UK Schools: When your child is and isn't allowed to be taken out of school

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Transcript

00:00Hello, my name is Amber Owlett and I'm a journalist specialising in education.

00:05New figures have shown that the number of fines issued for term time holidays hit a

00:08record high in the last school year.

00:11The government has recently taken steps to curb this practice, including raising the

00:14unauthorised absence fine from £60 to £80.

00:19Here are the rules for taking your child out of school during the term, including when

00:22it is and is not allowed.

00:25You are allowed to keep your child home when they're sick, but also in what are called

00:28exceptional circumstances.

00:31This might be a family crisis, a death, or a funeral, but you still need to let the school

00:35know.

00:36You're also allowed to keep your child home if the council usually transports them to

00:40school but they can't that day, or if you're a traveller family, children can stay home

00:45when you're moving or travelling for work.

00:48Other reasons for missing school are typically considered unauthorised absences.

00:53Local authority guidelines on these typically include things like parent or sibling illness,

00:57non-urgent medical treatment, truancy, or a child just not wanting to turn up.

01:02They also do include term time holidays, which strictly speaking are not allowed.

01:07It's worth noting that the government has specified that a family holiday, even if it

01:11may be considerably more affordable outside of the school holiday period, cannot be counted

01:16as an exceptional circumstance either.