4 days ago
Parents fined £640 for taking daughters out of school for medical treatment
Parents whose daughters suffer from a skin condition have been fined hundreds of pounds for taking their children out of school for treatment.
Cristina Halmac, of Johnson Fold, sends her two daughters to Church Road Primary School in Smithills.
The girls, who are in Year One and Year Five, both suffer from a skin condition and have been awaiting dermatology appointments through the NHS.
However, Cristina says that these appointments have been cancelled on more than one occasion.
In late June, a further dermatology appointment for the girls was cancelled, so Cristina decided to take them to see a specialist in Romania, for which they missed seven days of school.
She applied for a leave of absence, but it was not authorised by Church Road.
Under national guidance, all schools are required to consider a fine when a child has missed five days or more for unauthorised reasons.
The skin condition suffered by Cristina's daughters (Image: Public) In total, Cristina and her husband were fined £640 for the absence. The girls have since returned to school.
She said: "The NHS appointment was cancelled, they were cancelled many times. So I thought I needed to take my children to a different place."
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The girls were seen by a clinician in Romania, who prescribed them medication.
Skin condition (Image: Public) Cristina added: "I took them to the doctor and when we came back we had been given a penalty.
"I don't think it is right. I tried to explain the situation but the school did not want to speak to me.
"I want to change my daughters from this school, as I don't think it is normal to penalise people for taking their children to a doctor."
A spokesperson for Church Road Primary School said: 'Children need to attend school regularly to benefit from their education as missing out on lessons leaves children vulnerable to falling behind.
'Parents are committing an offence if they fail to make sure that their child attends school regularly and the absence is unauthorised by the Headteacher.
'If anyone is experiencing problems with their child's attendance at school, it is important they work closely with the school to resolve the matter.'
