Home many parents will read with complete surprise today’s report on the ban, from this September, of state school pupils taking holiday during term time?
While the Government may have sat back and watched this policy quietly become law, there is likely to be opposition among parents up and down the land as headteachers break the news that - if they want little Jack or Jackie to take holiday in term time - they will be liable to fines of £60.
Currently, authorised absence policy in many schools is 10 days which may seem a lot and quite possibly is.
However, a reduced “limit” of , say, five days gives parents a little leeway to book a slightly cheaper Monday flight home or enjoy a weekend break that didn’t involve sitting stationary on the M1 on a fraught Friday teatime.
There’s all manner of “exceptional circumstances” (The Department for Education’s words) and this could well lead to some genuine headaches for headteachers trying to decide on individual cases.
Headteachers are by no means all in favour of such a bar on authorised absence for holidays either while parents who strive to ensure their kids make it to 99 per cent of lessons in a year will feel legitimately hard done by.