Absences from school for 11 days or more require an exemption application to be submitted with supporting documentation prior to day of departure. 

Parents often apply for exemption from school to take an overseas holidays and avoid the high costs of plane flights during holiday periods. This means that some children, in addition to the twelve weeks of annual school holidays already available to students in Queensland, may have as much as four months or more away from school. This has an enormous impact on their learning and, so, taking more time by having school time used for holidays, is to be discouraged.

I appreciate the importance of family in the lives of our children, but we cannot be responsible for a child’s education if he/she is not actually at school. Education policy states:

Pursuant to s.176(1) of the Education General Provisions Act 2006 (Qld), each parent of a child who is of compulsory school age must ensure that the child is enrolled and attends school on every school day for the educational program in which the child is enrolled unless the parent has a reasonable excuse.

Pursuant to s.239(1) of the Education General Provisions Act 2006 (Qld), a parent of a young person in the compulsory participation phase must ensure the young person is participating full-time in an eligible option, unless the parent has a reasonable excuse.

If you are going to take holidays during school time, please do not disregard the impact of that on student learning. The curriculum is a prep to year 6 continuum – gaps in learning may create bigger problems as the years roll on.

A reasonable explanation must be given if a holiday exemption is requested and evidence must be supplied. If you have relevant evidence for the need to travel at that particular time, this can be submitted to the office without an interview. If you have no evidence of the reason for travel, an interview is required. Applications for holiday exemptions must be submitted prior to travel. Holiday exemptions are counted in the absence rates of each student.