Legal advice and guidance

Your duty as a parent

The law says that all parents/carers must ensure that their child receives "efficient full time education suitable to his or her age, ability and aptitude". For the vast majority of children, this will be achieved by ensuring that they attend school on a regular basis.

Salford has support for parents/carers and children to enable them to do this. Members of the Education Welfare Service work closely with schools, parents/carers and children to promote regular attendance.

However it is possible for your parents to make alternative arrangements so long as they provide you with a satisfactory education. To do this, they have to show the local education authority that what you study meets certain standards.

Find out more about education other than at school.

For some students, it is not possible to attend a school regularly. Young people with serious illness or young women who are pregnant may need alternative arrangements. By law, the local education authority has to provide 'suitable' education for young people under 16 who are unable to attend regular school. This applies even if you have been permanently excluded. Salford's Education Inclusion Service helps to ensure that such young people are supported.

If you are of compulsory school age and registered at school, you are required by law to attend regularly so that you can keep up with your studies.

When is non-attendance allowed?

According to the Department for Education and Skills you are entitled to be absent from school on any day which is 'exclusively set aside for religious observance by the religious body to which your parents belong'.

Your parents can also ask permission for you to take up to two weeks holiday during term time, or longer in exceptional circumstances. However it is up to the school to decide whether to agree to this.

There may be other circumstances when your child does not attend school. You can find out more information from the pages below.

Salford has support for parents and children to enable them to carry out their duties. Members of the Education Welfare Service work closely with schools, parents and children to promote regular attendance.