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For Parents and Carers
Please read the information below carefully, as it outlines new changes to Governments Policy which will effect the way in which we have to deal with term-time holiday requests.
Please see our attendance policy for further details relating to our attendance procedures at St Paul's CE Primary.
Please be aware our Attendance Policy is currently under review.
With effect from 1st September 2013
New legislation does not give any entitlement to parents to take their child on holiday during term time. Any application for leave must be in exceptional circumstances and the Headteacher must be satisfied that the circumstances warrant the granting of leave.
By law, parents whose children are of compulsory school age and registered at school are responsible for ensuring that their children attend school regularly. If they fail to do this they are guilty of an offence and will be given a penalty notice or prosecuted under section 444 of the Education Act 1996.
Parents will be fined for taking their child on holiday during term time without consent from the school.
It will be for schools to define 'exceptional circumstances' and you will receive written notification of the decision made.
Headteacher's will determine the number of school days a child can be away from school if the leave is granted.
Penalty notices (fines) will also be issued to each parent who fails to ensure their children's regular attendance at school or fails to ensure that their excluded child is not in a public place during the first five days of exclusion.
Parents must, from 1 September 2013, pay £60 within 21 days or £120 within 28 days. This brings attendance penalty notices into line with other types of penalty notices and allows local authorities to act faster on prosecutions.
Under the Code, Penalty Notices will be issued:
Should the Penalty Notice not be paid, the Bradford Children's Services will submit the case for prosecution in the magistrate's court.
We must also remind parents that school starts at 8.40am each day. Children must arrive at school at least 5 minutes before the start of the school day, wearing their correct school uniform.
Registers close at 8.45am. Any child who arrives in school after this time will be given a late mark.
For children who are persistently late (even if it is only 5/10 minutes each day) then the Headteacher will contact the parents/carers to obtain the reasons why. This may involve an interview with the Headteacher.
A child who arrives in school after 9:15am will be issued with an absent mark for the morning session. This of course will then affect the child's attendance figure, which will then result in the above penalty notice procedure been followed.
If a child needs to attend a medical appointment, parents should always try to make this outside of the school day, or make it for mid morning so that children can be given their registration mark at the start of the school day, and be back in school before lunch.