TERM TIME ABSENCE AND THE NAHT GUIDANCE

That this House welcomes the production of Guidance for Head Teachers on the way in which decisions should be made about term time absence requests; believes that the u-turn from the Government in accepting the merits of having such guidance is also to be welcomed; notes, however, the excessive overcrowding that is now happening at certain holiday sites in the UK and the hazards that arise at these places for young children; further believes that policy decisions should be evidence-driven and notes the Government evidence that indicates that a small amount of absence for primary school children for holidays slightly improves their achievement level at Key Stage 2; further believes that further progress is needed in staggering holiday periods to avoid conflict; calls for Ofsted not to place unreasonable pressures on schools to refuse requests for holiday absence; believes that parents are primarily responsible for the care of children and the state should avoid intervening without research evidence to just this; and further calls for the focus on absence to shift from ordinary families to those cases of persistent absence where there is research evidence that the absence is causing harm to the child's education.