'There is a time and a place for holidays ... and term time is not it'

A NORTH East council has defended taking a “very strict” stance on children being taken on holiday during school time, after a huge spike in the number of fines being dished out to families.

- By DANIEL HOLLAND

The number of penalties handed out in Newcastle for unauthorised school absences due to term-time holidays has rocketed in the last few years with 2024's total being almost 60 times higher than just two years earlier.

Just 40 such fines were issued in the city in 2022, but that rose to 734 in 2023, and then to 2,365 in 2024.

Councillors were told this week that city education chiefs had a hard line on the issue and that requests would only be authorised in very exceptional circumstances.

In August last year, the Government increased the minimum fine for taking pupils out of school without permission from £60 to £80 in England, in an effort to drive up attendance rates.

Mark Patton, Newcastle City Council's assistant director of education, said that school leaders on Tyneside "have taken a very clear and rational line in Newcastle and have been very strict” even though the stance had “not been popular at all” with parents.