Today is the day that many children in England return to school following their summer holidays. For the next few days social media feeds will be filled with pictures of doorways and uniformed children posted by proud parents.

But this isn't the reality for many families where their children struggle with barriers to attending to school. Many will begin this week without happy pictures but facing into another school year of fighting for help and support. Maddie and I have been where you are and we feel for each and every one of you.

Today is also the day that new Attendance Guidance applies in England, so called "Working together to improve school attendance" it's already being used by schools and LA's to justify fines, threaten prosecution and reject solutions such as part-time timetables.

Brendan Clarke-Smith MP and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families wrote to assure me that "Schools will be expected to have sensitive conversations with pupils about their needs" however even before the guidance took effect this was not the reality.

Maddie and I have noticed that MP's and those in the Department of Education are providing templated generic responses to parent concerns when we write to them. This isn't good enough.

We would like to shine a light on the unfair punishments being inflicted on families and show that fines, prosecution and negative experiences are happening. By sharing the experiences of those that are happy to do so either by petition update or in the press we will raise awareness and press the Department of Education to change the guidance, or incorporate an Attendance Code of Practice as recommended by leading organisation Square Peg.

Please get in touch with us to share your experiences - how have attendance fines affected you? Why does this issue matter to you?

Let us know in your email where you are based and if you are happy for us to contact you.

All answers will be stored securely and only accessible by people working directly on this campaign. Any information given will be kept private unless we're specifically authorised to share it.

Our email address is:

maddieandsusan.noschoolfines@gmail.com

Finally, if your child, or someone you know is having difficulty attending school please know that you are not alone. You can find help, support and resources from organisations such as "Not Fine In School" https://notfineinschool.co.uk/ and "Define Fine" http://definefine.org.uk/ 

Please do not suffer in silence and we encourage you to seek help from parents and carers who have been where you are - we did and it supported our families

Warm wishes,

Maddie and Susan x

 P.S Today's picture is a "not back to school" picture of Maddie and son Harleigh, now supported with education out of school. His smile can perhaps give all of us hope -  doorstep pictures are great if school is meeting your child's needs - but if not, there is life beyond that uniform. This is for you if you need to hear that today x