Excalibur Primary SchoolHoliday Dates
The school holiday dates for 2024/25, 2025/26 and 2026/27 can be downloaded at the bottom of the page.
Term Time Holidays
In response to the statutory changes by the Department for Education, introduced in April 2013, all Alsager Community Trust schools have had to amend their ‘Attendance Policies’ to reflect the changes in law. These are particularly applicable to holidays during term time.
A review has been commissioned by the Department for Education to consider the impact of school absence, especially holidays, on a child’s education and achievement. There is a clear link between attendance and achievement.
Following the review, the DfE have changed the regulations allowing schools to only authorise holiday under ‘exceptional circumstances’. The government want to dispel the belief that there is an automatic entitlement to an annual two-week term time holiday.
To illustrate the impact of taking holidays in term time it was noted that if children are taken away for a two-week holiday every year and have the average number of days off for sickness and appointments, then by the time they leave school at sixteen they will have missed a year of school.
If, despite this change in the law, you wish to request holiday leave, you should complete a leave request form, a copy can be downloaded at the bottom of the page, outlining the exceptional circumstances. We recommend that you do this before booking the holiday. With the achievement of our pupils of paramount importance and the regulations clear we will be extremely unlikely to authorise any holiday leave for pupils next school year.
We need to point out that in an effort to address poor attendance and unauthorised absences from schools the local authority may decide to issue a Fixed Penalty fine and/or prosecute parents under The Education Act 1996 if a holiday is taken during term time.
Penalties
For a First offence the Penalty Notice fine would be: -
• £80 per parent, per child if paid within 21 days, rising to
• £160 per parent, per child if paid between 21-28 days.
For a Second offence within 3-years of the first penalty notice being issued, the penalty notice fine would be:
• £160 per parent, per child if paid between 28 days.
Following the second offence every new offence within the 3-year period, will be prosecuted under S444.1 of the Education Act 1996. I must advise you that if the prosecution takes place, the maximum fine is £1,000 per parent, per child. This reflects the seriousness of unauthorised absence from school.
Where a pupil has not returned to school for 10 days after an authorised absence, or is absent from school without authorisation for 20 consecutive school days, the school will liaise with the LA regarding the Missing in Education procedure.