It must be more lenient in Scotland - our girls' school have an award ceremony in the last week before the Summer break up and the number of kids who are called up to collect an award only for someone to confirm they are not in school is amazing - and they are all off on holiday. We took our girls out 2 days early this year (having seen this award ceremony several times!!) but it was by accident - we always fly on the same day each year, in previous years it was just after the end of school term, for some reason this year ended a week later.
However, no strife, no fines, we asked for permission and were told that it would be marked down as "unauthorised absence" - no punishments though.
Last year we met a family from Essex on holiday - we were in school holiday time up here but England still had a number of weeks to go. When we asked what they had to do to get their kids out for the holiday they said they got special permission for a close family member's wedding. They didn't take any chances, everyone got dressed up one day, including bride in wedding dress, bridesmaids all matching, photographer.
Nothing strange there you may think. Well no, apart from it being all for show and photos, there was no wedding
