A date has been set for the Isle of Wight council’s High Court hearing, where they aim to seek clarification on the law surrounding fines for school absence (see background).
“Delighted”
Nettlestone dad, Jon Platt, told OnTheWight that he’s “delighted” to have received an email yesterday letting him know the case was to be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in The Stand, London in May. He’s been calling the court every week for the last two months to try and find out when it’s going to happen.
“Dozens and dozens of parents from all over the UK have been calling,” Jon told OnTheWight, as so many people have been fined for taking their children out of school.
The case will be heard in front of The Hon. Mr Justice Cranston (Sir Ross Cranston). “We very lucky to have him as the Judge,” said Jon. The Judge has set aside two hours, when it was originally thought that it would need a half day.
The question to be decided
“The case comes down to the definition of the phrase ‘regular attendance’. The Isle of Wight council’s barrister seems to think this means every single day,” Jon said.
Jon is feeling good about his chances, “I’ve read the skeleton argument by our barrister and it’s brilliant. He’s come up with a whole bunch of new reasons and extra arguments that we hadn’t even considered for our previous case in front of the barrister.”
The hearing will take place on 13th May 2016.
Background
Jon Platt, who took his daughter out of school for six days for a family holiday, was told he had no case to answer by Magistrates last October as she had an almost 94% attendance record.
Expected to cost £10,000
The Isle of Wight council declared in November last year they would appeal the judgement and expected the cost of the challenge to be around £10,000.
Image: raver_mikey under a CC BY 2.0 license
