Leave of Absence During Term Time
Absence During Term Time (Medical)
If you wish to request that your child be absent from school during term time for any MEDICAL reason, please download the ´LEAVE OF ABSENCE APPLICATION FORM" to complete and return to the school office. This is available in either
Common Diseases - Minimum Period Of Absence
Parents are asked to inform the school, on the first day absence, of the reason their child is unable to attend school. This enables us to keep an accurate and legal record of attendance.
The school must be informed of any infectious disease. The absolute minimum period of absence for common diseases is: -
- Sickness & diarrhoea - Please keep child at home for 48 hours from last bout of illness
- Measles - 5 days after appearance of rash
- Rubella - 5 days after appearance of rash
- Chicken Pox - 5 days after appearance of rash
- Mumps - 5 days from the onset of swollen glands
- Whooping Cough - 21 days from the onset of paroxysmal cough OR after completing 5 days of antibiotics
- Conjunctivitis - For children with 'sticky eye' - until eye no longer producing pus and infection has cleared. For children with 'pink eye' - attend school as usual
- Head Lice - Children should be treated with appropriate lotion and the school notified
- Thread Worm - Children and family must be treated and school notified
- Impetigo - Crusted over / not open or weeping OR after Completing 48 hours of antibiotics
This information is available as a download in either
A child who is unfit cannot cope with a day at school, please consider carefully whether your child has fully recovered from an illness. For other conditions please contact school for advice.
If your child needs to attend for a medical appointment, please complete an absence slip (above) in order that their class teacher can be informed. Medical absence slips are available from Coumes Office or can be downloaded using the link above.
Absence During Term Time (NOT Medical)
Question: What must I do if I want to take my child out of school for a NON-MEDICAL reason during term time?
Answer: Download and fill in the "Request for Absence from School" form requesting permission from school and return to the school office at least 5 days in advance of the first day of the proposed absence. The form can be downloaded in
Question: Why must I ask for the school’s permission?
Answer: By law your child should be in school for 190 days of the year. However, in exceptional circumstances, the Headteacher can give discretionary leave of up to 10 days in any academic year (Sept – July). This is not automatic, can only be considered in certain circumstances and must be applied for in advance.
Question: What are the exceptional circumstances in which I can ask the Headteacher to consider discretionary absence leave for my child?
Answer: There are several conditions that apply:
- Your child’s attendance percentage should currently be over 90% for the last twelve months.
- Absence should not be within the first 10 days of your child transferring to a new class in September/January. (This is a major source of educational disruption for a child as they miss all the work on establishing them as a member of the class.)
- The leave of absence must not fall during National or school assessment weeks or during the two weeks prior to these assessments.
- The leave of absence must not exceed the 10 days allowed in one academic year
Question: What if we book a holiday during term time and because of one of the above reasons the school cannot authorise it?
Answer: The absence will be marked as unauthorised on your child’s attendance record and reported to the Local Authority.
Please note that if a child achieves 90% attendance over the course of their compulsory education, this amounts to the equivalent of a year of their education lost.