I request permission for my child to be absent from school between: -

Please detail below the reason for your request for absence from school in term time and include any supporting information. The Headteacher will not be able to consider your request without your supporting documents.

You are required under the Education Act (1996) to ensure your child attends school regularly. There is, however, a discretionary power held by Headteachers to authorise absence in exceptional circumstances.

Please note that supporting documents to aid decision making must be submitted at the time of your request for absence. There is no longer a provision in law for Headteachers to authorise an absence for the purpose of a term time holiday.

Support and guidance on attendance is always available and if you have any questions about this, or if you need help to achieve an improvement, please contact your child’s school to discuss this. Where there are two parents with parental responsibility, both parents must agree to the request.

Parents can be fined by the local authority for taking their child on holiday during term time without the consent of the school. The Local Authority’s decision to issue a fixed Penalty Notice is based on information submitted by the school. Triggers for the fixed Penalty Notice will be:

• 18 sessions (9days) of unauthorised absence in the last 6 weeks
• 5 consecutive days of unauthorised absence
• An accumulation of unauthorised absence leading to an attendance of 90% or less.
• It is important that parents understand that the initial fixed penalty notice of £60 is issued to each parent for each child. A two-parent family with two children would be fined £240