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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.