An increasingly common complaint among hard pressed parents is not being able to take kids out of school for important family events and holidays. In fact, polling shows over half of parents support the right to take their children out of school for trips and holidays. Meanwhile greedy councils are making record sums from fining hard-pressed parents for taking kids out of school during term time.
Obviously, a balance needs to be struck. Children do need to attend school for their welfare and education, but this war on parents does seem to be going a bit far.
Often parents have no choice. A week at Centre Parcs can cost over £3000 during school holiday time or £700 off-peak. Flights, ski holidays, hotels and accommodation all have the same surge pricing. That means many low- and middle-income children are missing out on enjoyable holidays and vital experiences.
Moreover, because everyone tries to take holiday at the same time, many working parents simply cannot get the leave during holiday time.
There are two solutions. The first is to stagger school holidays by Region. Practically, this is not too difficult. Different regions have different examining boards, so exam season can be on different dates as well. Given our population explosion and broken infrastructure, we may have to do this so the system can cope.
The second, more whizzy idea is to create an AI-driven school absence app. Parents could download the app and apply for up to two weeks of leave a year, except during exam years. Providing their child was performing well and there were no safe-guarding concerns, that leave would be granted. Along with it, would be some interactive AI teaching modules so the pupil can stay up to date on the bit of the curriculum they are missing. The technology would include questions and interactive elements to ensure the child grasps the material.
In addition, we can learn from our Antipodean cousins. In Australia and New Zealand, taking a break during term time is almost encouraged: the argument being that children will often learn more on a well structured holiday than in the classroom.
BUT there is one stipulation: when the child returns from holiday, they have to do a short presentation, telling their class where they’ve been and what they’ve learned. Again, interactive AI could help them create and format this.
It’s not just holidays this could help. Sometimes parents want to take children out of school for important events; such as marriages, graduations or funerals. Again, the app could help here. It could also help children who miss school because they are sick or are members of itinerant families (such as Roma or Travellers). That could be a lot of valuable extra support for children and parents.
