Guidelines for granting absence from school (FOI)

Request

Under the Education (Jersey) Law 1999, article 12:

For the purposes of this Article, a child shall not be deemed to have failed to attend regularly at the school at which the child is a pupil by reason of the child's absence;

(a) with leave granted by the head teacher of the school

Please can you state the circumstances / guidance given to head teachers whereby they may grant leave to a child.

Response

The information requested is absolutely exempt under article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as it is accessible by other means. The Education departments’ published attendance policy is available on the States of Jersey web site, www.gov.je, at the following link:

School Attendance 

Please refer to page 10 for details of where ‘Leave during Term’ might be authorised. Further guidance for Head teachers is included in Appendix 5.

Responsibility for attendance extends beyond the Head teacher and Staff in Schools to parents and pupils, the Education Department works closely with all involved to ensure that every day counts.

Article applied

Article 23 Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.