Skip to content ↓

Cotham School
0117 919 8000
Translate

Request Exceptional Absence

Please complete this form if you wish to request an exceptional absence from school for your child
As per current Government regulations and DfE advice, parents do not have any entitlement to remove their child from school during term time and the discretionary 10 days no longer exists. Any application for leave will therefore be in only very exceptional circumstance and evidence of this must be provided. By exceptional, we mean rare, significant, unavoidable and short. There are 175 days a year when a child is not required to be in school (weekends/Holidays/ Bank Holidays). The application must be made in advance, retrospective requests will not be considered. Please return this form to the school no less than 10 days before the absence is due to start. Should a request for leave not be received/granted and the child is absent from school for 3 or more days, medical evidence will be required should the school have reason to believe the child is on holiday. No request can be considered if a child’s attendance is less than 96%. When a student’s attendance meets the criteria for a Penalty Notice, the expectation of the Local Authority is that schools will make a referral, unless there are reasonable grounds for not doing so. This is £60 per parent/ per child. If this is not the first unauthorised absence, legal proceedings under the Education Act 1996 may be commenced in the Magistrates court for the offence of unauthorised absence of a child from school. This can result in fines of £1000, if found guilty the parents will have a criminal record. Please note that if a student takes unauthorised leave in term time without the Head teacher’s authorisation and does not return within 20 days, the student may be deleted from the school register.*
I confirm that I have parental responsibility as required to make this request*

Cookie Policy