Taking your children on holiday during term time has become a huge talking point, with parents being fined if they take their children out of school during the school period.
Parenting on Female First
New reports have revealed that private schools allow children to travel abroad during term time, causing anger among parents with children in state schools.
Families with children in the private education sector are not liable for fines if they take their children out of school during term time for holidays unlike those with children in state schools.
TravelZoo carried out the research and found that 69% of parents think this is deeply unfair on those attending state schools.
Many private schools have shorter terms and longer holidays, meaning they can potentially avoid peak travel times. Parents are frustrated as research shows an increase of over 80% in flights to popular destinations between the date private schools break up and the date the state schools finish for the summer, leaving 73% of parents saying that this is unfair.
The Government passed legislation to remove ‘family holiday’ as a reason to take children out of school during term time, despite this change over half admit they have taken children out during term time and have concealed the reasons for doing so, and a further 53% said they would continue to. 56 believe that the decision lies with the parents when taking children out of school during term time, and interestingly 1 in 10 would definitely report parents for doing this.
However, parents do believe that if a child’s attendance is above ninety per cent then 53% believe a holiday during term time should be allowed.
Other suggestions include David Cameron’s idea of staggering school holidays - in fact three quarters believe this to be a great solution. However some have argued that it comes with risks of longer periods of time having increased holiday prices, which in turn could affect more holiday makers.