Cost can double, but no holidays during the term
GUERNSEY parents face paying almost double for trips during school holidays compared with travelling during term-time as Education and teachers stress the importance of keeping children in school.
Teaching union the NASUWT has said the issue of companies charging higher rates during school holidays needed to be addressed to cut down on children being taken out of school during term time.
A UK report has said that 100,000 more children were absent from schools without authorisation last year compared with 2015.
There are no figures for the number of unauthorised absences from Guernsey schools, but an Education spokesman made it clear that approval would never be given for a child to be taken out of classes during the term.
La Houguette Primary School head teacher Richard Fyfe said that all schools followed the policy that any holidays taken in term-time were unauthorised absences.
The school sets children a target attendance figure of 95% and should a child fall below that figure it will contact the parents.
Even though the school does not approve of holidays in term-time, it still needs to know why a child is not in school. To this effect, parents can fill in a form telling the school that they will be removing a child from class, and giving the reason.
'For safeguarding reasons it's important we know the child's whereabouts,' he said.
'It's very much working with the parents to ensure that the children maximise their learning opportunities.'
