By anyone's reckoning, school holidays throughout the year should afford parents enough opportunity to take family holidays without disrupting their children's education.

However, pupils being taken out of school during term-time for holidays or extended trips abroad is an ongoing problem, and many families insist on doing it.

That might be changing, however, as Bradford Council appears to be getting tougher on parents. In the 2013/14 academic year the authority handed out almost 2,000 penalty notice fines to parents who take holidays during term-time.

These monetary penalties might make taking cheaper holidays out of the school breaks less financially attractive, and they certainly seem to be doing the job.

Over the last academic year, a massive 11,000 fewer school days were lost compared to the previous year. So perhaps the message is getting through that holidays are for holidays, and school-time is for learning.

It should be said, though, that it is understandable why some parents are tempted to take their children out of school for family holidays. The cost of a holiday-time break can be phenomenal compared to the same holiday in the same place but out of the main school break period.

The cost differential can make the difference between families having holidays or not, and time together on a relaxing break away from home is important to any family.

Perhaps, as well as cracking down on parents, someone could maybe target the holiday companies, especially those that trumpet their "family-friendly" credentials, to try to persuade them to ease the cost disparity between term-time and school holiday breaks.

It is unlikely, of course, because demand is high over summer and that brings with it, sadly, premium prices.