The nightmare of school holidays

The decision by the Supreme Court to find against parent Jon Platt in his battle with his local education authority is both outrageous and debatable. Mr Platt took his daughter on holiday for a week during the school term in 2015 and was arbitrarily fined by Isle of Wight council for doing so. Platt successfully fought the verdict in the high court, yet for reasons best known to themselves, the council decided to take it to a higher authority. Where next, if they had been unsuccessful, one wonders. The European Court of Human Rights? God?

As a parent also fined for removing my children during term I know how Mr Platt feels, even if I didn’t have the time, money or courage to fight our case. We wanted to take our son and daughter to Australia for Christmas a couple of years back, and asked the head of their state school for permission to remove them two weeks early.