Term-time Leave

Melanie Onn Excerpts

Monday 26th October 2015 Westminster Hall

[Derek Thomas (St Ives) (Con)]

I thank my fellow Cornish MP, my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay (Steve Double), for introducing the debate so well.

I fully understand the Government’s intention behind the legislation on taking children out of school during term time. I am sure that every Member present and throughout the House understands the need to address absence from school and to reassure people that the education of their children in school is hugely important. I am glad to live in a country where education is free, good and easily accessible. We do not want to do anything to undermine that value and the priority given to education. It is fantastic that our children have the opportunity to go to school and learn and grow into young people who are able to enter the world of work.

I also understand how children being absent and not taking part in their normal class or group at school can affect the learning of the whole class and its progress over the school year. We are not trying to undermine the Government’s intention to support schools in dealing with absence, and we recognise the contribution that children make to their class. Nevertheless, we are asking for change.

I too am a Cornish MP, and we have seen a huge problem in Cornwall. Part of the problem is how the legislation is interpreted. I have two small children in school. They have cousins of a very similar age, but their schools interpret the law differently. My children’s school is very strict. I have to confess that I took them out of school without permission so that we could go to a family wedding. I needed to take them out on the Thursday to travel to a Friday wedding, and we were not permitted to do that. My children’s cousins’ school, however, regularly allows holidays and provides educational material for the parents to use while they are away. That different interpretation causes tension among schools and among families. Whatever the Government choose to do after this debate, they should provide clear guidelines to schools about their intention for the legislation.

I think something has been lost. Before the legislation and guidance on school holidays were introduced, schools worked very well on this matter. I took my son on holiday for a week away from school, and the school provided a stuffed toy—if I remember correctly, it was an elephant called Elmer, although I may be wrong about that. We were encouraged to take Elmer to different places during the holiday, take photos and send postcards back from Elmer. When my child went back to school, he was able to talk about the experience. The class discussed where Elmer had been and learned important and interesting things about each visit he made. That has been lost, because that can no longer happen.

I am glad that we have a former teacher here who is able to confirm that in parts of the school year, learning—certainly formal learning—drops off. I have done a lot of school assemblies and been involved with schools for probably 20 years, and I have often been frustrated, because there used to be a time in the school year, often after the SATs finished, when formal education changed and parents could take advantage of it to take their children on holiday. That is no longer allowed, yet some schools still have a more informal attitude towards teaching in the latter weeks of the summer term. There are good reasons for that, but it is a shame that parents are not allowed to take their children out of school during that time.

I am concerned because, although the Conservative party does not want to intrude on families—we often say that families know best—I believe that this legislation does so. Some families in Cornwall, as we have heard, are not able to take their children on holiday during peak school holiday time because of their jobs. They may work in the public services or run business that rely heavily on the school holidays for their income. By introducing this legislation, we have intruded on those families and told them that they are not able to take their children on holiday.

My hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Neil Carmichael), who has left the Chamber now, spoke about weekend holidays, but that would not work in Cornwall because families would spend the whole weekend stuck on the A30, which would be a completely inappropriate and unfortunate way of spending their holiday. I therefore do not accept the argument that weekends can be used to go on holiday; that would not work. I have to travel for longer than any other MP to get here on a Monday, and we cannot assume that weekends are an alternative.

As my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay said, the cost of taking a holiday during the school holidays is prohibitive for many families. Like my hon. Friend, my constituency neighbour, I come from one of the poorest areas in the country. Our average wage is considerably less than the national average.

That brings me on to the disruption to business. Businesses in my constituency have closed since the legislation was introduced because the owners are no longer able to run them all year round. The business they get in the summer, at half-term and even at Christmas is not enough for them to continue their work, so they have had to close their business and lay people off as a result. The impact on our local economy is considerable, and I am sad that the Government were unable to look at that before they introduced the current advice.

Last summer was phenomenal for the holiday industry in Cornwall. We had more visitors than we have had for many years. Our summer season has been compressed into the six-week school holiday period, and I do not know how long the holiday industry will survive in Cornwall, because the A30 was gridlocked pretty much continuously every day. If I travelled to Cornwall, using the precious holiday I have with my children, and got stuck on the A30, I do not know whether I would choose to do that again next year and the year after. The situation indirectly affects the potential of Cornwall’s tourism businesses, because if people cannot go on holiday to Cornwall because of the increased traffic on the roads, they will choose to go elsewhere. The holiday companies that cannot operate during the summer will close, and the businesses that rely on the summer trade will lose business and may not be able to continue.

I urge the Government to look carefully at this issue. We are not asking for parents to be able to compromise their child’s learning. We are asking the Government to look at the impact that this measure has on our tourism and family life. We seek an agreement that would allow holiday to be taken outside holiday time in a way that contributes to the child’s learning. We are asking the Government to relax the legislation, not to backtrack on their good efforts to address habitual absenteeism. It is very important that we address the issue of parents who regularly take their children out of school for no good reason; we recognise that that has a detrimental effect on the classroom. However, we ask the Government to recognise that parents are able to complement their child’s education with a school holiday. We need a change in the law, and schools need clear guidelines and absolute clarity about the Government’s approach. All schools need to use the same guidelines for their children.

[Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby) (Lab)]

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the National Association of Head Teachers surveyed its members, and 90% said that they would welcome additional guidance?

[Derek Thomas]

That has already been discussed, but the hon. Lady is absolutely right to bring it up. The headteacher at my children’s school would love the Government to say, “This is what we want from your school,” and for Ofsted to reflect that in how they judge the school. I believe that an allowance of up to two weeks a year would not be detrimental if, as has been said, it is at a quiet time for formal learning. Children’s holidays should be celebrated and made part of the learning of the child who goes on holiday and of the class, which, the following week, is able to look at where that child and Elmer have been.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Poulter]

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. The data are generic—we know that there is a link between absence rates for all reasons and lower attainment at school. Of course we would expect pupils who are missing school regularly and not turning up for reasons such as truancy to do less well at school than those who attend regularly—there is other evidence to support that. That is the hon. Gentleman’s point, but my understanding of the data is that, generally, higher rates of absence equal lower levels of attainment.

When putting regulations in place—perfect ones are difficult, but they are there for the right reasons—we need to look at something the Minister alluded to in an intervention on my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay. Were we to facilitate routinely two weeks of holiday for pupils during term time, over a pupil’s school career that would represent about 24 weeks of extra holiday in school time—almost half a year of extra holiday and of lost learning time being facilitated by law. That is not something that anyone ought to want to facilitate in Government regulation. Such a situation would clearly be detrimental to a child’s development, future life chances and chances at school.

Regulations are difficult to make, but there is a reason why they are in place. We have failed to discuss the level of discretion available to headteachers at the moment and I will come on to that. It is right to have given discretion to headteachers, who may look at the circumstances involved, but there might be an issue to do with refreshing some of the guidance. Perhaps the Minister will talk about that in his response.

The background to the legislation is that parents are not now able directly to authorise absence themselves; they must do so with facilitation from the headteacher. The initial framework of the regulations was put in place by the then Labour Government in 2006 and changed by the coalition Government in 2013. Under the new regulations, headteachers may not grant leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.

The matter is therefore one for the headteacher. A fine for an unauthorised absence is possible, but discretion has been given to the headteacher to look at the circumstances, and they have done so in a number of cases. Clearly, in our increasingly multicultural country—something we celebrate—different religions have certain celebrations at different times of the year. Certain schools and headteachers recognise that and use those exceptional circumstances of religious celebration to exercise their discretion.

We need to look at what we want in regulation—a duty that is in effect permissive, allowing such absence, or one that allows the headteacher to look at the circumstances, making it the rule that leave should not be given without exceptional circumstances. A permissive duty would in effect allow an extra half year of holiday and missed school in pupils’ lives, so the legislation has probably come down on the right side of the argument: in support of the headteacher’s having discretion.

[Melanie Onn]

I appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s point about a permissive duty and the responsibilities held by headteachers. Is there not also a substantial argument to support headteachers’ being given guidelines to allow for consistency, as the hon. Member for St Ives (Derek Thomas) mentioned? Should there not be an enhanced framework to support those headteachers to make such decisions and to make things a bit clearer across the board?

[Dr Poulter]

I completely agree. The hon. Lady mentioned earlier how a number of headteachers are confused about what circumstances they may consider exceptional. My hon. Friends have made similar points. Given a survey of teachers that indicates concerns about how to act and how to interpret the regulations, there is clearly something that to be said for the need to refresh the guidance so that teachers have clearer guidelines. I am sure that the Minister will address that in his remarks.

Councillor Roy Perry, chairman of the Local Government Association’s children and young people’s board, said:

“The current rules tie families to set holiday periods.”

He added that the system does not easily define what

“would class as a special occasion”,

and does not take

“into account a parent’s work life”—

a point made earlier in the debate. I believe that headteachers would benefit from clearer understanding and guidance to inform their decision on exceptional circumstances.

The other issue raised in the debate was about having staggered school holidays, which touches on a number of matters, including the business concerns. The regulations apply to England, but I was recently fortunate enough to visit Scotland, where there are clear differences in school holidays between neighbouring areas—for example, Fife had a longer October break than Edinburgh. Such flexibility might be desirable and deal with some of the concerns. That needs to be looked at.

Making legislation and regulations can be difficult. The balance is on the right side in this case, which is not actively to facilitate school-time absence, but to make it an exception, although guidance could do with being looked at. The answer might lie in clearer guidance, or in a degree of staggered school holidays. Clearly and fundamentally, we need to look after the children. Better guidance for headteachers would be better not only for the headteachers themselves, but for parents, in enabling them to understand the benefits of the policy. The policy is designed to help children receive a good education and to provide them with the best possible start in life.