As kids across the UK approach the end of the summer holidays, with some Scottish schools already back, parents run the risk of their children missing the start of the new school term should their holiday abroad be affected by any changes to government and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advice.
Anyone going on holiday now is cutting it fine should the government suddenly impose last-minute quarantine restrictions to the country they are holidaying in, leaving themselves at risk of having to self-isolate for 14 days upon their return to the UK.
We’ve been in touch with one family from Kent who was due to fly to Spain at the end of August to enjoy the last two weeks of the summer holidays but made the decision cancel their getaway over fears that quarantine restrictions would jeopardise their son’s start of sixth form.
The family told us that they were originally hoping that the FCO would change their travel advice on Spain and lift the quarantine before they were due to depart so that they wouldn’t need to quarantine when they returned.
However, with no sign of the quarantine restrictions being lifted in sight, the family felt that the right decision was to cancel their holiday as two weeks in Spain simply wasn’t worth having to isolate for 14-days and prevent their son from attending his first week at sixth form.
“Our son hasn’t been in school since March,” the mum said. “He’ll be the first year ever not to do his GCSE’s and instead receive results based on what the school thinks he would have achieved.
“This whole experience has been stressful enough for him, as I imagine the lack of structure has been for most children, so we simply couldn’t risk him being late to start sixth form for the sake of some sun.
“Not only that, but if we travelled against the current FCO advice we’d invalidate our travel insurance policy too! The decision we made was really a no-brainer.”
More information about traveling post-covid can be found here.
