• The JTMATs Attendance Policy is to fully comply with Government regulations. Statutory guidelines state "Headteachers may not grant leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances”.
• The school may seek advice from the Trust Strategic Attendance Manager and liaise with the head teachers of schools’ siblings attend.
• Requests for leave in exceptional circumstances should be made at least 2 weeks in advance of the event.
• Retrospective approval for absence cannot be granted. Parents do not have the right of appeal if a request for a leave of absence is declined, the head teacher’s decision is final.
• Leave of absence will NOT be granted for pupils who are at a level of persistent absence (less than 90%) or where attendance/punctuality are a concern.
• Leave of absence will NOT be granted during periods of public examinations or internal school assessments.
• Leave of absence will NOT be granted for holidays during term time regardless of circumstances.
• Where leave of absence is NOT authorised and parents decide to take pupils out of school despite the school’s decision, absence will be recorded as unauthorised and subject to a fixed penalty notices (fine).
• If the schools grants a leave of absence request and subsequently obtains evidence that indicates an application was falsified, the school reserves the right to amend the child’s attendance records to record the absence as unauthorised and apply for the issuing of a fixed penalty notice.
• Where a pupil fails to return to school after an agreed period of leave of absence, absence will be recorded as unauthorised, a fixed penalty notice (fine) requested and they may be reported to the Local Authority as ‘A Child Missing in Education’ and potentially lose their place at the school.
• Schools are under no obligation to provide work for pupils who are absent from school, unless parents/carers have received a licence from the LA for their child to take part in sporting/arts/theatre events as part of professional organisation, as detailed above.

Dates of planned absence

Please note, If you are only requesting part of the day off for an appointment, then please specify this in the reason for request section.