A MOTHER-OF-FOUR says she would rather pay the fine for taking her kids on holiday during term time as it is cheaper than paying the hiked price of a holiday during the school break.

Gemma Lawson and her husband Symeon, from Bournemouth, were taken to court recently after taking their children, who are aged 7-14, on an unauthorised holiday.

The couple were fined a total of £200 each and ordered to pay costs of more than £400.

While she thinks the strict legislation concerning term-time holidays is “quite unfair”, Gemma says the prospect of a fine has never put her off from taking her family away during the school term.

“Since the new law came in, we’ve received a letter and a fine every time we’ve gone on holiday during term time. This time, it went straight to court, and we weren’t expecting that.

“A lot of people have asked if it’s put me off but it hasn’t. Children need to go away with their family as making memories is important.

“We’ve tried our hardest to take our children on holiday in half term, but it’s just not possible with a family of six.

“Our last holiday to Tenerife in October last year cost around £1,500 in total the week before half term – during the half term week, the price was £3,900. There’s just no way we can pay that.”

Gemma said she had taken her children on two holidays a year since new legislation concerning unauthorised absences was introduced in September 2013, leading to fines totalling over £1,400.

Up until their recent prosecution, Gemma and Symeon had only been fined for the absences of their youngest two children who attend Winton Primary School.

“I have friends with kids at other schools who have been fine to take their kids on holiday during term time,” Gemma said.

“Obviously, we wouldn’t take the kids away if they had exams – it’s only the week before the school holidays when they are doing mainly fun things at school. All of my children have attendance of over 85 per cent.

“Fining parents is quite unfair, but even if they won’t change the law they should somehow reason with holiday companies to stop prices from being inflated so much during the school holidays,” she added.

Earlier this year the Supreme Court ruled against Isle of Wight dad Jon Platt who claimed he should not have been penalised for taking his daughter to Florida in term time because her attendance was over 90 per cent.