A CEREDIGION school holiday campaigner has welcomed a Government announcement that headteachers should use their own discretion when asked by parents if they can take children out of school during term time.

Bethany Walpole-Wroe from Cwrtnewydd, the founder of the Let Children in Wales Have a Family Holiday During Term Time petition, said that new Welsh Government guidelines, adopted by Ceredigion council last year, punished parents and children.

The Minister for Education and Skills, Huw Lewis has now written to all directors of education in Wales and managing directors of regional educational consortia calling on them to adhere to the education regulations in Wales which give all headteachers statutory powers to authorise leave for family holidays during term-time.

He has advised them that blanket bans on term-time holidays are contrary to Welsh education regulations.

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