Dear Parent/Carer,

As a school we strongly urge parents/carers to avoid any leave of absence during term time. Should however the exceptional circumstance arise whereby this is absolutely unavoidable, we request that the following form be completed and returned to the school office at least 4 weeks prior to the absence. If your request is refused, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised. This will appear both in the school register and in your child’s report.

New legislation was implemented and came into effect in September 2013 which states that schools may only authorise leave of absence in exceptional circumstances. Therefore it is the expectation of us as a school that term time holidays should not be booked/planned in advance as they are likely to be unauthorised. In the event that you have chosen to take your child on leave during term time without authorisation or in the event whereby evidence suggests your child has been away from school with the knowledge of yourself and does not meet the statutory defences mentioned below, legal action can be taken against you or a Penalty Notice can be issued to you by the Local Authority.

A penalty notice involves a fine of £60 per parent/carer per child, but can increase if not paid by the allocated timeframe. Should you as a parent/carer fail to pay the full amount of the fine within the specified timeframe you will be liable to prosecution in a magistrate’s court. A fine of up to £2500 or up to three months in prison may be imposed. Penalty notices may only be served in accordance with terms of the County Councils local code of conduct, a copy of which is kept by our school.

Statutory defences which come under Section 444(1) Education Act 1996 are:
`Absent for medical reasons
The LEA failed to provide transport when required to do so
Absent for religious observance
Permission is given by the school or there was an unavoidable cause.

Yours Faithfully


Cathryn Falconer
Head of School