Council leaders have defied the government on one of its most controversial school reforms by challenging strict rules against parents taking children on term-time holidays.
Town hall politicians called for a more “commonsense” approach, saying that head teachers should have greater flexibility to approve parents’ requests to take children out of school.
Public sector workers, such as nurses, police officers and soldiers, should be able to take advantage of cheaper family holidays during school-term times, they said. Their call, timed to coincide with the start of the half-term holiday for many schools, caused irritation in the Department for Education.
Ministers are said to have been surprised by some cases in which head teachers appeared not to have used their discretion to approve requests to attend