Attendance
Parents are responsible for ensuring full time, regular and punctual attendance of their compulsory school-aged child. Regular and punctual attendance of pupils at school is both a legal requirement and essential for children to maximise their educational opportunities.
Regular attendance has been defined (by the Supreme Court, 6th April 2017) to mean “in accordance with the rules prescribed by the school’. Our school has a minimum expectation of 97% attendance over an academic school year.
A child reaches compulsory school age on or after their 5th birthday.
- If they turn 5 between 1 Jan and 31 Mar they are of compulsory school age on 31 March.
- If they turn 5 between 1 Apr and 31st Aug then they are of compulsory school age on 31st August.
- If they turn 5 between 1 Sept and 31 Dec then they are of compulsory school age on 31st December.
The document attached below, 'Attendance Matters', outlines our view on attendance and makes clear our and the government's expectations of you and your child.
Term-Time Holidays and Exceptional Leave of Absence
At Bidston Avenue Primary School, every day in school matters. Regular attendance helps children to learn well, build friendships, develop confidence and keep secure routines.
From July 2026, the school will not authorise holidays or other leisure-related absence during term time.
This includes, but is not limited to:
- family holidays, including holidays taken because they are cheaper during term time
- visits to family abroad or elsewhere in the UK
- birthdays, celebrations and special events, including weddings
- days out, concerts, sporting events or family trips
- travelling before or returning after a holiday period
- parents’ work patterns or annual leave arrangements
Parents and carers should only plan holidays during the published school holiday dates.
Exceptional leave
The law allows a school to authorise absence 'only where there are exceptional circumstances'. Each request must be made in advance and will be considered individually. You will be asked to provide evidence.
At Bidston Avenue, leave connected to an immediate family bereavement or funeral will normally be considered for authorisation. The school will agree an appropriate and proportionate period of absence, based on the circumstances of the family and child.
Other requests for exceptional leave will be very rare. They must be supported by clear information and, where appropriate, evidence. Submitting a request does not mean that absence will be authorised.
If leave is not authorised
If a request is declined and a child is absent, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised.
For children of compulsory school age, unauthorised absence may lead to the school requesting that Wirral Council considers issuing an Education Penalty Notice. Under the national framework, a penalty notice may be considered when a child has accumulated 10 sessions of unauthorised absence within a rolling period of 10 school weeks. This is usually equivalent to five school days.
A first penalty notice is £80 per parent, per child if paid within 21 days, increasing to £160 if paid within 28 days. A second penalty notice within three years is charged at £160 per parent, per child. Where fines are unpaid, or where there are further offences, Wirral Council may consider prosecution.
We appreciate the importance of family time. However, school holidays provide 13 weeks across the year for this. Our shared priority must be ensuring that children are in school every day, ready to learn and take part fully in school life.
For further advice, please speak to the school office.
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Football Weekends – no school is permitted to approve football weekends. They are not classed as education off site (as suggested by some managers of football clubs and competition organisers) and the Cheshire FA and other local FAs have backed the school's stance on this.
INSET Week and Bank Holiday Week Holidays – if parents take their child on term-time holidays in a week of an inset day or bank holiday, for example, to avoid missing 10 sessions, headteachers can now apply for an EPN. See below:
Para185. The National Framework does not prevent a penalty notice from being used in other cases where an offence has been committed but before doing so, authorised officers are expected to make the same considerations as set out above. If in an individual's case, the local authority (or other authorised officer) believes a penalty notice would be appropriate, they retain the discretion to issue one before the threshold is met. This might apply, for example, where parents are deliberately avoiding the national threshold by taking several-term-time holidays below threshold, or for repeated absence for birthdays or other family events. If local authorities wish to exercise this discretion to issue a penalty notice earlier in such circumstances, they should make this clear in their Local Code of Conduct. Local authorities who conduct, or may wish to, conduct truancy sweeps will also want to make provision for this within their Code.