Travel agents have responded to On the Beach’s idea of introducing a dedicated ‘Inset Week’ for schools in England and Wales in order to allow families to take advantage of cheaper holiday prices.
The online travel agent is urging headteachers across England and Wales to bunch school Inset days into a single dedicated Inset Week, which it claims could save families thousands per holiday, cut term-time absence and boost school attendance.
On the Beach says the Inset Week would be staggered by region, which would mean families could take advantage of off-peak pricing, and has produced a template letter that parents can send to headteachers to urge them to introduce the system.
It quotes Andy Stirland, Principal at Python Hill Academy in Nottinghamshire, who said: “We have been running an Inset Week, which is tagged onto the spring bank holiday in May, for the last seven years. Parents should not be faced with fines or enforcement for wanting to spend family time together.
“Inset Week has allowed families at our school the option of cheaper holidays while maintaining our attendance figures. Our school attendance figures have been above the national average every year and I believe without Inset Week this would be a very different story.”
On the Beach claims: “Families of four have reported savings of up to £1,400 per trip by holidaying during term time, when lower demand pushes down hotel and flight prices.”
Its Chief Customer Officer Zoe Harris said: “Families shouldn’t have to choose between following the rules and being able to afford time away together. The real frustration we hear is that parents can see cheaper off-peak holidays, but there’s no straightforward way to access them without their children missing school, and that’s exactly where Inset Weeks can help.
“Approximately 25,000 headteachers hold the key to getting more families on holiday for less, boosting attendance figures and solving a problem that the Department for Education has run out of answers to. Inset Weeks are the answer.”
Many agents on the Travel Gossip Facebook group said some schools in their area already add up to an extra week’s holiday in the school year.
One agent, a former teacher, said Inset days come out of the school holiday allocation, not the school term time.
Wes O’Neill said: “Won’t they just increase the pricing based on demand anyway?”, while Jenny Brogan said her local schools already add an extra week ‘but put it on the October half term, which doesn’t seem to be make holidays any cheaper as other areas stagger over those two weeks’.
Liverpool-based One Travel Club agent James Andrews said: “In my opinion, all the companies will do is standardise the prices through the year rather than it being cheaper.”
Another agent said: “Operators will see this as another reason to keep the prices higher. [It will be] just another money maker in a year or two.”
Another said: “Personally I prefer the odd random day on Monday or Friday so we can have long weekends away. Inset days like this are more random and don’t align with other schools.”
And Not Just Travel agent Kathryn Gardner said: “I find the week before and after scheduled holidays are just as expensive. Companies are already tuned in to the adaptive process some schools are already undertaking.”
