Holidays and Attendance

As you know, it is a legal requirement for all children to attend school, from the term after their fifth birthday. In this school, children attend school, usually from ages 4 to 11 years old. If a child is absent for any reason, you must telephone the school office on the first day of absence; and for any subsequent days. For a longer term absence, a doctor's note may be requested (eg a broken limb). Moreover, dental and other medical appointments should be arranged, as far as possible, outside school hours. If an absence for these reasons is necessary or deemed unavoidable, a medical appointment card should be given to the school office, prior to the absence. A 24 hour answerphone is available to all parents on 0151 329 3524.

You will have heard in the press that the Government is working to reduce the frequenct of parents taking their children out of school, for holidays during term time, with details on the Department for Education website.The governors and Local Authority fully support this policy. A holiday or similar unauthorised leave during school time means that children miss key parts of their curriculum; and this can delay their progress. We have seen this happen all too often.Multiple term-time holidays can have a cummulatively negative impact on learning and progress.

To improve clarity for everyone, anyone requesting holidays during term-time will need to arrange a meeting, before booking your holiday, with Mrs Thorpe our Headteacher. Our policy states that we do not authorise holidays taken during term time.

There have been further recent changes to the law, and since September 2024, Local Authorities can issue Fixed Penalty Notices to parents who take their children on an unauthorised holiday or similar absences in term time. The cost of these FPNs has risen, and is now £160, per parent, per child, reduced if paid within a given time frame. If parents fail to pay a penalty fine, further prosecution is to be expected. Please do not ignore fixed penalty notices. We have been informed by the Local Authority that two notices in our school were ignored. They then went to the magistrates court and parents were fined a significantly higher amount than the original FPN.
This policy is now statutory and is applied in all schools.  Please re-read the information previously shared regarding these changes so you are fully aware.

Many thanks to all the families who already help us to support their children, by always taking holidays during school breaks. This helps us all to raise standards for each and every child.