Truancy and terms of debate

Give discretion to headteachers

AHEAD OF the new academic year, the issue of term-time holidays will continue to cause consternation – not least after campaigning Isle of Wight parent Jon Platt won a landmark court case after he refused to pay a fine levied when he took his daughter out of lessons for a family trip to Florida.

The ramifications continue to reverberate – North Yorkshire County Council has now suspended the imposition of fines in the vast majority of cases while LEAs in Sheffield, Doncaster and Kirklees appear to be adopting a more lenient approach because they appreciate that some families cannot afford inflated holiday prices.

That said, it should be left to the discretion of individual schools – rather than point-scoring politicians – whether parents are penalised or not. Unlike meddling Ministers, it is headteachers who know the circumstances of each child best of all and whether the intended absence is legitimate or not – some family holidays, for example, can be very educational if they include visits to museums.

After all, there is a world of difference between occasional absences from lessons – especially if the reasons have been discussed in advance between teachers and parents – and those serial truants who regard school as an optional extra. As North Yorkshire education bosses say, they will not hesitate to take legal action if a child starts missing more than 10 per cent of lessons.

And this is the key point. If LEAs and schools had been more effective in the past in clamping down on truancy at the outset, and if Ministers had fulfilled their side of the bargain by taking concerted action against those corporate travel giants who ramp up their costs during school holidays, hardworking parents like Mr Platt would not be effectively criminalised for wanting to spend some precious time with their loved ones.