And parents have been criticised for 'valuing a passport to Majorca' over their child's education. But what do you think?

With hotel prices soaring during the school holidays, it's arguably no wonder so many parents opt to take their family vacay during term-time and nab a better deal.

Now, new figures have revealed over 5 million school days were lost last year due to parents taking their kids out of class to go on holiday.

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The findings come as a separate report shows schools are seeing 'a huge amount' of pupils absent on Fridays.

Primary school pupils 'twice as likely to be absent'

In total, 5,148,548 school days were used for ‘unauthorised term-time holidays’ during the 2021/22 school year, according to analysis of Department for Education (DfE) data.

By contrast, that's up from 3,651,978 days lost during the 2015/16 school year.

The data found primary school kids were over twice as likely to be removed from school for some term-time sunshine than secondary school students.

The findings have led to new calls to clamp down on those who persist to break the holiday rules.

'It is worrying that the youngest primary school children are most likely to miss school'

Frank Young, editorial director of think-tank Civitas who analysed the data, said:

'It is worrying that the youngest primary school children are most likely to miss school just as they are learning to read and write. Ministers will need to get a grip of this as they urgently review truancy measures later this year.'

Meanwhile, DfE stats also showed 22.5% of students attending special schools and state-funded primaries and secondaries across England has persistent absences throughout the 2021/22 school year.

This meant they missed out on the equivalent of at least 19 days of schooling.

The stats took unauthorised, authorised and positive Covid test absences into account.

Chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, Chris McGovern, said:

'Parents are valuing a passport to Majorca rather than a passport to the future,’ he said. ‘Really good parents shouldn’t be taking their children out of school because it does damage them.'

'The vast majority of children are in school and learning'

Despite the findings, a spokesman for DfE said:

'The vast majority of children are in school and learning. We work closely with schools, trusts, governing bodies and local authorities to identify pupils who are at risk of becoming or who are persistently absent and to support those children to return to regular education.'

Rise in kids missing school on Fridays

Along with children missing class for family holidays, Dame Rachel de Souza, the children's commissioner for England, said persistent absence from schools was 'one of the issues of our age'.

Speaking to the education committee earlier this month, she said figures revealed 818,000 of the 1.6 million children who were persistently absent across the autumn and spring terms in 2021-22 were off school for reasons other than illness. And she added:

'We’re seeing a huge amount of Friday absence that wasn’t there before.

'Parents are at home on Fridays. We’ve had evidence from kids: "Well, you know, mum and dad are at home, stay at home".'

Will I be fined for taking kids out of school for holidays?

Once your child is registered at a school, the law says you must send them to school every day and on time.

Parents can be given a penalty notice or prosecuted for periods of unauthorised holidays.

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