Francesca Longhurst knew the £640 fine was coming before she got on the plane.
She booked Florida anyway, because going in the school holidays would have cost her an extra £9,000.
Francesca, 32, works for the NHS. Her husband Liam, 37, is a plasterer.
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They live in Sandwell, West Midlands, and spent years saving for a Disney World trip they assumed would stay permanently out of reach.
“It was a holiday we have dreamed of for years but never thought we’d be able to afford it as it’s so expensive,” she told Creatorzine.
“We put every bit of money we had spare into this trip and worked extra hours and days to be able to afford it.”
She priced up Easter first. Flights and a hotel came to £12,000, before anyone had bought a park ticket.
June came to £7,500 for everything. £3,000 on flights and accommodation, £4,500 on theme park tickets for the four of them.
“We went in term time in June because the price is triple the cost to go during the holidays,” she said.
“It’s the same for every holiday you look at even those in England at caravan parks and holiday camps.”
The bill that arrived in August
The penalty notices landed on 8 August, around two months after the family got home.
£160 per parent, per child, for a two-week absence.
£640.
They had budgeted for it, so it got paid. That isn’t the part she objects to.
“The fines are ridiculous but what’s more atrocious is that if we did this again within a three-year-period we could be prosecuted and sent to prison for child neglect, when all we have done is taken our children on holiday,” she said.
“Every child deserves a holiday but not every parent can afford to go during school time. I’d love to know where the money goes to.
You have real criminals out on the streets yet you are sending innocent families to prison for taking their kids out of school. The whole system is a joke.”
What Lily and George actually missed
The timing wasn’t random. Francesca and Liam waited until Lily, 11, had finished her SATs before booking anything.
While they were away she missed two school trips, one to Alton Towers and one to the Black Country Museum, a place the family have visited many times. She also missed sports day.
“We were walking 20,000 plus steps a day,” Francesca said.
“It was the holiday of a lifetime and we went to some of the best theme parks in the world but it was also very educational.
We swam with dolphins, fed alligators, learned about wildlife and they tried different foods.”
“What they learned in those two weeks I can guarantee was more than they learn in the last few weeks of the school year when everything starts to die down.”
There’s also the detail that irritates her most, which she says nobody has been able to explain.
“The school was also closed or open partially due to the heatwave so we are being fined for our kids being off school when others were allowed because it was too hot.”
Both children, she says, are either excelling or exactly where they should be, with attendance that is spotless apart from this.
Ten days a year
There won’t be a second trip. A repeat absence inside three years carries a prosecution risk, and Francesca says her job wouldn’t survive it.
“I work for the NHS – this would mean me losing my job as you cannot have anything on your DBS.
Myself and my husband have always worked and work hard and we don’t have fancy jobs. Any holidays we go on, we have to save hard for.”
What worries her is the families who don’t budget for the fine in advance.
“We live in a cost of living crisis, you can have a good week one week and a bad one the next.
If you’re having a bad week or month when these fines come through with a date stating it must be paid by a certain date or you will be prosecuted, this could worry people, put them into debt and affect their mental health.”
Her proposal is a modest one.
“I’m not saying I don’t agree with the fines completely, but I do think every child should be entitled to say 10 authorised days from school a year.
After this then yes, send the fines out because education is important.”
What the council says
A Sandwell Council spokesperson said: “We recognise that there is financial pressure on families and term-time holidays may be tempting.
But attendance at school is vitally important for children to reach their potential, and to gain the skills and qualifications that will give them the best start in life and the best future.
“Like all councils across the country, we work with schools to implement Government policy on unauthorised absence.”
Why It Matters
The fine is working exactly as designed and failing completely at the same time.
£640 is a real deterrent to a family on an NHS wage and a plasterer’s income.
It is also, in this case, roughly seven per cent of what the same fortnight would have cost in August, which turns a penalty into a line item.
Any policy that families can simply price in has stopped being a rule and started being a fee.
Term-time absence fines in England rose sharply after the national framework was tightened, and the number issued has climbed with them.
What hasn’t changed is the gap between term-time and holiday pricing, which is the actual thing driving the behaviour.
The Longhursts won’t chance it again.
Their next holiday, whenever they can afford one, will be in August with everyone else, at August prices.
Which is presumably the point.
