I save £1,000 a year on holidays by taking my children out of school
While most children were returning to school last Monday following the half-term break, my neighbours Steph and Gary Bonwick were travelling through a quiet airport on their way to Turkey, with two of their children, Charlie, 15, and Lola, 11. “Travelling during the school holidays isn’t an option for us because of all the hustle and bustle,” Steph explains.
Charlie is visually impaired and both he and Lola have AuDHD, a combination of autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. “Even at quieter times, we prepare the children for the trip to try to minimise their anxiety. The sensory overload when it’s chaotic in an airport would be too much. If they’re more relaxed, we’re more relaxed too. Charlie’s SEND school is very supportive; the majority of families take their children out during term time for similar reasons. Lola’s at a mainstream school so even though they understand why we go out of holiday time, they have to go with the local authority – we know we will get fined,” she says.
Even with the fine of £80 daily for each parent when a student misses more than five days over a rolling 10-week period – a fine which comes from the local authority rather than the individual school – the family will have saved almost £1,000 compared with the same holiday a week earlier. “It’s much more affordable. The children come back refreshed, ready for the final half-term of school. Their attendance is really good, so missing five days of school in a year is minimal,” Steph says. They try to go away each year “if they can” and have no plans to stop when Lola starts secondary school.
The Bonwicks are one of a growing number of families taking their children out of schools during term time. More than a third of parents took their child out of school for either a holiday or a family event over the past year, according to new research by Parent Voice Project. It found that among parents in the north east, almost 60 per cent thought they should be able to take children out of school compared with 37 per cent of Londoners. Those from more affluent backgrounds were less likely to take term-time out. Parents of younger children were also more likely to take their children out, with 44 per cent of parents of reception-aged children doing so compared with 29 per cent of those with children approaching GCSEs.
Last year, a record 459,288 fines were issued to parents, according to the Department for Education, a four per cent rise from 2023-4. In total, this means that parents in the UK were fined more than £36 million across the year.
Many are driven to travel while it’s quieter by their children’s or their own needs. One solo mum-of-two, Sarah*, who is registered blind, told me: “I try to avoid peak times as I struggle. I have to pay for a personal assistant or nanny to come with us to help because of my disability, so I’m paying double. I made it clear to my children’s school from the outset.” Her daughter’s primary school has been supportive of her March trip, and authorised one holiday. “I’ve been warned that secondary school may come down harder but if needed I’ll fight it all the way to court. This arrangement works for my family and I won’t have us demonised or penalised for it.”
While the Government is putting more pressure on schools to keep their attendance high, holiday affordability pushes many families into term-time travel. Coral Fraser, from Hertfordshire, is a solo mum of three children: six-year-old twins Olive and William and 11-month-old Maeve. “In April, we went to Australia to see family, and it was just short of £2,000 cheaper to take them out four days before the Easter holiday started,” she says. “Last September, I took the children to Europarks near Barcelona. It was £1,100 with flights and accommodation, while flights alone were £1,300 for the four of us in August.”
“If my children were studying for SATS, or had a school show, I wouldn’t take them out, but while they’re so little, a week isn’t going to have a big impact,” she believes. “They gain so much from time away beyond the routine: we play Uno and do roly polys in the swimming pool; they gain key social skills and make friendships.”
Carla and Mark, parents of Thea, nine, and Arthur, seven, live in Dorset and went to Turkey in May, saving more than £1,500 compared with the same trip during the Easter holidays. “I don’t feel any guilt, I don’t feel like I’m damaging their GCSE prospects,” Carla tells me. “We know how lucky we are to go away; some families can’t book a holiday at all. We have to save to afford holidays abroad, and it would be impossible out of term-time. We mixed up waterslides with visiting Roman ruins – which fits in with Thea studying the Romans at school.”
Carla, 49, has already booked a two-week holiday to Mexico for her ‘big birthday’. “It’s an amazing experience for the children,” she says. “We always see them become more independent. And we love spending quality time all together. I fill in holiday forms which I know will be rejected and send reminder notes to teachers so they know the children won’t be in school. It feels like playing a game: people in the [school] office are saying ‘have a lovely time’ but we know the trip won’t be authorised. We do try to minimise trips to being four days out of school rather than five [to avoid fines].”
An increasing number of parents – and teachers – are frustrated that rather than issuing fines, the Government doesn’t work to make holidays more affordable. “Something needs to be done to regulate holiday companies,” Carla believes. “It’s completely unfair for teachers and anyone who works term times. I get supply and demand, but I can’t see how they justify the increases. Maybe there needs to be a price cap like with energy, by destination or length of journey.”
Others suggest staggering holidays to avoid “school’s out” fares, which France does by dividing the country into three holiday zones and Germany does by state. One headteacher, Andy Stirland, who runs the Python Hill Academy in north Nottingham, deliberately puts the year’s five inset days together during the first week of June to allow families – and his staff – the chance to access holidays at a more affordable rate. He says that one third of families with children at the school go on holiday that week. “It can be the difference between having a holiday or not,” he tells me.
Meanwhile, a group of schools in Southampton is considering lengthening the school day to create an extra week of holiday over October half term.
James Bowen, assistant general secretary for school leaders’ union NAHT, believes it’s important for children to miss as little school as possible. “Taking children out for an extended period could lead to missing important parts of their learning, and pose challenges for the teacher who then has to help catch pupils up.”
But he is sympathetic to the reasons behind the rise in term-time holidays. “It’s important to consider the driver, from holiday pricing to family circumstances,” he says. “The outrageous rise in prices during school holidays means many families feel the only way that they can get a holiday is to take one in term time. We would like to see the Government do more to intervene and work with travel firms to end the hike in holiday pricing.”
Until the Government finds a solution, many parents have no intention of giving up holidays altogether. “Everyone needs a mental health break – this is for all of our wellbeing,” Steph tells me from her sunlounger.