Your view is all well and good with it comes to secondary school aged kids Chip, but for primary and junior kids they learn more about the world on a holiday, than they do at school.

It's also an easy argument to make when you don't have kids, but when you realise just how much more it costs to take your kids away in the holidays it really is the difference between having a holiday and not having a holiday for some families.

Agree that the school needs to keep tabs on it, and actively discourage it, but four figure fines are just daft.