Kids on holiday in term time? It’s Machu Picchu about nothing

Travel, it is said, broadens the mind. It is also believed to be “fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness” and who would want to argue with Mark Twain?

Discovering new cultures, learning new languages, seeing the world from a different viewpointit’s all part and parcel of becoming a more rounded, better-educated person. Indeed travel could well be the best teacher any of us ever have.

It’s a view no doubt shared by Jenny and Anthony Hayden who were, it was revealed this week, fined £240 for taking their children out of high school for a trip to Peru. Admittedly it wasn’t just a day or two tacked on to the end of an official school break it was seven days during term time but while in South America they covered a lot of ground as well as a lot of the curriculum.

The Manchester family visited Inca ruins (history) walked up Machu Picchu (geography, history and PE) saw the cultural sights of Lima (art) and did some voluntary work with a women’s co-operative (social studies, politics).

The couple saw the 12-day adventure as investing in the education of their 15-year-old son and 12-year old daughter.

Mrs Hayden, a pre-school teacher herself, has said she’d do it all over again.

The school on the other hand, while not denying the potential educational benefits of the trip, argued it should have been taken out of term time. When, no doubt, the cost would have been astronomically prohibitive.

Any parent of school age children knows how expensive a holiday can be when taken during official school breaks.

You don’t even need to be going abroad. From resorts like Center Parcs to rental on cottages or stays in B&Bs, the prices are hiked when it’s “high season” tourism industry speak for school holidays.

So what should parents do?

I know my kids have missed the odd school day because we’ve decided to have a long weekend which hasn’t coincided with one of the numerous Monday holidays or in-service days.

One time, for a family wedding in Mallorca, they missed a whole week. The impact on their school education was negligible. But that week on a Spanish island two years ago? They still talk about it. If I could afford to take them to Peru, I’d be on the next flight.

Of course missing school is not great practice. I wouldn’t argue it should it become a regular habit or done during exam years, and if you have a child who struggles with the three Rs then possibly it shouldn’t be done at all.

But there are times when experience of new places, different faces, can teach so much more than a smartphone and iPad ever could.

Report by Gina Davidson