To help families save up to £1,400 on holidays, a leading travel retailer is calling for schools to stagger regional inset weeks to reduce the pressure of peak-season price hikes.
On the Beach argues the move could help save families of four hundreds of pounds per holiday and avoid fines for unauthorised absences.
To escape peak-season markups, a growing number of parents are removing their children from school to take advantage of lower off-peak prices, with one third admitting to taking their children out of education during the 2024/25 school year.
It appears the trend isn’t slowing down anytime soon – staggeringly, one in two parents are planning a holiday that takes their kids out of school in the current 2025/26 academic year.
However, the financial risks of term-time travel are significant. Nearly half a million families across the UK were fined by the Department for Education last year for unauthorised absences.
Currently, parents in England and Wales face Fixed Penalty Notices of £80 for their child’s non-attendance, which increases to £160 if not paid after 21 days.
According to On the Beach researchers, headteachers in England and Wales hold the power to make family trips more affordable.
They suggest that by grouping the five mandatory training days into a single, regionally staggered ‘inset week,’ schools could unlock significantly lower travel costs for parents, all while cutting term-time absences and boosting attendance.
Parents demand school headteachers to group inset days into one week as part of a new campaign from holiday company On the Beach to tackle peak summer holiday prices
A rising number of parents are removing their children from school to take advantage of lower off-peak prices, with one in two parents planning to their kids out of education this year
Now, the holiday provider is calling on millions of parents across the nation to write to their child’s school to ask for an inset week – with ready-to-send letters, emails and WhatsApp messages being rolled out.
In the open letter, headteachers are urged to reconsider how they schedule teacher training days.
The goal is to essentially provide a loophole for families to book cheaper holidays, with families of four reporting savings of up to £1,400 per trip thanks to lower demand pushing down hotel and flight prices.
Just 1 per cent of schools currently operate inset weeks, among them Python Hill Academy, which is supporting On the Beach’s campaign.
Mr Andy Stirland, principal at Python Hill Academy in Nottinghamshire, said: ‘We have been running an inset week, which is tagged onto the spring bank holiday in May, for the last seven years. Parents should not be faced with fines or enforcement for wanting to spend family time together.
‘Inset week has allowed families at our school the option of cheaper holidays while maintaining our attendance figures.
‘Our school attendance figures have been above the national average every year and I believe without inset week this would be a very different story.’
It appears the nationwide push is already gaining momentum: nearly three-quarters of parents said they would join On the Beach in calling on headteachers to introduce an inset week.
Nearly three-quarters of UK-based parents have said they are interested in joining On the Beach in asking headteachers for an inset week
Pictured: Mr Andy Stirland, headteacher of Python Hill Academy, who is supporting On the Beach’s campaign
Katelyn Greenway, a parent who was fined said: ‘I emailed my child’s headteacher this morning to ask for an inset week.
‘It would make such a difference to us, we could afford a holiday without breaking the rules or feeling guilty about taking time off school.’
To access On the Beach’s inset week site, and send a letter, WhatsApp or email to your child’s school to ask for an inset week, parents can click here for more information.
Zoe Harris, chief customer officer at On the Beach, said: ‘Families shouldn’t have to choose between following the rules and being able to afford time away together.
‘The real frustration we hear is that parents can see cheaper off-peak holidays, but there’s no straightforward way to access them without their children missing school, and that’s exactly where inset weeks can help.
‘Approximately 25,000 headteachers hold the key to getting more families on holiday for less, boosting attendance figures and solving a problem that the Department for Education has run out of answers to. Inset weeks are the answer.’
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