There is confusion among head teachers about what constitutes an "exceptional circumstance" during which a child can be taken out of school, according to MPs debating term-time holiday bans in the Commons.
A debate between MPs in the House of Commons on Monday heard that 90 per cent of teachers would welcome advice from the Government on what constitutes an "exceptional circumstance", the phrase at the heart of recently-introduced legislation governing fines for term-time holidays.
Opponents to the ban, including the Local Government Association, also called on the Government to use “common sense” instead of issuing blanket fines to parents for holiday absences.
Since September, 2013, under guidance from the Department of Education, children can only be taken out of school during term time in “exceptional circumstances”.
If they skip school during term time, parents face a £60 fine that doubles if not paid within three weeks. Those failing to pay face prosecution and, if convicted, a fine of up to £2,500, or up to three months in prison.
It was revealed last week that fines for term-time holidays have trebled since the ban was introduced two years ago.
The staggering of term dates has been touted by parents groups and travel companies as a possible solution to the high peak costs parents face when booking holidays during school holidays.
Some major airlines, according to the holiday booking website Travelzoo, have predicted that the price of flights would drop if UK school holidays were staggered regionally, in the way that they are in France and Germany.
The company collated the opinions of teachers and travel operators regarding the ban and the research was presented to MPs in the Commons.
Most of the travel companies Travelzoo spoke to agreed that staggering term dates is an option that should be investigated further, as it could lead to more affordable holidays for state-school parents.
However, the research, which questioned nearly 500 state school teachers, also revealed that it was a solution unlikely to be implemented, with only 4 per cent of teachers saying they would impose it.
Even worse, more than half of the teachers and head teachers surveyed weren’t even aware that staggering was an option for their school.
MPs suggested that the current legislation is wrong to imply that time out of school cannot be beneficial and argued that parents were best placed to decide what was in their children’s interests, not the school.
'Every child is unique and it should be for their parents to decide what is right and best for their child'
MP Steve Double
Steve Double, MP for St Austell and Newquay, who led the debate said: “While I support the aim of getting children to attend school regularly, I fundamentally disagree that telling parents when they can and cannot take their children on holiday is a job for the state.
"This policy effectively says to people who cannot take a holiday during school holiday times that they cannot have a family holiday - this to me seems completely unfair.”
Double continued: “Every child is unique and it should be for their parents to decide what is right and best for their child. Some parents will decide the best thing for their child is to be in school at all times.
"Others will decide that the benefit of a family holiday and the experience of travel, experiencing new cultures and meeting new people is more beneficial for their child than being in school for that week but it should be for the parent to make that choice.”
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