Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will consider updating guidance to allow headteachers to use their own discretion to allow parents to take their children out of school for holidays during term time.

​The department has no plans to review our approach to term-time holidays. Schools can grant pupils a leave of absence for exceptional circumstances at their discretion, judging each application on the specific facts. However, generally a holiday would not constitute an exceptional circumstance. The school year is structured in a way that provides plenty of time for holidays outside of term-time. Schools and local authorities also have considerable flexibility to plan term dates themselves, and hold inset days and other occasional days at quieter times of the year, helping families to plan breaks at times that suit them.

​Where term-time holidays are taken without permission, it is right that the law protects children’s right to a full-time education. ​The national framework for penalty notices is designed to improve fairness by ensuring they are considered at a consistent point across the country, and on an individual basis, preventing schools from having blanket rules.​