Holidays during term time

Dear Parents

Amendments have been made to the 2006 pupil registration regulations in the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013, which will come into force on 1st September 2013. These 2013 amendments to the 2006 regulations remove references to family holidays and extended leave as well as the current statutory threshold of 10 school days.

Currently headteachers are allowed to grant leave of absence for the purpose of a family holiday during term time in special circumstances of up to 10 school days leave per year. Headteachers can also grant extended leave for more than 10 school days in exceptional circumstances.

The 2013 amendments set out that headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are “exceptional circumstances”. Headteachers should determine the number of school days a child can be away from school if the leave is granted.

Headteachers are also advised not to grant any leave of absence where the child’s attendance is below 95% for the preceding 12 months.

These changes will be applied to all requests for holidays and leave of absence for pupils from the start of next term (September 2013). Holiday requests that have already been submitted, and replied to, will be reassessed using the new government guidance to/expectations of headteachers. Any holidays/absence taken without the consent of the headteacher will be recorded as unauthorised absence and may be referred to attendance monitoring personnel for closer consideration.

The holiday / leave of absence request form has been amended to take account of these changes; a copy of which is available from the school office.

Yours sincerely

E Hinton
Headteacher