Thousands miss school for hols
Tuesday 11th September 2007, 7:05PM BST.
Tens of thousands of pupils are skipping school across Shropshire – and cut price family holidays are to blame, new Government figures reveal today.
They show secondary and primary school pupils in the Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin authority areas were absent from some 688,725 classes during spring term 2007 – of which 37,697 were unauthorised absences.
Figures for England show there were more than 49 million overall absences and more than seven million were unauthorised.
For the first time this year, the statistics, released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families also include details of the reasons for absences.
The most common was “illness” which accounted for 61 per cent of all instances. Family holidays and medical/dental appointments were other reasons.
Ministers said parents must make sure their children turn up to class and urged them to avoid taking them away on holiday in term time.
And they pointed the finger at travel companies, which they said should not overcharge during the summer holidays. Some 5.4 million school days were lost due to holidays during autumn 2006 and spring 2007.
Currently, schools are able to grant up to 10 days authorised holiday, but guidance to schools states that this should not be seen as an automatic right for parents and that headteachers should consider how seriously the holiday would affect the child’s progress at school.
Children’s Minister Kevin Brennan said: “While I sympathise with the financial pressure on parents when planning holidays, no cut price deal is worth harming a child’s education for.”
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permision should always be sought, but i would like to see proof that taking a child out of school for 10 days harms that childs education , we take our children out for up to 6 weeks during the summer . the length of these authorised holidays should be what the experts should be looking at , this is what harms a childs education
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I never take my son out of school for Hols but i can understand why it happens,have you seen the obscene way that prices rise abroad and here in the school hols.
Even campsites rip us off.
Its another example of rip off Britain and should be tackled by the government.
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I wonder if a similar analysis has been done of how much education time a child looes due to factors that the school manage. e.g.:
- Teachers absent
- Inappropriate cover / supply teachers
- Teachers having something more important to do than teaching their class
- Children taken out for special events such as sports matches, drama productions and trips.
It would also be interesting to know how children are affected by various patterns of absence and if the patterns of absence are evidence of other social issues
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I wouldn’t say that it was cheap holidays that are to blame, but extortionate prices during the school holidays. For most holiday purposes a child becomes a full fare paying adult at the age of 12, so you’re penalised all ways. Double the cost during the holidays and double the price for your child. Taking my child out of school is the last thing that I want, but I also value holiday times together, it’s a difficult compromise.
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Isn’t it time to consider more flexible school opening?
A more modern approach to education is, I think, called for.
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The Government said they were going to tackle holiday companies years ago, and have done nothing.
If you look in a holiday brochure you can see when each of the school holidays are including half terms, as the price shoots up for every one.
It is not just the cost which persuades people to take their children on holiday during term time though. As a businessman I travel a lot, and so many places are totally different and more pleasant during term time when they are not packed with holidaymakers. I loathe the holiday periods in the UK when the roads are clogged with traffic meandering slowly along, tourist towns are packed with nowhere to park, and any decent restaurant is full.
Why dont the Government look at staggering school holidays throughout the year. Split the year into four terms, and reduce the ridiculously long 6 week holiday. Different areas could have different dates. Summer hols could be in June in Essex, July in the Midlands, August in Yorkshire, and so on. That way some would be on holiday all the time, resorts in the UK would have a steadier turnover, as would airports, and the thieving holiday companies would be scuppered.
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