Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 2:19 pm on 13 March 2019.
Thank you for that answer, Minister. You'd like to add an extra in-service training day to the Welsh school calendar. It doesn't seem fair that the state can deny a child five or six days of schooling, but if a parent does it to take them on a holiday they might otherwise not be able to afford, they face being fined. If schools are to have INSET days, would it not make sense to have each school take the INSET days in a five or six-day block? In consultation with parents, each school could decide which week to have the INSET training. That way, families could use that time to go on holiday outside of the peak school holiday times, and parents may feel less frustrated by the current unfairness of the system.