'No fines for term-time holidays'

Has anyone been fined for taking pupils on holiday in term-time?

Head teachers' leaders say parents are not being fined for taking children on term-time holidays - as heads do not want to use such penalty powers.

Last February, the government announced a clampdown in which heads could fine parents £100 for such term-time breaks.

Although heads support calls to limit term-time breaks, they say they have never come across fines being applied.

The Department for Education says it does not have separate figures for fines for parents on term-time breaks.

As such it cannot say whether any parent has been fined for taking their child on an unauthorised break in school time under the powers introduced last year.

The figures for truancy penalty fines will be available in the summer, said a spokesperson for the Department for Education and Skills. But they will not distinguish between different types of truancy penalties.

There are believed to have been several hundred fines imposed by local education authorities for unauthorised absences.

'Zero tolerance'

The debate about whether parents should be able to take their children on holiday during school terms has been rekindled by a teachers' union leader, who suggested that there were educational benefits to be gained from such trips.

Last year the government launched a high-profile drive to reduce such term-time breaks, with announcements of a "zero tolerance" approach against such absenteeism.

This included £100 fines to be targeted against parents who took their children on term-time holidays - which were to be used by heads against those families who ignored the warnings.

But the leaders of the two biggest head teachers' unions, the Secondary Heads Association (SHA) and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), say they have never come across a case of a head teacher imposing a fine.

"Heads do not want to get into fining parents or taking on a pseudo-judicial role. It would damage their relationships with parents," said John Dunford, leader of SHA.

And David Hart, general secretary of the NAHT, says that heads are against children being withdrawn for such holidays, but they do not want to start enforcing such rules with fines.

The threat of the penalty fine had been raised by the then education minister, Ivan Lewis, who warned parents: "Taking a child out of school for a holiday without the head's permission is unacceptable and will be treated as truancy."