Holidays in Term Time
In line with Local Authority and Government guidance, leave of absence in term time will only be considered in the most exceptional of circumstances. The principles for defining exceptional are: rare, significant, unavoidable and short, with unavoidable meaning an event that could not reasonably be scheduled at another time. Generally, the DfE does not consider a need or desire for a holiday or other
absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation to be an exceptional circumstance.
Taking holidays in term time will affect your child’s education and parents are discouraged from withdrawing their child from school during term time and we ask all parents to consider that that any savings you may make by taking a holiday in school time are offset by the cost to your child’s education.
There is no automatic entitlement in law to a leave of absence in school time to go on holiday.
All applications for leave of absence must be made in advance on the leave of absence request form which can be obtained from the school office or found in the appendices of the attendance policy.
Any period of leave taken without the agreement of the school, or in excess of that agreed,will be classed as unauthorised and may attract sanctions such as a Penalty Notice.
The Local Authority Attendance Team has asked us to share the following information with families.
This is from the updated DfE guidance Working Together to Improve School Attendance (August 2024) Working together to improve school attendance - August 2024 - GOV.UK and explains the Education Penalty Notice (EPN) process for leave absences which are less than 5 days.
- The National Framework does not prevent a penalty notice from being used in other cases where an offence has been committed but before doing so authorised officers are expected to make the same considerations as set out above. If in an individual case the local authority (or other authorised officer) believes a penalty notice would be appropriate, they retain the discretion to issue one before the threshold is met. This might apply for example, where parents are deliberately avoiding the national threshold by taking several term time holidays below threshold, or for repeated absence for birthdays or other family events. If local authorities wish to exercise this discretion to issue a penalty notice earlier in such circumstances, they should make this clear in their Local Code of Conduct. Local authorities who conduct, or may wish to, conduct truancy sweeps will also want to make provision for this within their Code.