We discourage all parents from taking their child out of school during term time to take holidays.  

Taking a child on holiday in term time interrupts the learning of the whole class and the teachers have to spend time helping the children catch up when they return. Therefore parents should arrange holidays during the 13 week school holiday periods.

Holidays taken within the school term (except in exceptional circumstances agreed by the Headteacher) will be deemed as unauthorised absence. The expectation of the Local Authority is that term-time holidays should not be planned or booked as they are likely to lead to the issuing of a penalty notice.  Parents /carers who take their children on unauthorised, term-time holidays may be issued with a penalty notice or subject to court proceedings for failing to ensure their child’s regular school attendance under section 444 of the Education Act 1996.

Exceptional circumstances does not include

• Cheap holiday cost
• Getting personal paperwork, visas updated (this should be planned into holiday periods)
• Visiting relatives (this should be planned into holiday periods)

Exceptional circumstances must be: 

• Rare
• Significant
• Unavoidable
• Short

Please see the documents below for more information.