Schools urged to make one major change as 500,000 people fined for unauthorised absences

Holiday experts say an “Inset Week” would stop parents removing their children from lessons to take advantage of lower off-peak foreign hols prices

Teaching chiefs are being urged to group their five inset days at school into a week to allow families to go on holiday without rip-off prices.

Holiday experts say an “Inset Week” would stop parents removing their children from lessons to take advantage of lower off-peak foreign holiday prices.

Nearly half a million households were fined by the Department for Education last year for term-time absences and a probe found 37% of parents took their children out of education for a vacation.

And 50% confessed they plan to take their sprogs out of education to go on their jollies in the current school year.

Andy Stirland, Principal at Python Hill Academy, in Nottinghamshire, said: “We have been running an Inset Week, which is tagged onto the spring bank holiday in May, for the last seven years.

“Parents should not be faced with fines or enforcement for wanting to spend family time together.”

And holiday firm On the Beach, which carried out the research, is urging head teachers across England and Wales to back a full Inset Week in all schools.

Zoe Harris, from On the Beach, said: “Families shouldn’t have to choose between following the rules and being able to afford time away together.

“The real frustration we hear is that parents can see cheaper off-peak holidays, but there’s no straightforward way to access them without their children missing school, and that’s exactly where Inset Weeks can help.”