Do Term Time Holidays matter?

Term time holidays are in the news again this week as the Wales' Education Minister 'clarified' the issue for Welsh schools by saying that up to 10 days per pupil should be allowed at the discretion of head teachers (click here for an article on the matter from Wales Online).

Clarification is always a good thing - boundary setting is a vital part of education as we know. However, including the word 'discretion' may actually remove clarification. It would appear that the Head may use the institution's attendance statistics as a measure when accepting an application for a holiday. You can imagine the furor when a parent finds out that their application to take their son or daughter on a term time holiday is refused because other children have a poor attendance level in the school.

There is a clear educational argument for refusing term time holidays - a child misses out on a class and 'catch up notes' are a poor substitute. I sometimes wonder why people don't use the economic argument against term time holidays: if everyone took their children out of school during term time the price of holidays during term time would start to increase anyway.