By Angela Harrison BBC News Online education staff

Prices for holidays can double

Victoria Corry was absent for 11 teaching days - one more than is allowed under government guidelines.

Crumpsall Lane Primary school in north Manchester eventually re-admitted her - but the head teacher says government guidance on the issue is unclear.

The action came as government ministers urged holiday companies to consider curbing prices in the peak season.

Consumer Affairs Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, raised concerns about pricing policy with leaders from the holiday industry.

The Department for Trade and Industry says he brought up the issue in a general meeting of industry leaders.

He asked them to look at ways of cutting prices, including offering discounts to families who book for breaks during school holidays.

This is already being done in some areas.

'No clarity'

Families who take their children out of school for holidays often say they could not afford to take a break if they had to pay peak-time prices.

Prices between low and high-season often double.

Guidance from the Department for Education is that head teachers can give permission for a child to be taken out of school for up to 10 teaching days.

The child's absence is then marked down as "authorised".

Victoria Corry missed 11 days while on holiday in Spain with her family, and an end-of-year test.

If anything comes out of all this I hope it is that schools and parents are given better guidance Alastair Robertson, head teacher

After the holiday, she missed another six days of lessons while her parents negotiated with the school.

Weeks earlier she had received a good attendance award.

The head teacher of Crumpsall Lane primary school, Alastair Robertson, told BBC News Online there was a lack of clarity in government guidelines.

Head teachers and governors were not clear about what sanctions could be taken against parents who took their children out of school for more than 10 days.

Victoria's family had not asked for permission to remove her from school but had written to the school in early May to tell them she would be off school for 11 days, from 13 May, Mr Robertson said.

The school replied the next day saying a break of more than 10 days could not be permitted and telling them their daughter would be taken off the school roll - removed from its list of registered pupils - if she missed more than 10 days.

'Not enough clarity'

Mr Robertson said: "If anything comes out of all this I hope it is that schools, parents, governing bodies and local education authorities are given better guidance on this.

"The government has given education a high priority, saying how important full-time education is and how parents should not be taking children out of school, local authorities and schools have followed suit.

"But there is not enough clarity about what should be done on the ground.

"In this case, everyone was acting in their own best interest - the family who wanted a family holiday and the school in acting on the regulations."

A spokesperson for Manchester City Council said: "We have been in close discussion with the school over this issue and are very pleased that this pupil is now back in school."

A spokesperson for the Department for Education and Skills said taking a child off the school roll was a "very serious matter" and that they would expect a school to take advice from their local education authority before going down that route.

Supply and demand

Earlier this year the Office for Fair Trading rejected calls from the Liberal Democrats to investigate the issue of holiday pricing.

The OFT said there were no grounds for an inquiry.

The travel industry says its prices reflect supply and demand.

Keith Betton, a spokesman for the Association of British Travel Agents, said: "If you look at the big travel companies' financial results, you will see that they make a loss or only a tiny profit out of season.

"If they did not charge the higher prices during the peak they would soon be out of business."

Last year, the government suggested parents who took their children away for unauthorised holidays could be fined by the school or local authority.

The first fixed penalties (fines) for truancy are expected to be issued this week.

Some of your comments:

Mr Robertson has my full support. It's a shame that parents who take their children out of school during term time for no good reason are not fined and made to attend parenting skills courses, rather than the child being punished by being made to miss yet more school. But while that's the only option, I'm glad that some schools are finally hitting back.
Helen Buckley

It's ridiculous to say everyone acted in best interest, as head Robertson says, "In this case, everyone was acting in their own best interest - the family who wanted a family holiday and the school in acting on the regulations." How could such draconian action be justified for an 8 year old? At that age school should be fun. How will this affect her and her family's view towards school. The head needs sacking.
Steve Winter

I am married to a teacher, who unlike her pupils can not take time out of school to go on holiday. We have to pay premium rates for average package holidays. I think as a teacher she should receive subsidised holidays, nearing in mind that her pay is not fantastic.
Dave Wood

Doesn't anyone find it odd that a school is so worried that a pupil misses 11 days of schooling that they then exclude her for another 6 days? For the head teacher to pass the buck onto the government is pathetic, does he not have any common sense?
Wayne Boucher

I am a lone parent, having made this choice by adopting a child. I have just had to pay £1,500 for a week in Majorca in the school holidays to take my new daughter on holiday at the end of July. I also found that not only do I get penalised by higher prices in the school break, but I have also had to pay adult price for my child of 9 years old as I will be the only adult going - so in fact, I have been penalised twice just for wanting to bring some happiness into my adoptive daughter's life and take her on holiday.

Surely I am not the only lone parent to take a child on holiday, so the tour operators must be making a mint by penalising us this way. I think it is totally unfair and prices should not be so far out of reach for being a single parent and the government should be able to do something to stop them making more money out of us by having to pay adult fare for a child.
Janet

If the problem is supply and demand then we need to drastically reconsider how term breaks are set up. So, why is it not possible to stagger half term and summer breaks for maybe a week by county? I understand this is not possible over Christmas or Easter, but it seems to me that the summer holidays are the ones that are causing the problems.

Also, why are travel companies not making enough money at off peak times? There are now many many more single people, or people with no children who could travel at any time of the year. I find it upsetting that with a good job and reasonable income I still cannot afford to take my girlfriend and her two children away for even a week in the summer. It's tough enough off-peak.

I have a sneaky feeling however that rather like motorway service stations it is not supply and demand, but rather having a captive audience.
Craig Mold

Whilst I sympathise with families who feel that they cannot afford to take holidays during school holidays, I wonder whether they ever consider the teachers who are not, for obvious reasons, permitted to take holidays during term time, even the 10 days set for pupils. They have no choice but to turn in for work the week after half term knowing that a quarter of their class are still enjoying themselves on holiday somewhere around the world.
Rebecca Kirk

People seem to think it's their right to have a cheap foreign holiday. What absolute rubbish. I have two pre-school children and can't afford to take foreign holidays as it is. Parents who take children out of school for any length of time (I think 5 days is more than enough) should face fines or the loss of a place on the school roll, and no backing down later on.

We live in a free market economy where supply and demand determine prices. If more people expect foreign holidays than there are places, they will have to pay extra for it. The industry should look for more capacity at peak times, with innovative use of facilities (for school trips or business use) at off-peak times.

I don't think the answer is to change the school holidays or allow people to take children out of school, but to accept that you have to pay for such luxuries as foreign holidays. I also don't think it appropriate for the government to dictate prices for holidays.
Tom, Taunton, Somerset, UK

We recently had a threatening letter from our local authority in an attempt to dissuade us from taking children out of school for holidays and stating the importance of the children not missing school. However a teacher friend told us it was nonsense as in her view it was far more beneficial for the child to have a holiday than be in school providing it was not before the end of term exams.

Also the fines suggested by the government are only a fraction of the potential savings that one can often obtain in going only a few days earlier. Due to a genuine mix up over dates last year we inadvertently booked our holiday three days before the school term ended. We were surprised to find that with two children we saved about £500 and fortunately the school was flexible enough to accede to our request for the extra days off school.

The government would do better to look at ways of staggering the school terms throughout the country and imposing restrictions on the discrepancies between the lowest and highest prices charged by the holiday countries than threats of fines to the parents and expulsions to the pupils.
John Cooper, Warrington, Cheshire, UK

A number of people have suggested within their comments that local authorities should stagger holiday dates. This already happens in some parts of the country and, unfortunately, it also causes problems. A married couple I know are both teachers, and work in different authorities. When holiday dates vary, they are unable to take holidays together. This also affects teachers who work in a different area to the one they live in, since their children will attend a local school and sometime be on holiday during different weeks. In addition, there is an impact on voluntary organisations trying to cater for demand for half-term youth clubs and the like.
Steve, Darlington, UK

I have for the first time had to take my children out of school for our holiday because my husband is unable to book any time off during the school summer holidays, so what are we supposed to do? We are not given priority because we have families, or 9 times out of 10 everyone has to have the same holidays.

The majority of parents try to abide by the rules and sometimes genuinely have to take their children out of school. It seems to me before long we will have to write to the government for permission to have a holiday. It is always those who try to keep within the rules that are penalized. Schools today are given too much rope to dictate to parents what they should do. What about parent rights? The majority of parents will always make sure that their children have a good education and encourage them at all times, and I am one of those.
Mrs J Hemming

This is absolutely ridiculous. To equate family holidays with truancy is nonsence. Family holidays are enriching and often educational experiences for children and often the only concentrated time families get to spend together. I work because I have to not because I choose to, my children have child care after school and with the exceotion of our time on holiday in the school holidays too. You can't equate us having a planned and organised family holiday with children truanting because they can't be bothered to get out of bed in the morning or to go christmas shopping or for any number of other reasons they don't go to school on a casual basis. Perhaps we should ban residential and day trips in school time as these are no different to family holidays.
Pippa Jenkins

On reading the comments made by others, I am surprised to find that the main emphasis seems to be on rights of parents and/or teacher to take holidays, and little or no comment on the amount of disruption to the education of the individual child, and indeed the entire class, that 10 days' absence from school would create.

In primary schools, the pressure on teachers to deliver a full curriculum of learning, with the added presure of maintaining standards for Sats is already stertching resources and time. If one child misses 10 days of schooling, they risk missing whole chunks of the curriculum. The onus is then on the classroom teacher; do they allow this child's education to be neglected, or do they take time away from the whole class in order to help this one child to catch up?

If parents insist on taking their child away from school lessons to attend holidays, perhaps they should be made to pay for individual tuition at home to "fill in the gaps" during school holidays instead? Of course, this may well negate the savings made on off-peak holiday deals...
Genevieve, Manchester

My parents frequently took me out of school for holidays at that young age, including a whole month once for a trip to Africa. I can tell you that when I returned there was nothing I could not rapidly catch up with, and yet the educational value of such holidays, with such exposure at an early age to foreign cultures, was tremendously valuable, and have remained with me until today.

How about the schools applying some common sense to situations and individual pupils' situations, instead of this ridiculous 10-day blanket limit?
Matthew Bird, Thurrock, UK

I think the Mr. Robertson acted according to his interpretation of the guidelines. The fact that he had the guts to admit that his interpretation was incorrect, by reinstating the pupil should earn him a lot of respect. Well done Mr. Robertson.
Luke Robbins, Fleetwood Lancs

I'm amazed by the way people say "I have had to take my child out of school / pay for an expensive holiday" and so on. No one has to take their child on holiday. My mother was a single parent living on low income and so we never went abroad. But I really don't feel that I was deprived. However, if I'd had my schoolfriends boasting (as children will) about being allowed to miss weeks of classes in order to jet off to some foreign holiday, I might well have felt my family's relative poverty far more than I did. No child should be given preferential treatment by a school in the matter of truancy just because their family has enough money to take them abroad.
Beth, Oxford

It is easy to have a go at parents but surley it is the fault of the travel companies, if prices where the same all year round then I suspect that parents could afford an holiday. It is ridiculus to expect parentsto pay £1000 more for an holiday in July or August, when they can go cheaper in June or September.

If two weeks a year is going to upset the child 's education then there must be something wrong with that child's school.
Paul Eckersley, Radcliffe Manchester

Whilst I appreciate the reasoning behind the actions of Mr Robinson, I do not appreciate being told how many days I can take my child out of school legally. Last year I received a letter from my daughters school denying leave that we had booked and threatening a £100 fine.

But what they didn't take into consideration was the number of days that the school closes for "teacher training, etc", which amount to at least seven days maybe more.
Karina Stokes, Hertfordshire