Hounslow Council is urging parents to think again before they disrupt their children's education, warning of the long-term impact of term time leave.
Published: Monday, 10th March 2025
Term time leave is on the increase in Hounslow. The borough is reporting above national rates of unauthorised holiday in both primary (0.6%) and secondary schools (0.4%) (see Notes to Editors).
Penalties for term time leave have risen by 50% between 2022/23 and 2023/24, and education professionals are warning the impact on children's education is significant.
Daniel Willetts is headteacher at Norwood Green Infant & Nursery School: “Prices for flights and holidays can be up to 50% cheaper during term time, and there is often pressure from friends and family based overseas to visit for special occasions and events.
“As an example of the impact of term time leave, one child at our school, who was the youngest in the year group, started significantly below age-related expectations but made really good progress over the year. His parents took the whole family out of school in mid-June and came back at the beginning of October. The child ended up right back in the bottom group again after a short space of time.”
Mike Rose, headteacher at Heathlands Secondary School in Hounslow added: ““Term time leave can have a profound impact on the education and lifelong chances of each learner. Taking one week off means that the highest annual attendance a pupil can achieve is 97%. The missed lessons result in pupils missing out on specialist subject expertise and can create gaps in knowledge, which may be irretrievable. There is nothing that can replicate the immersive experience of being in an actual lesson. We have seen many examples where pupils have taken days off during the academic term and return to school, significantly behind their peers. This can also impact on their well-being and emotional state.”
Cabinet Member for Education, Children, Skills, and Employment, Councillor Samia Chaudhary also urged parents to consider the consequences of term time leave: “We know there is a clear link between absence and attainment, so we’d urge parents to think very carefully about taking holidays during term time. While we are sympathetic to some of the reasons involving families, there remains an increase in parents simply taking children out of school for cheaper holidays. We must put the education of our children first and we will fine consistently irresponsible parents.”
In Hounslow, during the first two weeks of the 2024 Autumn term (9 - 20 September), 263 primary phase pupils of compulsory school age were absent for at least one day due to unauthorised holiday. The total number of days missed, for this reason, was 1,025 with pupils missing an average of 3.8 days.
Across the secondary phase, 141 pupils were absent for this reason with the total number of days being 532 and the average being 3.7 days.
A third (33.1%) of pupils who were persistently absent in 2023/24 had at least one day of absence in the first week of the academic year in September 2024. Over half (58.4%) of pupils who had at least one day of absence in the first week of the 2023/24 academic year, went on to be persistently absent by the end of the school/academic year.
Notes to Editors
Primary School attendance
|
|
England |
London |
Hounslow |
Ealing |
Hammersmith |
Hillingdon |
Richmond |
Slough |
Surrey |
|
No of schools reporting |
16,267 |
1,716 |
50 |
65 |
36 |
67 |
45 |
28 |
293 |
|
Attendance rate |
94.8% |
94.8% |
94.5% |
95.0% |
94.7% |
94.0% |
95.6% |
94.5% |
95.1% |
|
Authorised absence rate |
3.8% |
3.7% |
3.9% |
3.7% |
4.0% |
4.4% |
3.3% |
4.3% |
3.8% |
|
Authorised illness rate |
3.0% |
3.0% |
3.1% |
3.1% |
3.1% |
3.5% |
2.5% |
3.4% |
3.0% |
|
Authorised part-time timetable rate |
0.1% |
0.0% |
0.1% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.1% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.1% |
|
Unauthorised absence rate |
1.4% |
1.5% |
1.7% |
1.3% |
1.3% |
1.6% |
1.1% |
1.2% |
1.1% |
|
Unauthorised holiday absence rate |
0.5% |
0.4% |
0.6% |
0.4% |
0.3% |
0.4% |
0.4% |
0.6% |
0.4% |
Secondary School attendance
|
|
England |
London |
H’low |
Ealing |
H’smith |
H’don |
Richmond |
Slough |
Surrey |
|
Number of schools reporting |
3320 |
479 |
21 |
17 |
10 |
22 |
10 |
15 |
56 |
|
Attendance rate |
92% |
93% |
93.4% |
93.1% |
93.6% |
92.5% |
94% |
93.2% |
93% |
|
Authorised absence rate |
5% |
4.1% |
4.1% |
4.2% |
4.0% |
4.8% |
3.7% |
4.8% |
5.0% |
|
Authourised illness absence rate |
3.7% |
3.1% |
3.2% |
2.9% |
3.0% |
3.8% |
2.9% |
3.4% |
3.7% |
|
Unauthorised absence rate |
2.9% |
2.6% |
2.5% |
2.7% |
2.4% |
2.7% |
2.3% |
2.0% |
2.0% |
|
Unauthorised holiday absence rate |
0.3% |
0.3% |
0.4% |
0.3% |
0.2% |
0.3% |
0.1% |
0.3% |
0.2% |
