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Term Time Leave

I am soon to go on my first term-time holiday for nearly thirty years. It's okay, I am allowed to, having retired from teaching in September, so there's no need to report me. It still feels a bit naughty, though. There are so many flights now that I don't expect the airport experience is going to be any less stressful, and my experience of planes is that the most challenging passengers tend to be below school age, but we shall see if anything is different.

One thing that is definitely not different is the price! I was expecting it to be much cheaper to go in June than in August, but maybe that is down to the fact that we have chosen not to go on a typical family beach-holiday. Out of curiosity, as cost is the reason given by parents 99.9% of the time, let's look at a more 'traditional' foreign holiday to see if there is any difference. Although I love Mallorca, it has some very family-friendly sites, so let's use it as our example.

I've picked a mid level, 'holiday village', with apartments rather than hotel rooms, as that is more likely to be the choice of a family. For a week, flying from Bristol on 25/6, it would cost a family of four £3162.28. It's all inclusive, so that seems reasonable. If we look at exactly the same trip in August, flying from the same airport on 16/7, the price increases to £4787. That is an increase of 51%. I am sure that there are holidays with higher and lower increases, but it is little wonder that families feel pressured to take holidays in term time.

With my headteacher hat on (I never actually had a headteacher hat, but it sounds like a good idea!) then I would say a week of absence from school was detrimental to a child's education and that parents who take their children out in term time should be fined. However, my feelings were, and remain, much more nuanced than that. Given the cost of the trip and the size of the fine, who can blame them. A fine will probably not stop them and it will just ruin your relationship with the family. I think that, if a child has a pattern of good attendance, that schools should turn a blind eye to the odd term time absence here and there. If we are talking about the difference between 97% and 95% attendance, is that really going to make a difference?

In my view, school focus too much on the attendance of children for whom it is not really an issue. They should, of course, be giving serious attention to those with poor attendance, but we are talking about two very different groups here. Overall, a slightly more relaxed attitude to term-time holidays would be a good thing for schools, but I can't see that happening any time soon.

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