Leave of Absence Form
Please read the following information before completing the form below.
The school will only grant a pupil a leave of absence in exceptional circumstances. In order to have requests for a leave of absence considered, the school will expect parents to contact the headteacher in writing at least two weeks prior to the proposed start date of the leave of absence, providing the reason for the proposed absence and the dates during which the absence would be expected to occur.
Any requests for leave during term time will be considered, dependant on the type of leave request, on an individual basis and the pupil’s previous attendance record will be taken into account. Where the absence is granted, the headteacher will determine the length of time that the pupil can be away from school.
The school will not grant leaves of absence for the purposes of family holidays.
Requests for leave will not be granted in the following circumstances:
- Immediately before and during assessment periods
- When a pupil’s attendance record shows any unauthorised absence
- Where a pupil’s authorised absence record is already above 10% for any reason.
If term-time leave is not granted, taking a pupil out of school will be recorded as an unauthorised absence and may result in sanctions, such as a penalty notice. The school cannot grant leaves of absence retrospectively; therefore, any absences that were not approved by the school in advance will be marked as unauthorised.
Parents will be expected to make medical or dental appointments outside of school hours wherever possible. Where this is not possible, parents will be expected to obtain approval for their child’s absence to attend such appointments as far in advance as is practicable. Parents will be responsible for ensuring their child misses only the amount of time necessary to attend the appointment.
Fixed Penalty Notices
Where a pupil reaches the national threshold of 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks, the school will consider whether a penalty notice is appropriate. Each case will be considered individually to determine whether a penalty notice should be used to improve attendance. This includes an unauthorised holiday of 10 sessions or more.
Penalty notices for unauthorised absences will be charged at £160, reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days. This is per parent per child.