Our School does not permit term time holidays and a child's absence may result in a penalty notice(fine). Exceptional circumstances may result in your child needing time off school. Please collect a "Withdrawal From Education" form from the school office should you need to request leave.

Before completing the application form, please read these notes carefully:

• The Department for Education states that you do not have the right to take your child out of school during term time. The Local Authority works with schools to reduce the numbers of children missing school because of holidays taken in term time and schools can refuse your request to take your child out of school.

• If you wish to take your child on holiday during term time, you must apply for permission at least 4 weeks in advance in writing using the attached form.  Head Teachers are no longer permitted to agree for parents to take their children on holiday during term time unless in exceptional circumstances.

• The Local Authority state that absence for holidays in term time due to the following reasons will not be authorised:

• Availability of cheap holidays
• Availability of desired accommodation
• Poor weather experienced in the school holiday period
• Overlap with the beginning or the end of term
• Holidays booked before checking with the school
• Birthdays
• Day trips, shopping or visit to hairdresser, dentist or similar
• Taking the rest of the day off before or after a medical appointment
• Holidays rescheduled due to Covid 19

DFE- School attendance: guidance for schools

If the school refuses your application and you still take your child out of school the absences will be treated as unauthorised in the register and this will be reported to the Local Authority. 

You need to be aware that a significant number of unauthorised absences can lead to legal action being taken by the Local Authority.

• An unauthorised leave of absence of more than 3 days/6 sessions (over a 6 week rolling period) may lead to you being issued with a Penalty Notice Fine or Prosecution. A Penalty Notice fine, which if paid within 21 days, is £60 or within 28 days is £120. This Penalty Notice is applicable to each parent (regardless of whether both parents accompanied the child on holiday) and each child. For example, if a family of 2 adults and 2 children are applicable for a Penalty Notice, each parent may receive a fine for each child. (It is important to note, the actual fine is £120 and is reduced to £60 for payment within 21 days and not doubled as some people may believe to be the case. Where a fine remains unpaid, the matter may be enforced at the Magistrates Court. The maximum fine for this offence is £2,500 but you may receive a community order or a jail sentence of up to three months. The court could also give you a Parenting Order.)
• The Local Authority will not issue more than 2 Penalty Notices per calendar year to any person taking more than 2 periods of unauthorised absence. Where further absences occur, or where the Local Authority deem it appropriate, enforcement may be dealt with directly by the court.

Parents who decide not to pay a fine and contest the matter in court should seek legal advice before doing so.

• Please note, a child is classed as ‘Persistently Absent’ if they achieve less than 90% attendance during any 6 week period.

• Head Teachers will moderate their decisions to ensure there is a fair and equitable approach. You should also expect that, where siblings are known to attend another school, schools will communicate about requests in respect of all the children in the family.