FINES for term-time absences are making family holidays “the preserve of the middle classes,” Britain’s largest teaching union warned yesterday.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) will debate a motion calling for the repeal of penalties for parents who book trips outside the set holidays at its Easter weekend annual conference.

Under plans pioneered by ex-education secretary Michael Gove in 2013, parents can be fined £60 per child per parent for each absence, doubling if it is not paid within four weeks.