A KINGSWINFORD mum has branded school rules banning term time holidays as "militant, harsh and ridiculous" after a year of trying to overturn a fine issued after she took her daughter on a one-off dream holiday to Lapland during the school calendar.

Adele Westwood and her husband Matthew were issued with fixed penalty fines for £60 each after they took eight-year-old daughter Abigail out of school for a week to see Santa in his winter wonderland as a birthday treat for her and her younger sister Elissa in November 2015.

Headteacher Nikki Miller, of Kingswinford's Blanford Mere Primary School, has insisted she's just following government policy and that rules set down have made it "impossible" for her to agree to children taking time out during term time.

But a landmark High Court ruling in May this year - which determined Isle of Wight father Jon Platt had not broken the law by taking his daughter on holiday during term time because she had attended school regularly - has thrown interpretation of the policy into chaos.

Mrs Westwood claims other parents of youngsters at Blanford Mere, accused of taking unauthorised absences for holidays, have not been fined since the ruling - "making a total mockery of the unfair system".

She says she has asked for her fine to be refunded in light of the court case but to no avail and she added: "The law was apparently correct at the time of our holiday to Lapland but now nobody is getting fined."

Headteacher Mrs Miller has refused to budge on the matter and said in a statement: “Good attendance in school is vital for an all round education, and it is something we pride ourselves on.

"These national rules are set by government and apply to all schools up and down the country.

"The rules make it impossible for us to agree for children to have time off during school term, unless there are exceptional circumstances which does not include family holidays and we would not authorise this. As this is government policy we will continue to enforce this requirement.

"Thankfully, the vast majority of parents at the school share our vision for making the education of children through regular attendance, a top priority.”

Mrs Westwood, however, has branded the school's stance as "militant and way too strict" and said the few days away from the classroom were not likely to affect her daughter's grades or attendance.

She said: "This was our first term time absence and it was for a very special and unique reason that the children will never forget. Abigail has 97 per cent school attendance which again contradicts the statement that our child has failed to attend school regularly."

She's not the only parent to have fallen foul of the rules at the school based in Mimosa Walk.

Parent Deb Proudler and husband Lee were hit with fines totting up to £240 after they took their sons Ellis, now 11, and Lewis, aged 13, on holiday to Egypt last year.

They had been granted four days leave for Blanford Mere pupil Ellis but they ended up having to take five days instead after a terrorist bomb blast, which brought down a Russian plane in Egypt's Sinai peninsula on October 31, forced their holiday company to move their departure date.

The extra day off school for Ellis during the last few days before the official Christmas break triggered a fixed penalty notice to be issued and Mrs Proudler's repeated pleas for the matter to be considered an exceptional circumstance have fallen on deaf ears. Kingswinford School, which Lewis attends, did not issue a fine.

Mrs Proudler was so disgruntled over the fines she spoke out on Good Morning Britain and ITV's Tonight programme last Thursday.

Both she and Mrs Westwood say they are angry to have discovered parents with children at other nearby schools have not been hit with fines despite taking term time breaks and Mrs Westwood added: "We suspect lots more headteachers have a more human approach to those who deserve fines and those who don't.

"How can the rules be so different elsewhere when they are all Dudley LEA schools and why isn't the policy across the board to achieve fairness and equality for all parents?

"No-one can answer these questions so this is why we feel so strongly and why we want Dudley Council and Blanford Mere to do the right thing and apologise to us, change the unfair, harsh policy and refund us accordingly."

Councillor Ian Cooper, Dudley's cabinet member for children’s services, said: "The rules around absence are set nationally and in this case the school has applied its own policy and procedures on term time holidays, and authorising holidays is at the headteacher’s discretion.”

Councillor Paul Brothwood, leader of Dudley's UKIP group, said of the matter: "It should be one rule for everybody - it needs to be fair and consistent."