School is seen as "optional" by some families since the pandemic - and fines have failed to reverse the trend, the leader of a headteachers' union says today. Pepe Di'Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), will warn that fining parents for taking kids out of school without permission "often deepen tensions" with families. It comes as a poll found 93% of teachers had told this year that a pupil was absent as their family wanted to take a term time