A MUM who’s facing a criminal record for taking her kids out of school to go on three holidays in three years has hit back at the controversy.
Whitney Ainscough jetted off on three family holidays during school time last year with her partner and three children, Cora Bentley, 12, Addison Squires, seven, and Adley Christopher, three.
For their £5,000 trip to Cyprus in June last year, the children missed five days of school, before missing a further five days when they went to Zante on an £8k trip the following month.
Whitney then took her brood to Disneyland Paris on a day trip she insisted was “educational”.
The self-professed ‘bad mum’ has now appeared on London’s LBC radio to defend herself, after receiving a single justice procedure notice last month outlining that she is being charged under Section 444 (1) of the Education Act 1996.
“I’ve only been on two holidays within three years,” Whitney argued during the radio interview.
“No, no, you’ve been to Paris as well for a day,” host Tom Swarbrick insisted.
“One day. It’s a holiday!” Whitney said.
“So when it says if your child is off school three or more times within three years, and they have been, you are not going to be fined, you’re going to be taken to court, Whitney,” Tom retorted.
“I’m really sorry.”
“I think it is really unfair. It is unfair. But they’re my kids. Right, they’re my kids,” Whitney insisted.
“They’re not the government’s kids.
“If I want to take my kids out and experience the world… I could leave them at home with family, happily.
“But I don’t want to take my kids out of that.
“I want to bring them with me, you know?”
“You’re right, they are your children,” Tom replied.
“But they are also given a right over and above your decisions with where to take them for an education.
“They have that right. And that right needs to be protected.
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“That right to education even needs to be protected from you.”
“If they’re not my kids, the government can start paying me for them then,” Whitney replied.
“They are your children,” Tom said, to which Whitney retorted: “Well, apparently they’re not the government’s kids!”
Tom refused to let it go as he then said: “Their right to an education is protected over and above even their mum’s decision to say, ‘Right kids, we’re off, we’re going to Paris again, here we go, here’s the Arc de Triomphe, you’re having a lovely time’.”
Section 444 (1) of the Education Act 1996 states that if a child of compulsory school age who is a registered pupil at a school fails to attend regularly at school, his parent is guilty of an offence.
A person charged with the offence has to prove they had a ‘reasonable justification’ for their child’s failure to attend regularly at the school.
After receiving the letter informing her of the legal proceedings, Whitney told her TikTok followers: “I was expecting that I may get another fine but I’d not heard anything and it had been months.
“I was absolutely furious, fuming.
“To be honest with you, it would absolutely make me laugh.
“How could you even threaten somebody with jail for taking their kids on holiday?
“I just can’t understand the logic of it.
“What do you want me to do? Leave my kids at home while I go off on fancy holidays with my partner?
“No. I’m sure social services would be getting involved at that point.
“I take my kids on a nice holiday to see the world and you get penalised for it. It’s absolutely disgusting.”
