When my daughter Annie came home from school aged seven bemoaning her best friend Ellie was “on holiday”, I assured her she must be mistaken. With another fortnight of school left before they broke up for summer, I told Annie I was sure she’d got it wrong and Ellie would be back tomorrow.
Catching up with Ellie’s mother Nicole on the last day of term, though, she reliably informed me Annie was right and they’d had the best time on holiday in Greece. She caught my eyebrow-raise and proudly declared she didn’t mind the fine because they’d saved hundreds of pounds going in term time.
Now, there’s not much that annoys me – I have three children who have tried their whole lives and come close many times – but taking children out of school to go on a holiday always infuriates me. Why? It’s simply not right and it’s unfair to both the children being taken out of their usual routine and the teachers who prepare the learning.
Unauthorised holidays are a growing problem. According to the Department for Education (DfE), the overall absence rate for the academic year 2025-26 for pupils in England was running at 6.93 per cent, still significantly above pre-Covid-19 levels of 4.7 per cent. Persistent absence rates have doubled since the pandemic, with nearly one in five children now missing at least 10 per cent of school.
