Our Holiday Procedure

Although parents are responsible for ensuring that their child attends and stays at school, it is the school’s responsibility to support attendance. We believe that regular attendance is important to ensure the best possible learning outcomes for all of our children. The school supports the view that every lesson counts and discourages parents from taking holidays in term time.

A number of children are taken out of school by their parents for holidays in term time. Whilst the reasons for this are understood, the detrimental effects of absence from school cannot be over-emphasised.

Although holidays may be cheaper during the school term, the harmful effects of the absence on your child's education can be far-reaching. Parents are therefore asked to take family holidays in the periods when the school is closed, unless it is unavoidable. This particularly applies during a year in which a child is due to take statutory assessments.

Please do everything possible to help your child attend school and support their learning. Shopping trips, waiting in for a delivery, outings, parental illness, visits to relatives and lack of school uniform are not acceptable reasons for missing school or being late to school.

• Dental/Medical appointments should be arranged if possible outside the school day.
• Where this is not possible it is expected that pupils only miss part of the day.

Children need to be in class for registration at 9.00a.m. Those who arrive after the register has been taken are marked as late and the time of arrival is noted in the register. Registers are closed at 9.30a.m. We are required to mark children who arrive after this time as absent and this will be unauthorised unless a parent or guardian gives a valid reason. If your child is absent, for any reason, please let us know either by telephone, where there is a specific answerphone area to leave a message, or letter on the first day of absence before 9.00am. The reason for an absence is noted on the school register. Unexplained absences have to be recorded as unauthorised.

If you wish to take your child away from school during term time you will need to seek approval from the Headteacher. Requests for holiday are discretionary and are not an automatic entitlement. Please be aware that headteachers are not able to grant any leave of absence during term time, unless there are exceptional circumstances. These will need to be clarified. If an absence is unauthorised, the school is expected to report this to WSCC which may result in parents being issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN).

Fixed Penalty Notice

To see our Fixed Penalty Notice guide click here

When considering an application for holidays in term-time, the school could refuse an application if the overall attendance of the child is unsatisfactory.

A request for absence form is available from the school office lobby area or can be completed using this form.

When considering an application for holidays in term-time, the school could refuse an application if the overall attendance of the child is poor.

Click here to see our Policies page which includes the Attendance Policy