents fault but what about the teenagers that plain blank refuse to go to school (I was one) My parents tried everything to get me to school but nothing worked so did they deserve a jail sentence? (they got threatened with one)in all honesty I'm not surprised a lot of children don't want to go to school...in my school most of the teachers were overly strict for no real reason and had their 'fav' child that would come before all. Maybe they should look at the teachers performance and attitude towards the children. If school was enjoyable children would want to go.
Taking a child out of school for a holiday is very different to parents who do not take kids to school because they can not be bothered or have no control over their child....... It is the children who continually have time off throughout the year who's educations suffer and are more likely to fit the government model. These are e children's nod families who need help and support to stop the kids becoming a statistic not the kids who's parents take em out of school for a week for a holiday ...... No doubt fining these parents is to do with revenue generation rather than child welfare.
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But on the other hand, I wonder if seeing their parents getting into trouble because they're not going to school would make children feel guilty enough to start going...
As for taking children out of school for holidays I don't blame parents for doing so as the costs during school holidays are way beyond a lot of families' budgets. It really needs looking into. Or maybe if schools were to reduce the summer holidays to 4 instead of 6 weeks and then allow each child to take 2 weeks off at a time of their choosing providing the school grants permission (i.e. if the student is progressing well at their studies, they are likely to catch up on their return and they generaly behave well). I'm sure this would be an incentive to work hard and behave in school and would lead to less truancy.
Personally I wouldn't think twice about taking my children out of school for a holiday if I felt it would be beneficial to their education. For example if they were studying German I may wish to take them to Germany to experience the food, the culture, the language etc.
Why not take kids out of school for holidays? The school is forever closing down for heating problems, teacher training, snow days etc etc and they never get in trouble for it. We should start sending the head teachers to jail every time they close the school during term time..., a lot of time the children do nothing at school anyway, especially at the end of the terms when they have a whole week of doing playtime, watching movies, plus teacher training days. why dont they do them in the school holidays too? When i was at school, it started on 1st September and we never had extra days off for teacher training, now school starts 10th September. We went whatever the weather, rain, snow, frost, sunshine.