Holidays are NOT for term time, parents told

It’s just the start of the new school term, but Jessica would like to know when her holidays are this year…

Given that her father works abroad and his work dictates when he will be back in the UK, it’s very hard to book time for their holiday together and see that it coincides with her schools holidays.

Isn’t it time we actually did away with a 6 week break in the summer for the kids? If teaching time is that precious, as the Essex County Council assure us, surely it’s time to put an end to the long laborius summer breaks and focus on their education.

IT was ever thus. Parents, desperate to take their children away on holiday but confounded by price hikes, do what all parents have done at least once. They take their children out of school during term time.

All those with children and limited cash will sympathise. Airlines, travel agents, hotels – even B&Bs – raise their rates for those summer, Christmas and Easter weeks when school is out. Go during term time and the prices of many holidays are halved.

There’s another thing. It isn’t as though pupils, whatever their ages, are actually learning during the last week of term, so where is the harm?

But according to Essex County Council, the local education authority (LEA), there is a great deal of harm.

Take a child out of school during term and that child’s education will be disrupted. As far as county council leader Lord Hanningfield is concerned, it doesn’t matter whether it is a day or a month, once lost, that time is lost forever.

DECISION Which is why the county council has launched a new advertising campaign not only highlighting the effect on children’s education but how taking them out of school for cheap holidays will still hit their parents’ pockets.

Simon Walsh, county council cabinet member for schools, children and families, has insisted parents who take their children on unauthorised, term-time holidays can expect to receive a penalty notice of £50.

“And rightly so. The educational opportunities we have to offer in Essex should be grabbed with both hands. School attendance is not optional,” he said.

“The Department for Children, Schools and Families tells us that missing just 17 days of school each year can result in a drop in GCSE achievement. What price do you put on that?”

Holidays are NOT for term time, parents told (From Billericay Weekly News).

Where exactly is the money from these fines going to go?

Sarah