Mum fined for taking son out of school for ONE EXTRA DAY after Egypt holiday is moved due to Sharm plane crash horror
Debbie Proudler was fined £240 by Dudley Council after taking her 10-year-old out of school for an extra day at the end of term
A FURIOUS mum has slammed a school fine for taking her son out during term-time - despite their holiday being rearranged due to a terror threat.
Debbie Proudler, 39, planned to take her sons Lewis, 13, and Ellis, ten, to Sharm El Sheikh last December, but had the trip cancelled amid terror fears.
The family holiday was put on hold after ISIS terrorists bombed a Russian airliner out of the sky, killing all 224 people on board - and causing most travel companies to stop flights to the Egyptian hotspot.
Holbeach Travel, who Debbie booked the family holiday through, rearranged the break to another Egypt destination - but could only fly the family out a day earlier.
The boys were originally set to miss four days of the last week of school, or eight registration sessions, but this became five after the trip was changed.
While both schools approved the original break, Ellis' school, Blanford Mere Primary, would not authorise the extra day when it was rearranged.
Debbie, from Kingswinford, West Mids, said: "Lewis' school was absolutely brilliant, they had no problem with it.
"But when I went in to explain the situation to Ellis' school, they just said 'well we can't authorise it'."
Despite arguing terrorism is an exceptional circumstance, she was told the school could not authorise the trip and was forced to take the Year 5 pupil out anyway.
Debbie was unable to arrange the holiday for any other time as the travel agents could only accommodate a rescheduled trip between December and April, and only had one option over the festive period.
Debbie explained: "We have a gas business, which shuts down over Christmas so it's the only time we could go. If we hadn't taken that trip we'd have lost all our money."
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On Ellis' second day back at school after the Christmas break, Debbie came home from the afternoon school run to find an education officer on her door.
She was told she needed to pay a £120 fine for taking Ellis out of school without authorisation.
Furious Debbie tried to fight the fine, as Ellis had a 93 per cent attendance record for the year, and 97 per cent and 96 per cent for the two years before.
After explaining the holiday was cancelled due to the Russian Metrojet tragedy, the officer agreed to hold off on fining Debbie and advised the mum-of-two to go back to the school and ask again to have the one extra day authorised in light of what had happened at the resort.
However after doing so, Debbie received a response from the headteacher saying the school governers did not deem terrorist action as exceptional circumstances, and the request was refused.
In the following weeks Debbie sent numerous letters to the chair of governors, but had no luck in persuading them to authorise the day off.
Debbie claims Holbeach Travel even sent a letter to the school "saying it's ridiculous in light of what's happened", but the school still argued it wasn't exceptional circumstances.
Eventually Ellis' dad Lee Proudler, 43, told Debbie to pay the fine, which had now doubled as so much time had passed, as he didn't want to take the argument to court.
Furious Debbie said: "It's ridiculous. We ended up paying £240 fine for one day as Blanford Mere Primary School do not see terrorist action a exceptional circumstances, for a child with very good attendance."
She added: "He missed seeing Santa, watching DVDs, playing games and a disco. It was the last week of school before Christmas so I honestly don't feel he's lost any education whatsoever. It's a joke."
Nikki Miller, head teacher at Blanford Mere Primary School, said: “Good attendance in school is vital for an all round education, and it is something we pride ourselves on.
"These national rules are set by government and apply to all schools up and down the country. The rules make it impossible for us to agree for children to have time off during school term, unless there are exceptional circumstances which does not include family holidays.
"As this is government policy we will continue to enforce this requirement. Thankfully, the vast majority of parents at the school share our vision for making the education of children through regular attendance, a top priority.”
Dudley Council has been contacted for comment.
Lucy Bate, from Holbeach, Travel said: "Due to the horrendous atrocities that occurred in Sharm El Sheikh the British Foreign Office took the decision to stop all British planes going there, which meant Mrs Proudler and her family were no longer able to go.
"They were allowed only to amend their holiday, not to cancel it. We, Holbeach Travel, worked closely together with Mrs Proudler to try and find a suitable alternative and the ONLY one available was the holiday they had to take to Hurghada.
"I am appalled Mrs Proudler has been issued a fine for something that was completely out of hers, and the whole of the UK's control.
"We are governed by the UK Foreign Office, if they advise it is unsafe for customers to travel to countries with terrorism and other issues, we have to abide by their rules."