Parents have been fined on more than 120 occasions in the past four years by 21 different schools for taking their children out of school during term time.

In a Freedom of Information request by the Enfield Independent, it has been revealed that parents were fined 125 times between 2011 and 2015.

Numbers soared between 2010 and 2012 from one to 36 fines in 2012. On 39 occasions parents were fined in 2013 with a slight dip in 28 in 2014.

Eldon Junior School, on Eldon Road, Edmonton, had the highest number of individual fines with 22 issued over four years.

However, the local authority has yet to reveal how much each fine would cost with schools setting their own level of fines.

Aylward Academy, in Windmill Road, Edmonton, was highest of secondary schools with 21 fines for parents taking their children out of school during term time.

An Enfield council spokesman said: “There are 46,179 pupils in the school population in Enfield and as such the proportion of parents issued with fines is extremely small (it varies from one in 46,179 in 2010 to one in 1,184 in 2013).

“However, it is in both parents’ and children’s best interests to attend school on a regular basis so they can take advantage of the high quality education on offer so on the rare occasions where children do not attend school we work with the family to encourage them to improve their child’s attendance and offer support where appropriate.

“Issuing fixed penalty notices is very much a last resort and they are only used when all the other options available to us are exhausted. Where schools have experienced temporary increases in unauthorised absence we put in place an action plan to address the situation, and these strategies are effective in quickly bringing levels of unauthorised absences down.”