Plans to fine term-time holidays scrapped
Plans to ban parents from taking children on term-time holidays are to be dropped.
A report by the Government’s truancy adviser Charlie Taylor will today warn that parents who regularly take advantage of cheap term-time getaways are doing serious damage to their children’s prospects.
But previous plans for automatic fines for parents have been scrapped. Instead it will be at the discretion of headteachers.
The study is calling for truancy penalties to be increased from the current £50 to £60 for regular offenders, doubling to £120 for those who do not pay within 28 days.
If parents refuse to pay, the money could be taken from child benefit.
The study was commissioned by Education Secretary Michael Gove in the wake of last summer’s riots.
Mr Taylor told the Daily Mail: ‘Children have on average eight days off a year for sickness and medical appointments. If on top of that they take an annual two-week holiday then by the time they leave at 16 they will have missed nearly a year of school. This needs to change."
It claims ‘middle-class truancy’ is a growing issue. In 2010-11 holiday absence amounted to 9.5 per cent of overall absence.
Diane
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