Half term Holidays – the Painful Truth!

Having just returned from a weeks holiday at Center Parcs, we weren’t particularly surprised to see a large number of school age children, whose parents had presumably, the week before half term, decided to take them out of school to save some considerable money on their family holiday. With the recent High Court ruling finding in favour of Dad Jon Platt – who successfully challenged his council over an £120 charge for taking his 6 year old daughter to Florida during term time, the number of parents making such decisions is likely to increase. I had to laugh the other day when my childless friend moaned about the number of children encroaching on her term time peace and quiet! 🙂

So what’s my view? Well I for one as a child had a good attendance record. I wasn’t very often sick, and I never missed school due to truancy or other “unorthodox” reasons. I enjoyed school, I loved to learn and play, and I got good grades. If my daughter is the same (which lets face it I hope she will be!), would I take her out of school for a week once a year? Yes, I probably would. I would argue that some of the experiences children have on holiday can be just as valuable as what they learn at school, particularly in the infant and junior years. Learning about geography, different cultures, history and languages to name but a few, but on a more basic level, bonding with family members, forming relationships, encouraging imagination and role play, and being exposed to nature. We live in a big city, so its rare my daughter gets to properly play in the great outdoors – in the last week we have seen more wildlife than we have seen in months – including deer, rabbits, geese, ducks and squirrels – right upon our doorstep!

So what is the true cost that parents are exposed to from half term holidays? The figures make for horrible reading!!

The break we have just had at Center Parcs costs around £429 for a week – the exact same break starting just one week later (in half term) was £1099 – that’s a MASSIVE 156% increase on the holiday price!!! With the average charge for taking your child out of school being £120 – its hardly going to put the average parent off!

The situation doesn’t appear to be improving – with figures reported by the Daily Mail today being just as bad as those recorded by the Guardian in 2014. Their comparison of some of the main family holiday packages found that all providers suffered a hike during school holidays – ranging from an 8% increase to a 99% increase at Butlins! You can see the full damage here – http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/feb/04/taking-kids-out-of-school-before-end-of-term

A petition, by Nottingham Dad, Dave Hedley, is calling for schools to allow up to 10 days authorised absence to help resolve this issue. It has already attracted over 176,000 signatures and will be discussed in Parliament in July. You can sign the petition here – https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/129698