Term Time Holidays

I hesitate to tell you about Catherine Barnett.  Catherine is head teacher at Eveswell Primary School in Newport, and last week she reignited the debate about children being allowed time off school to take holidays during term time.  In a triumph of lateral thinking, Catherine decided to schedule all of next year’s teacher training (inset) days during the same week in June, meaning parents of pupils at her school can enjoy a lower cost holiday without being penalised with a fine.

The reason I’m loathe to bring her plan to the wider attention of the travel industry is because somewhere in the dusty recesses of a tour operator’s head office, those who practice the dark art of yield management will be noting this information and trying to find out exactly which week in June these teachers are to be trained.  After all, such a spike in demand should be worth at least an extra £100 per family on that weekend’s Cardiff departure to Majorca.

I exaggerate of course - there’s actually only one person I know who would do this - but it does highlight the constant battle between supply and demand that creates the issue in the first place.  If every school in the country arranged an inset week at the same time, you can be sure that family holiday prices would spike during that week.  The only way Catherine’s plan could work nationwide would be if every head teacher randomly selected a different week for teacher training.

As strange as it seems, this solution would be welcomed by tour operators.  Whilst some parents might see this as the only opportunity for a holiday, for many families, a budget break during the shoulder season would be seen as an additional opportunity to travel.  The summer peak would remain, but improved demand out of season would improve overall yield.

Sadly, it’s unlikely that inset weeks will gain momentum. The NUT, the largest teacher’s union, has already urged caution saying, ‘Changes to the inset day structure should only take place after meaningful and careful consultation with staff and parents.’  I don’t even know what this means but it doesn’t sound good.

Meanwhile, anyone whose kids have just broken up from school will know that they spent most of the last two weeks of term well… coasting really.  Charlie was brilliant in his school play and Millie made a lovely Victoria sponge, but we’re not talking critical educational development here.

So how about this; why not divide every week of the school year into three categories? Let’s call them green, amber and red.  Green weeks would be towards the end of term; during green weeks all pupils would be allowed up to five consecutive days off to travel overseas.  Red weeks would be at the heart of the curriculum; no days at all would be allowed for holidays.  Amber weeks would be in between; the head teacher could use their discretion, making a decision based on the nature of the request and the individual needs of the pupil.

We could call it the Barnett system in honour of the one person in the education system that had the initiative to start the ball rolling.