Making sure your child attends school

Having a good education will help to give your child the best possible start in life. Most children are normally educated at school and regular attendance is vitally important. Poor school attendance damages educational achievement and the future progress of young people. Promoting and supporting good attendance at school is essential to learning and attainment.  

You cannot take your child out of school during term-time unless there are exceptional circumstances. See our Can I take my child on holiday during term-time? page.

Who to contact if your child is missing school

If you are experiencing any problems with your child attending school, you should contact the school. The school can help you to resolve any issues or difficulties in the first instance. Sometimes, the school may need to involve other services to provide help and support. If this is the case, you need to work with the school to look at your difficulties so that they can best consider who may be able to help.

What happens if your child does not attend school?

By law, all children of compulsory school age must be provided with a suitable full-time education. As a parent, you are responsible for making sure this happens, either by registering your child at a school and ensuring your child's regular attendance, or by making other arrangements which provide an effective education.

The school and the council want to help you if you have a problem. If attendance does not get better and there are no good reasons for the absences, or if you do not accept the help and support offered, we may have no other option than to consider enforcement action.

Penalty notices (fines)

You need to make sure your child attends school regularly and on time. Because parents are responsible for this duty in law, you will be breaking the law if you do not do this and there are no good reasons for missing school. This could result in you being issued a fixed penalty notice and/or a possibility of imprisonment for up to three months. See our  Factsheet: Penalty notices to address poor attendance at school (PDF, 114.7kb) .