A travel agency campaign is helping to drive down unauthorised absenteeism due to holidays during school term time and has been expanded to a ninth local authority area.
Hays Travel’s Every Day Counts campaign has contributed to a 13.8% reduction in the number of pupils taking holidays during term time in the Sunderland Borough Council area during the 2005/06 academic year.
This month, the scheme, which gives families discounts of 10% on bookings through Hays Travel for UK and overseas trips during school holidays, has been rolled out to Darlington. It now covers an area of the northeast with more than 260,000 pupils.
Hays Travel retail marketing manager Helen Curran admitted branch managers were initially sceptical about the scheme because the discount is taken from the individual shop’s bottom line.
She said: “It took three months to get shop staff to see that it was a positive move and they now promote it actively.
“The scheme now covers the majority of our branches and is all about trying to encourage school attendance. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback and it has helped improve attendance.”
Northeast-based Hays Travel started the campaign five years ago with Sunderland Borough Council. Other councils that have signed up in the last two years are: Durham, South Tyneside, North Tyneside, Hartlepool, Middlesborough, Stockton and Gateshead.
If three more councils – Newcastle, North Allerton and Wansbeck – sign up, the scheme will cover the entire area served by its 33 branches.