Sir, Caitlin Moran (“Mum’s the word”, Feb 6) is, unfortunately, perpetuating an urban myth in asserting that “parents are allowed, by actual law, to take their children on holiday during term-time, ten days every year”. The pamphlet, Is Your Child Missing Out?, issued by the Department for Education and Skills last year, states: “The law says that schools have the discretion to grant up to ten days’ authorised absence in a school year.”
As a school’s statistics for absences loom large in Ofsted inspections, governing bodies are becoming less and less likely to permit term-time holidays, particularly those over ten days.
This makes things much fairer, as the current situation relies far too much on the “wow” factor: if you can make the headteacher say “wow!” when you tell him or her where you are going, then you get the green light; if your purse strings only stretch as far as Bognor Regis, then hard luck.
HELENA PUTNAM ADAMS
Farnham, Surrey