The people making decisions are son out of touch . I work two jobsyet affording an all important family holiday is hard. I worked so hard to take my kids a way this year and it was in September as I could not afford it any other time. My son had a letter from primary school regarding attendance because if this. I'm appalld that parents are not able to make decisions about holidays. Also the rip off holiday companies charging often more than double prices. Imagine if all parents took time off work in the 6 week holiday most companies would not have enough staff to run their business etc.. Kids learn more on a day out than sat behind a desk often. Plus families deserve and need to spend time together. With parents working so hard just to survive rising prices of everything.

I run a business with my husband and a team of ten.We cannot all take holiday in official school holidays and remain operational. Govs and schools forget it is businesses that fund them. On top of work my parents live abroad so at times if we want a holiday it has to be in term time. There are always a combination of factors for any family. I know the huge benefits for our family of a break together, just to stop, relax and have some fun. The DFEs own statistics show that pupils from lone parent families are twice as likely to have persistent absence and that a person working in the household as well as poverty levels really affect absence. We should be focusing on reducing persistent absence by Governments helping reduce poverty, helping people work and putting family at the heart of all policies. Focus on keeping families together...not make it ten times harder. Common sense should dictate that family breaks should be seen as something positive and if families really struggle to get a break in term time due to cost, work or whatever reason then a child is better off having one than not. Schools should be going out of their way to engage with parents. This policy of targeting holidays has done so much damage to school / parent relations. Family breaks are part of the solution that can help keep families together, help children with their social skills and wider eduation and can help with health and well being...thus reducing absence from illness. If doctors surgeries and hospitals offered appointments after school and weekends this would also enable parents and kids to not miss school and work.

I run a business with my husband and a team of ten.We cannot all take holiday in official school holidays and remain operational. Govs and schools forget it is businesses that fund them. On top of work my parents live abroad so at times if we want a holiday it has to be in term time. There are always a combination of factors for any family. I know the huge benefits for our family of a break together, just to stop, relax and have some fun. The DFEs own statistics show that pupils from lone parent families are twice as likely to have persistent absence and that a person working in the household as well as poverty levels really affect absence. We should be focusing on reducing persistent absence by Governments helping reduce poverty, helping people work and putting family at the heart of all policies. Focus on keeping families together...not make it ten times harder. Common sense should dictate that family breaks should be seen as something positive and if families really struggle to get a break in term time due to cost, work or whatever reason then a child is better off having one than not. Schools should be going out of their way to engage with parents. This policy of targeting holidays has done so much damage to school / parent relations. Family breaks are part of the solution that can help keep families together, help children with their social skills and wider eduation and can help with health and well being...thus reducing absence from illness. If doctors surgeries and hospitals offered appointments after school and weekends this would also enable parents and kids to not miss school and work.

Taking well-performing children with a good attendance record out of school at times that are not crucial to their education (such as during exams) for any family-related reason should be the protected right and privilege of parents. Criminalising parents for essentially doing no more than putting family first is patronising and invasive. And putting pressure on head teachers to alienate parents by enforcing this rule creates unnecessary stress and aggravation on all sides. Persistent absenteeism is a separate issue and can be tackled by other means that do not penalise the many for the faults and problems of the few.

This whole policy does nothing more than criminalise parents for building memories with their children. Incidentally, these memories and experiences that will have a more lasting effect than the insignificant amount of school that would be missed. Many parents cannot afford to go on holiday during the obscenely expensive school holiday time, especially as the economic recovery being trumpeted by the coalition government has yet to take effect in the lives of ordinary people. Fortunately for MPs, as Parliament is only in session for a few short weeks a year, they can schedule holidays at times much more convenient to them. Often MPs are able to pay for the multiple holidays they have per year using the money they make from their many well paid directorships and other interests they have outside of their main, paid employment as it is very difficult to manage to live on a salary only two and a half times the national average (not including the expenses they can claim). Often politicians wonder why people are disinterested in politics and untrusting of the political classes in general: this policy is a perfect example.

I think it is disgusting that parents cannot have a say in deciding what is best for their children. The policy on term time holidays does not target the people it should be targeting - persistent absentees. Also not everyone can take holidays in term time. I am a nurse and unable to take term time holidays. This means I am unable to afford any holiday for my children due to the cost. Living in an area that relies on tourism I have noticed a kick back effect on businesses during term time - accommodation, attractions, food outlets etc - were very quiet this year. A week out of the full year isn't going to cause them great hardship, they will learn different things being away,family values, different cultures, languages, currency etc more than what they would learn reading about these things out of text books!!

This blanket ban prejudices against families like mine who have always strived for excellent in term attendance. We have 4 children who year in year out win 100% attendance certificates as they never go off sick. However, having. 4 children means that holidays taken at half term or during school holiday time are out of reach for us financially, despite the fact that my husband and I are in well paid employment. Our preferred holiday is for one week's skiing in the gap between Christmas and New Year. As stated above, we cannot afford the extortionate price hike during half term. It is difficult to see how one week's skiing is not beneficial to children in terms of learning foreign languages, culture and also participating in sport. Finally I would add that my two elder children have chosen skiing as one of their PE GCSE sports, but will not be able to demonstrate their exceptional ability for their exams and will now have to choose another sport. This is likely to result in them receiving a lower GCSE grade and impact on their A level choices. I totally oppose this blanket ban. Head teachers should be allowed to use their professional discretion as to who should and should not be able to take time out in term time. Dr E J Thacker MB BS PGCE LLB

As a holiday park owner we have been affected by the change to term time holidays. Our income during June and July has dropped as we no longer have families holiday with us AND we are told we can no longer have a holiday with our own children unless we close our business during peak time which again will affect our business. Please please, this ruling should be used for those children whose parents do not care of they attend school. It is not difficult for schools to assess attendance of pupils and to see those that are abusing the system.

Part of the issue is recognising when evidence is irrelevant. All the evidence in the world regarding the impact of various factors on OfSTED or government mandated 'outcomes' or 'KPIs' will not change the fact that the government works for the people, that the primary care giver is the legal parent or guardian, and that how families exercise their right to family life is none of the government's business. The educational tail is now wagging the social dog. Perhaps if KPIs and targets were not over-used, and more intelligence and common sense applied to analysis, it would not matter if parents had family time within the school term because the schools and government would not be trying to co-opt family life into an industrial model education system, which requires conforming raw material (our kids) in order to meet expected 'quality' outcomes. The weakness is in the evidence used to make the judgments, and in the assumptions that the KPIs being regarded as important by the government are also important to services users, in my opinion.

I am disgusted that this government is convinced that children can only learn within the 4 walls of a school. Holidays with parents are deemed to damage a childs education and that spending time with family is a bad thing. With many today, not all in a workforce can take holiday within the school holidays as warehouses, shops and companies around the country would grind to a halt. Also, with the increasing pressure put on family's finances, it is not always possible for people to afford to take time of. I am also quite baffled to how although my child's education would be affected and myself fined..... if my child went to a private school this would not be the case!! Give parents back the right to chooses what is best for there children. Child hood is just the blink of an eye, Stop trying to control it!