My view:Christmas holidays and the humbug of inflexible school bureaucracy

School policies towards holidays have always been a hit-and-miss affair. As more and more primary schools strive for the Holy Grail of the "outstanding" tag from the Ofsted inspectors they are cracking down on children being taken out of school in term time.

The law states that schools can allow parents to take their children out of school for up to 10 days a year. However, it depends on the school's governing body. And inspectors have started to take a dim view of schools that allow too many absences. At my children's school any request to take a child out during term time has to be in writing and with proper justification. I agree that children possibly shouldn't be hauled out of school for a two-week holiday in the sun just to avoid the premium charged in the school holidays. Although there is an argument about the benefits of experiencing different cultures and countries.

But with increasing pressure on schools to get top marks in their Ofsted reports, many heads seem to be cracking down on parents wanting to take their children out to go skiing or even attend important family occasions rather than be in school.

If this is solely for the good of the child, who would be unable to catch up, then the stance could have some justification but when it is just a political exercise to make the school look good and hit a particular target I find it hard to justify.

The argument about children experiencing new skills, countries and cultures cannot be emphasised too much in, my opinion. In the early stages of primary school particularly, education is surely all about learning as many different things as possible, particularly about the world around them, as well as literacy and numeracy.

In one extreme example I heard of a couple who were unable to take their children out of school for a few days in December to visit relatives in Holland. The children are half Dutch and in Holland they give their presents at the beginning of December. They felt it was an important part of their heritage and who they were to spend that part of the festive period with their grandparents.

But they were told the school had adopted a policy of not allowing children out in term time. It is hard to understand the justification for this.

What better education could there be for the children than that, especially in the weeks before Christmas when very little is done other than trips to the panto and rehearsals for the school Nativity? There do have to be rules, but there also have to exceptions which take the welfare of the children into account and not just the bureaucracy of the education system.