Plea to Highland parents over term-time holidays
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Parents of school-aged children in the Highlands have been asked to “consider carefully” the impact of taking pupils on holiday during term time.
Nicky Grant, Highland Council’s interim head of learning, wrote to all parents to outline the consequences of children and young people not attending school.
In the letter, Ms Grant said: “I am writing to you to seek your support in what is an important matter for your school.
“We continue to work hard on raising standards of achievement in our schools. A key part of our strategy is to minimise absence levels and parents play a vital role in ensuring their son or daughter attends school as much as possible.”
She said there had been an increasing trend for some parents to remove pupils from schools for holidays.
Ms Grant continued: “When considering whether or not to exercise your right to remove your children from school for a family holiday, please be aware that such a decision will result in a significant loss in classroom experience; will result in a pressure to ‘catch up’ on missed work by pupils; could result in pupils missing assessments with consequential impact on pupils and teachers; could result in the loss of curricular activities; will affect school attendance records and efforts to raise standards of attendance.”
She said that under national guidance, most family holidays will be coded as unauthorised absence. She said that only in exceptional cases will the absence be recorded as authorised.
A council spokeswoman said: “The council’s education management write to all parents and carers of Highland pupils each year to raise awareness of school term dates and to encourage parents not to take their pupils out of school during term times.
“This is an annual reminder as new parents and pupils come to schools each year and to remind parents of the importance of their children’s education.”
