a) Currently headteachers have the right to approve leave of absence for children or not as they see fit, and this right should remain to keep common sense in the frame, although Mr Gove wants to remove it. 

b)There is no right to leave of absence and the myth of an entitlement ot ten days is just that. 

c) A look at the absence statistics for Kent schools underlines the scale of the problem: The national average absence rate for English secondary schools is 6.5% on any day. Four Kent schools have over 1 pupil in every 10 absent on any average day. Also four Kent secondary schools have an average truancy rate of more than 4%. Primary absence rate nationally is 5%. 11 Kent primary schools have over 1 in ten absent on any day. The figures are even more alarming when one looks at persistent absentees. 10 Kent secondary schools and three Kent primary schools have over 10% of their pupils absent on more than one day every week. Totally unsurprisingly these schools are focused in the most socially deprived parts of Kent - hardly areas where families are going on expensive foreign holidays, but where the importance of education needs to be emphasised most. Kent is already being criticised because of the poor academic results of disadvantaged children - we should concentrate first on getting them to school.

d) In schools where there is an emphasis on engaging families of persistent truancy, rather than simply offering threats, there is evidence that truancy falls dramatically and academic achievement increases for the schools.

e)in areas such as Gravesham, where there has been a unified 'hardline' approach to tackling truancy by the schools,  absence rates are much lower. 

f) Most respondents on the Radio phone in were preoccupied with their own  family pleasure, rather than seeing any consequence for the whole school  body, with children missing lessons and teachers having to spend time helping them catch up; the effect on other children seeing some of the generally most privileged missing school to suit family convenience, leading to a break down in the whole class commitment to school attendance.  

g) Parental views on the value of missing school for alternative "cultural events". Here the definition of cultural stretches as far as one wishes, and includes apparently Disneyland in Florida! how does one draw the line?  Is a football match cultural? Is playing in the snow an educational experience? Pity the poor headteacher who has to decide between these. 

h)I think the two most powerful arguments for taking absence from schools are: poor standards of education so that lessons are no longer educationally valid; and where a child is being bullied, there is no school support and school attendance is itself a punishment. I have come across both of these a number of times and here the fault is laid totally at the door of the school, not the parent.  

I have great sympathy for parents whose work conditions do not allow them to take family holidays in August, and here headteacher autonomy can be flexible. This certainly does not apply to ski holidays and other sunshine breaks in winter, which apparently are a necessity for some. Having children does impose some penalties! 

The argument about the additional costs of holidays in August is certainly a valid one, but perhaps a cheaper holiday base rather than somewhere exotic may alleviate the problem. I made the point strongly that I see no pressure from government on holiday companies to keep prices stable at peak periods. The outcry over Olympic hotel prices is insignificant compared to this but we hear nothing about tackling the issue and you can't have one without the other. 

All in all, an exciting event when I made the main headline for most of the day, and I shall be glad to get down to relatively clear issues of school admissions and appeals next week, although there are several other fascinating stories brewing  which may well hit the media shortly.