High Beeches Primary School

Attendance and Leave of Absence

We believe that, if children attend school regularly and punctually, they will be best able to take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them.  We are therefore committed to achieving excellent levels of attendance for individual children and our school as a whole and expect all pupils to arrive on time and to attend at least 96% of the time.

In order to minimise disruption to children’s education, headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances for doing so.  This means that, family holidays cannot be authorised.  Parents who believe they have exceptional circumstances should complete the online application form below, where possible, at least 2 weeks in advance of the planned absence.  In addition to evaluating the exceptional nature of the request, the decision to authorise any absence will also take into account the pupil’s prior attendance and performance in school.

Routine medical or dental appointments should take place out of school time.  However, leave for urgent medical appointments or those that are outside of a parent’s control (such as referrals to medical specialists) and for religious observance for members a recognised religious group (where it is normal practice for families to meet together on such occasion) may be permitted and parents should complete the online form below.

The government published new statutory guidance for schools alongside the introduction of new school attendance regulations in August 2024. The guidance places a much greater requirement on schools to used fixed penalty notices for pupils who have unauthorised absence. The threshold for issuing penalty notices has been lowered to five or more days (ten half day sessions) of unauthorised absence in a ten week period. This might be five or more consecutive days (where, for example, a family take an unauthorised holiday), could be a cumulative total of five days (where the reason for each absence has not been deemed as authorised) or could be ten or more half day sessions (where the pupil is either absent for half a day or arrives at school too late to be counted as present).

The sanction for penalty notices has been increased to £80 per parent, per child and this doubles to £160 if it is not paid within 21 days of being issued. So a family with two parents, where one or both parent takes the child on holiday, will receive fines of £160 for each parent, or £320 per parent if it not paid promptly. Both parents will be fined even the parents do not live together and regardless of which parent has instigated the unauthorised leave.

More information can be found in our attendance policy on our policies page.