'I'm a travel expert and this is why the school holiday dates need to change'

Many parents have to plan their holidays around their children's school breaks - but one leading expert has said this needs to change. It's no secret summer holidays can cost families a fortune, having to travel in peak times, which is why many reluctantly take their kids out of school during term time in order to book a trip away for significantly less.

Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of the Advantage Travel Partnership has demanded drastic changes to school calendars, and said recorded temperatures in the Mediterranean were making it harder for families to go away in the summer.

School holidays currently run from late July to early September in England and Wales, and Ms Lo Bue-Said thinks they should be shortened by two weeks and each week saved could then be added to the current May and October one-week half terms instead.

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She told The Independent: "We see trends that are really impacting how families are thinking about holidays now. With 40C weather in parts of Europe, families just do not want to be going to those destinations at that time of year."

With these proposed date changes, she said it would be better for children and their wellbeing, as well as better for families and teachers who are all "constrained" to having to go away in the school holidays.

At the moment, parents who take their children out during term times face fines of £80 or more, and the expert said: "Frankly, people are traveling out of school holidays. We're seeing exceptional increases in fines by schools now to families. The change is happening, people want to reconsider the school calendar."

Ms Lo Bue-Said believes holiday prices could fall if the demand for trips were spread across the year instead rather than just in the peak demand of when schools close.

While families in Scotland, where school summer holidays tend to run from the end of June to mid-August are able to take advantage of cheaper deals from English airports during the early part of the break.

In Northern Ireland, schools are closed for all of July and August. Most of England's schools are now academies who can set now their own holidays, and some have already opted for five weeks in summer and two weeks in October.

According to BBC, Surrey's county council has decided to follow suit for all the schools it supports from autumn 2026.

Parentkind, the charity for parent-teacher organisations, has released polling suggesting 53% of parents would like a four-week summer holiday, rising to 60% in families with a child with special educational needs.