PARENTS who take their children on holiday during term time have come under attack from Wiltshire's chief education officer Bob Wolfson.

He said they are harming their children's education as well as hitting schools with a double whammy of having to help pupils catch up on lost lessons while seeing their position slump in league tables for unauthorised absence.

Mr Wolfson said that while a family holiday is probably regarded by many as harmless, these often unauthorised breaks disrupt school life and the education of the children involved.

Head teachers say the in-term holidays also bring their schools into disrepute by pushing up the unauthorised absence records, making it appear on paper in the school league tables that schools have a significant truancy problem when in some cases they have none at all.

Colerne Primary is a typical example. Headteacher Anne Orme said they have no truancy, yet each year the number of days off accorded to unauthorised absence is rising because of parents taking children out of school for holidays.

Mrs Orme, chairwoman of the Wiltshire Primary School Heads Forum, said that she can have up to 30 per cent of her pupils off in April, May and June when families are rushing to get cheaper holidays before the peak-priced summer.

She said: "They are not all off at the same time, some start their holidays on Monday and come back Tuesdays. Some go on Tuesdays and others come back on Thursdays. It's very disruptive for the whole school.

"We appreciate parents have to pay more to go on holiday during school holidays but so do teachers. What would happen if teachers took a couple of weeks off during the term because holidays are cheaper?"

During the last school year in Wiltshire almost 48,700 school days were lost by pupils of all ages due to holiday absences. Already since the term began in September a further 13,150 days of schooling have been missed.

Government guidelines state that parents do not have an automatic right to withdraw their child/children from school for a holiday during term time.

Parents need to ask permission in advance from the school if they wish to take their children away during the term. If the school does not give permission and the child is still withdrawn, it is recorded as an unauthorised absence.

Mr Wolfson said the Government recognises it is a country wide problem, but there was great concern about the situation in Wiltshire.

He said children of all ages and abilities need to attend lessons regularly to learn effectively.

"Whether it is an infant getting to grips with learning to read, or an older pupil studying for GCSEs, the result of any absence is the same missing out, falling behind, difficulty in catching up," he said.

"Such experiences for a child can soon cancel out any benefits of a holiday and sometimes can lead to problems of a child refusing to go to school or to truancy."