Attendance - Is my child able to take term time leave?

All children have a legal right to suitable, full-time education. There is no entitlement for children to have time off from school during term-time for the purposes of a holiday, recreational or protest activity.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the definition of regular school attendance is “in accordance with the rules prescribed by the school.”

The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 set out the statutory requirements for schools:

·       all references to family holidays and extended leave have been removed, including the removal of the H code for approved leave,

·       headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are "exceptional circumstances",

·       headteachers do not have any discretion to authorise up to ten days of absence each academic year.

Herne View Church of England Primary expects all pupils to attend regularly. As such, any requests for term-time leave will be considered but only approved if the reasons and circumstances for that leave are exceptional (this implies unlikely to be repeated) and unavoidable. This decision rests with the headteacher.

All requests for term-time leave must be made in writing by emailing the school office on [email protected] Requests must be submitted to the school at least 4 weeks in advance; requests received without this notice or retrospectively will be unauthorised.

Any requests for leave that are not authorised will result in those absences being marked as unauthorised on the child’s register.

Any leave taken during term-time without being requested will be unauthorised.

In all cases where absences may be unauthorised, a penalty notice is likely to be requested if the national threshold is met

While it is not possible to provide a definitive list of exceptional circumstances, the following is a guide that Herne View Church of England Primary will use to make decisions based on the reasons for the request being made:

• the request is rare, or a one-off, significant, and unavoidable,

• the request is of unique and significant emotional, educational, or spiritual value to the child, which outweighs any loss of teaching time (as determined by the headteacher),

• the request is unavoidable, and could not be reasonably scheduled during school holidays, irrespective of who has planned or paid for the holiday or absence.

The headteacher may consult with other education settings or the Local Authority to decide whether specific circumstances are exceptional.

If a parent/carer reports their child as absent for reasons of illness (or otherwise) but there is reasonable evidence that those absences where for a holiday or recreational purposes, those absences may be unauthorised, and a penalty notice is likely to be requested if the national threshold is met.

In rare cases, requests for term-time leave may be authorised for example armed forces requests where this relates to a return from deployment (note armed forces does not include the emergency services - police, ambulance, fire service). When this happens, Herne View Church of England Primary will not provide any work for the child to complete during their absence.