Taking Dc out of school for holidays - what are the new rules?

[mummatotwo]

weve jsut booked a holiday and someone has mentioned that it is now government policy that you can not take your child out

It's always been the policy that heads should only grant leave in certain circumstances.

Some heads were more lax on this than others, but now the wording has been strengthened to reinforce the guidelines that holidays are only authorized in certain circumstances. I think forces personnel returning from leave, or if there is evidence parents can't get leave at other times, or family illness are included in special circumstances?

Other than that the leave will be unauthorized and families can be fined, I think.

The wording has been changed to avoid parents seeing a term time holiday of up to ten days as an entitlement.

The previous regulations allowed head teachers to grant leave of absence for the purposes of a family holiday during term time in 'special circumstances' of up to ten school days per year.

Amendments to those regulations remove references to family holidays and extended leave as well as the statutory threshold of ten school days.

The amendments make clear that head teachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.

The DfE now states that head teachers should determine
the number of school days a child can be away from school - if leave is granted.