After a High Court case about term-time holidays for pupils, the Government has pledged to tighten up regulations about school absences. But one Catholic school found such holidays can be beneficial

Within minutes of the final Key Stage 2 SATs paper being collected last Thursday, one of our Year 6 pupils left the school. By mid-afternoon she and her mother were airborne on their way to Rome, to be present on the Friday when her uncle was ordained a priest.

Friday was also the day when a High Court judge ruled that a parent from the Isle of Wight had acted legally in taking his daughter on holiday during term time. Jon Platt had refused to pay a fine after his local authority objected to a seven-day absence which it saw as a child failing to attend regularly.

The Government responded to the High Court judgment by promising to tighten the law. “Children’s attendance at school is non-negotiable,” a spokesperson declared. “Every extra day of school missed can affect a pupil’s chance of gaining good GCSEs, which has a lasting effect on their life chances.”

As the headteacher of a Catholic primary school in a deprived urban area, I know how important schooling is, but I would defy anyone to argue credibly that the “life chances” of our pupil in Year 6 (for 10-11 year olds) were damaged by the days of school missed when she went to Rome on that Thursday and Friday. No child’s education takes place wholly within the confines of a classroom, and an analysis of my school’s results over two years shows that children who went on holiday in term time performed better academically than those who never took a day out of school for a holiday. Indeed, the performance was much better.