Few things irritate teachers more than parents sloping off with their children during term-time.
There are, of course, good educational reasons for being in the classroom but the protests gain extra venom from the fact that teachers can't take time off during term-time without losing pay so they are stuck with paying inflated prices in August whether or not they have children themselves.
So teachers will sympathise with the London primary headteacher who has threatened to expel children if they are away for more than two weeks without her permission.
Parents on the other hand may feel it's a bit harsh for a five-year-old to be expelled for going on holiday a bit early.
Governors at Netley primary school in Camden (the borough with the second-worst attendence rate in London) have delayed the introduction of Judith Evans' proposal. They want to be reassured that children will not be left without a place.
The root of the problem seems to be not so much parents nipping off to Florida or the Costa del Sol but families from the Indian subcontinent returning for long visits to relatives in Bangladesh or Pakistan - a much more intractable problem.
Travelling that distance is expensive during the summer holidays - but the cost to a child's education of missing large chunks of school is also likely to be high.
The government is now treating such absences as truancy - putting pressure on schools to deal with it.
Governor Nasim Ali, a former mayor of Camden, was one of those arguing for more time. "The main thing is informing parents. Parents have to understand and value it otherwise it will have a negative effect."
