Laura Melling has paid more than £500 in school fines.
She considers it money extremely well spent.
The nurse from Leyland takes her two daughters – Lucy, eight, and Emily, seven – out of school whenever she wants to travel, absorbs the £80-per-parent, per-child penalty without complaint, and saves thousands in the process.
READ MORE: We flew six friends to Spain for the day and it cost less than a UK SPA
She has done this enough times that other parents have started copying her.
The maths isn’t complicated
Earlier this year, the family flew to Lapland. In December, the flights would have cost £700 per person.
Laura booked for January – the start of term – and paid £40 a head.
Car hire came to £189 instead of £545.
Accommodation was £500 rather than £1,900.
Total saving on one trip: £2,946. Total fine: a fraction of that.
“It works out cheaper to pay the fine than school holiday prices,” said Laura, 36.
“It’s a no-brainer.”
She and her husband Paul, 37, have also been to Egypt, Tunisia and France.
They say they’ve never spent more than £1,000 for a week away.
The fine, per trip, is a rounding error.
“They’re my children – not the school’s”
Laura is not conflicted about this. Not even slightly.
“It’s ridiculous – they’re my children, not the school’s,” she said.
“I don’t feel guilty in the slightest. My kids are having the best experiences rather than sitting in a boring classroom. We’re saving a fortune.”
The teachers, she says, are rarely hostile.
“They’re usually supportive and say they wish they could do it.”
Several parents at the school have since booked their own term-time trips after watching the Mellings do it first.
She draws her own lines. The family won’t travel during SATs or GCSEs – anything with genuine educational stakes is off the table.
But while the girls are young and the curriculum is flexible, Laura sees no good reason to hand £3,000 to a travel company because a school calendar tells her to.
“My kids are learning life skills,” she said.
“They learn in different ways when away – we’re not neglecting their education.
They have learning apps on their iPads and workbooks to complete.”
She’d take them out full-time if the finances allowed it.
They don’t, so school remains. But the holidays are hers.
“Everyone needs a break from the mundane. Being away gives us all time to relax and enjoy each other’s company without being stuck in a routine. My children are realising the world is a big place.”
Why it matters
According to Go Compare, Easter holiday trips run roughly 9% higher than non-peak travel – and that’s before airlines started adjusting fares in response to fuel price pressures from ongoing instability in the Middle East.
For a family of four, the gap between term-time and holiday pricing can exceed the annual cost of a second-hand car.
Laura’s approach isn’t a hack. It’s a response to a pricing system that has quietly decided families are a captive market.
The fine exists as a deterrent. For a growing number of parents, it’s just become a line item.
The conversation around term-time travel has been building for years.
What’s changed is the size of the gap – and how openly parents are now talking about crossing it.
What’s next
Laura isn’t planning to stop. The girls are young, the fines are manageable, and the savings are real.
The more interesting question is what schools – and travel companies – do as this calculation becomes impossible to ignore for more families.
