Attendance Regulations 2013

The Department for Education expects schools to promote good attendance and reduce absences, including persistent absence. This is because we know that missing out on lessons leaves children vulnerable to falling behind. Children with poor attendance tend to achieve less.

As a school we work incredibly hard to support all children and their families to ensure that all children have good attendance.

One aspect of attendance that the government has decided to focus on is approved holidays during term time.

As of September 2013, no holidays can be authorised during term time.

This means that all holidays will be classified as unauthorised. We realise that this may be an issue for some families but please be aware that this is not a school decision.

As a consequence of these changes the school will no longer be able to approve requests for leave of absence for reasons that are not considered to be special or exceptional such as:

• Availability of cheap holidays and cheap travel arrangements
• Days overlapping with the beginning or end of term

Parents needing leave of absence for exceptional circumstances should complete a form at least two weeks before the anticipated start date. The reason for the request should be given in detail. Applications should be made before the leave is arranged as absences will not be granted retrospectively.

In summary:

• Term time holiday requests cannot and will not be approved by the school, except in extreme personal circumstances. Please do not ask, as the school is not in a position to approve this and consequently any requests will only lead to disappointment.

• Any extreme personal circumstances e.g. serious family illness, must be put in writing to the Chair of Governors for consideration.

• Days taken for holidays in term time will have to be recorded as unauthorised absence by the school and may lead to the involvement of the Local Education Welfare Officer. Such absence masquerading as illness will be recorded similarly.

We would like to remind parents that this is a Governmnet policy and parents who take their children on holiday without permission will incur unauthorised absences for their child and will be issued a penalty notice from the Local Authority. These remain on the child’s record and will be monitored for further action by the Education Welfare Service.

We would like to thank all those parents in our school who ensure that their children have good attendance records.