Attendance and Holiday Information
Attendance Guidelines
Penalty Notices for unauthorised absence
As set down by the Department for Education, Penalty Notices can be issued for unauthorised absence. In Hampshire, Penalty Notices are issued when a pupil has had 10 or more half-day sessions (equivalent to five school days) of unauthorised absence, in the last 10 school week period. These days absense do not have to be taken together. If 10 sessions are unauthorised over 10 weeks a fine will be issued.
Click link below for the full policy & the Hampshire County Council leaflet about penalty notices:
Information on Penalty Notices
Attendance at School
Holidays in Term Time
Schools are only able to grant time off school under ‘exceptional circumstances’. Leave is unlikely to be approved for the purposes of a family holiday. There are some reasons for absence that under normal circumstances will be approved without any problems – attending a family funeral, hospital or medical appointments, for example. Even then, requests will only be granted within the bounds of a sensible amount of time. Requests for time off for a day out, because relatives are visiting or for a family member's birthday are extremely unlikely to be authorised.
Parents sometimes wonder why a week or two out in a whole academic year is such a big deal. Surely it won't have a major effect on their children's education? Regardless of the fact that the legislation prohibits Head Teachers from granting leave, except in ‘exceptional circumstances’, taking your children out of school really does have an impact on their education and on the school.
It is not just about the children taken out of school but the disruption it causes their classmates and the system as a whole. This puts enormous pressure on teachers planning lessons around these absences. Time spent out of school during term time is never truly made up. Every day at school counts enormously for pupils but so does every consecutive day attended. Pupils need to be able to absorb new facts and knowledge, acquire new skills and consolidate those skills before building further and progressing. They simply cannot do that if their time in school is disrupted by too many preventable absences.
Should you wish to put in a request for a leave of absence in term time, please download an absence form from this page or request a form the school office.