---
title: "Absence During Term Time"
description: "Absence During Term Time lowerplace primary academy"
url: "https://lowerplace.rochdale.sch.uk/parents/absence-during-term-time"
school: "Lowerplace Primary Academy"
---

# Absence During Term Time

#### Absence During Term Time

Your child should always attend the academy regularly during term times (dates can be found here). There are only two exceptions to this:

- When your child is too ill to go to academy;
- When the academy has authorised your child to be absent from academy.

If your child is too ill to attend academy, you should always call the academy office (01706 648174) to let us know.  **Parents must call by 9:30am each day their child is absent.**

 Attendance Policy  543 KB  [Open for printing](https://files.schudio.com/lowerplace-primary-school/files/documents/attendance-policy-2025-26.pdf)

**Absence**

Anytime you wish to take your child out of the academy during term time, you must ask the Headteacher, Ms Martin, for permission to do so. It is always the Headteacher's decision whether to allow an absence. If you do not ask for permission, or it is not allowed and you take your child out of the academy anyway, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised.

Parents often assume that they have the right to take their child out of the academy during term-time for family holidays; this isn't true. New DfE regulations recommend that Headteachers do not authorise time out of academy for a family holiday.

The amendments make it clear that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances, these are likely to be very rare. Amendments to the regulations remove references to ‘family holiday’ and ‘extended leave’ as well as the statutory threshold of ten academy days. In addition, parents are urged to make all routine medical and dental appointments after academy or during academy holidays.

In order to comply with the new regulations, it means that holidays taken during term time will be recorded as ‘unauthorised’ and may be subject to a Penalty Notice.

**Penalty Notice for Unauthorised Leave during Term Time**

Penalty Notices can now be issued if a pupil is absent for a minimum of 10 sessions (5 academy days) for an absence relating to leave during term time. A penalty notice will be issued without the issue of warning if a pupil is absent for a period not agreed or authorised by the Headteacher.

**Unauthorised Absences Penalty Notice**

These can be issued if a minimum of 20 sessions (10 academy days) are lost due to unauthorised absence. ***This includes persistent late arrival at academy (after the register has closed).***

Payment of a Penalty Notice within 21 days is £80 and a payment after this time but within 28 days is £160. ***This is per parent, per child.***

**What happens if my child’s attendance is too low?**

As an academy, we aim for 100% attendance. If your child's attendance dips below 90%, we will contact you to see if there is any support that we can offer in ensuring that your child attends the academy regularly. This may seem high but 90% equates to one day off every two weeks, which has a significant impact on a child's learning.

If attendance continues to drop then we may refer to matter to an Educational Welfare Officer (EWO) who will be in contact to investigate.

### Parents

- [Absence](https://lowerplace.rochdale.sch.uk/parents/absence-during-term-time)
- [Admissions](https://lowerplace.rochdale.sch.uk/parents/Admissions)
- [Term Dates](https://lowerplace.rochdale.sch.uk/parents/school-term-dates)
- [Academy Meals](https://lowerplace.rochdale.sch.uk/parents/academy-meals)
- [Useful Links](https://lowerplace.rochdale.sch.uk/parents/useful-links)
- [Newsletters](https://lowerplace.rochdale.sch.uk/parents/newsletters)
- [Academy Day](https://lowerplace.rochdale.sch.uk/parents/our-academy-day)
- [Academy Uniform](https://lowerplace.rochdale.sch.uk/parents/our-academy-uniform)
- [ESOL Assessment for Parents](https://lowerplace.rochdale.sch.uk/parents/esol-assessment-for-parents)
- [Calendar](https://lowerplace.rochdale.sch.uk/calendar)

  Academy@Worden is an exempt charity and a company limited by guarantee. Registered in England under company number 08360915. Registered offices: Westfield Drive, Leyland PR25 1QX

 [ ![Ofsted](https://lowerplace.rochdale.sch.uk/theme/worden/img/ofsted.png) ](https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/)