Many parents find themselves coordinating their vacations around their children’s school breaks, but a prominent expert is advocating for a shift in this practice. The high costs of summer holidays often force families to travel during peak times, leading many to reluctantly pull their kids out of school in order to afford a more budget-friendly trip.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, the CEO of the Advantage Travel Partnership, is calling for significant changes to school calendars, citing rising temperatures in the Mediterranean as a barrier for families planning summer getaways.
Currently, school holidays in England and Wales span from late July to early September. Lo Bue-Said suggests shortening these holidays by two weeks and redistributing that time to the existing one-week half terms in May and October.
In an interview with The Independent, she highlighted the evolving holiday preferences of families, driven in part by extreme temperatures in Europe that make certain destinations less appealing during peak summer months.
Lo Bue-Said argues that adjusting the school holiday schedule would benefit children’s well-being and offer more flexibility for families and teachers who feel constrained by traditional holiday periods.
Parents who choose to take their children out of school during term time face fines exceeding £80. Lo Bue-Said emphasizes the growing trend of families opting for trips outside of school holidays, leading to a surge in fines imposed by schools and a call for reconsidering the current school calendar.
She believes that spreading out the demand for holidays throughout the year, rather than concentrating it around school breaks, could lead to lower holiday prices.
While families in Scotland enjoy cheaper deals from English airports at the start of their summer break (which typically runs from the end of June to mid-August), schools in Northern Ireland close for the entire months of July and August.
In England, most schools are now academies with the authority to set their own holiday schedules. Some have already adopted a five-week summer break and two-week break in October. Surrey’s county council, as per the BBC, plans to follow suit for all schools under its jurisdiction starting from autumn 2026.
Parentkind, a charity supporting parent-teacher organizations, conducted a poll indicating that 53% of parents prefer a four-week summer holiday, with the figure rising to 60% among families with children with special educational needs.