As a parent/carer, you can demonstrate your commitment to your child’s education by not allowing your child to miss school for anything other than an exceptional and unavoidable reason. Research suggests that children who are taken out of school may never catch up on the learning they have missed, which may ultimately affect exam and test results.

•Parents are required under the Education Act (1996) to ensure their child attends school regularly. There is no automatic right to take a child out of school during term time but the law allows Head Teachers to consider individual requests to authorise a leave of absence in exceptional circumstances.
•The Head Teacher must be satisfied that the exceptional circumstances justify an authorised absence,annual family holidays DO NOT qualify as exceptional circumstances and it is entirely the responsibility of the parent submitting the request to provide sufficient information and evidence in order to establish this fact.
•The request for an authorised leave of absence must be made at least four weeks in advance and the Head Teacher may invite the parent into school to discuss the request before a decision is made. Request for leave of Absence form is attached below.
•If the circumstances relating to this request are considered exceptional and the absence is authorised by the Head Teacher, the expectation is that child’s attendance will be of a satisfactory level both prior to and after the date covered by the request.
•If your request for leave of absence is REFUSED and the absence is recorded as unauthorised, the Head Teach may refer the matter to the Local Authority requesting a Penalty Notice be issued against you.