As you all know we have been trying for years to lobby for changes to the current legislation regarding school attendance.

We are small group of volunteers that spend our free time campaigning for changes. Keeping the issue alive.

There have been many people that came on board and subsequently left as the campaigning process can be very frustrating and difficult at times. With limited funds and limited support, there is very little one can do. However we are determined to carry on fighting and despite the few setbacks we believe that eventually we will be able to influence the very needed changes.

Jon Platt’s Supreme Court result made it apparent that parents can be criminalised for SINGLE DAY of unauthorised school absence. Years of case law that parents previously relied when defending s.444 (1) prosecutions in the past is no longer there for us to use. Supreme Court judgment limited the defence options to statutory defences listed in s. 444 (3) and s.444 (4) Education Act 1996.

(3)The child shall not be taken to have failed to attend regularly at the school by reason of his absence from the school—

(a)with leave,

(b)at any time when he was prevented from attending by reason of sickness or any unavoidable cause, or

(c)on any day exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which his parent belongs.

(4)The child shall not be taken to have failed to attend regularly at the school if the parent proves—

(a)that the school at which the child is a registered pupil is not within walking distance of the child’s home, and

(b)that no suitable arrangements have been made by the local education authority for any of the following—

(i)his transport to and from the school,

(ii)boarding accommodation for him at or near the school, or

(iii)enabling him to become a registered pupil at a school nearer to his home.

We are determined to carry on fighting for those very necessary changes but we need your help.

We can make it and we will but this can be possible only if we will have much higher number of supporters in our page- we aim to have community of 100k by the end of December.

Our goals:

-To significantly increase our facebook community which will allow us to reach much wider audience and equally it will make our voices heard.

- To submit yet another petition to ban fines as well as prosecutions for unauthorised absence. This time we would like t to be signed by 500k supports

- To submit successful petition to ban attendance awards in schools – aiming for 500k signatures

In order to reach the wider audience we will have to cover facebook marketing feels which are as high as £50 per one boosted post. In order to achieve our goals we will have to make sure that all our posts are paid for and boosted by facebook.

Without essential funds to cover marketing fees related with the campaign we are very unlikely to succeed in our efforts to make the changes happen.

We are asking for small donations from parents, grandparents, uncles and aunties to help us rise £1000 to cover necessary marketing expenses.

All our marketing ivoices will be available on our website- that is what makes us different to some other campaigning groups- we are transparent and passionate. We are determined and we strongly believe our hard work will eventually pay off.

PLEASE NOTE- nobody at PWAS receives salary for the work they do for the campaign. All money from donations will be spend strictly to cover marketing invoices.

Thank you

PWAS