Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of taking (a) one and (b) two week holidays with family during school term time on the long-term educational performance of primary school children.

Research by the Children’s Commissioner in 2023 found that any amount of term-time holiday is associated with lower GCSE results. This research is accessible here: https://assets.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wpuploads/2023/11/CC-REPORT-_-Attendance-and-Attainment-_-Oct-23.pdf.

Recent research conducted by the department in 2025 found that at both key stage 2 and key stage 4, attending an extra two weeks of school is associated with a 30% higher chance of achieving the expected outcome at key stage 2 and a 10% higher chance at key stage 4. This research is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67c96d7dd0fba2f1334cf2ed/The_link_between_attendance_and_attainment_in_an_assessment_year_-_March_2025.pdf.

Absence does not just affect the child missing school, it also increases teacher workload. Research published by the National Foundation for Educational Research in 2019 shows that school absence disrupts learning for the whole class. The research is accessible here: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED594391.pdf.