Holidays During Term Time

We know how wonderful it would be if we could all be on holiday all of the time! However, requests for parents to take children out of school during term time - unless there are exceptional circumstances—will not be authorised.

Did you know that if your child misses a week at school, they will return with a gap in their learning that is difficult to repair? Each lesson is a building block of knowledge with the next lesson building on the last. By taking your child out of school, the building blocks are missing, which can cause your child to struggle. Children can feel embarrassed and vulnerable if they are put in this position because; they will not know what previous learning has taken place, they will have missed experiences within the learning environment, and they will have lost the opportunity to join in with discussions around the learning that occurred when they were absent. This applies to every single age group.

Missing school also affects the other children in the class because adults have to spend valuable teaching- time helping your child to catch up. This takes an adult away from the children they have been planned to work with, which affects the education of other children.

If there is an exceptional reason for your child to be out of school, then please send your application form into the school office (Application for Leave of Absence for a School Pupil in Term in Exceptional Circumstances Only). You will need to provide supporting evidence, which could include a letter from your employer explaining your work pattern (for example, NHS-employee); a third-party letter referring to an overseas family wedding; or similar.

All requests and supporting evidence will be considered jointly by the Head of School and a School Governor—and this should be received at least four weeks before the intended absence.

The position of the Stowe Valley MAT is that if a pupil does not attend school when permission has not been granted, the parents can be prosecuted.

Obviously, in cases where there is illness within the family or a funeral or similar, then these would be seen as exceptional circumstances automatically and notice would not be needed. A phone call to Mrs. Sykes would be sufficient. In such circumstances, the school would wish to offer support to the family in any way we can.

We hope this clarifies the school’s position on term-time holidays and explains the reasons why we have this policy in place. We are grateful to you, our parents and carers, for supporting the school in this policy to ensure every child reaches their potential at our school.