We have updated our Guidelines for Leave from Compulsory Education based on the new Private School Act from 2024.
Your child is obliged to attend all school lessons. A valid absence from school is a documented absence in the form of leave granted by the school, an illness, or a medical appointment. The school can grant your child leave from education for up to ten consecutive school days. The prerequisite is that it is pedagogically sound to give your child time off.
How to apply for a leave?
1-2 school days
Application for leave is sent directly to the class teacher. The class teacher can approve this. If you are refused, it is the principal who makes the decision.
3-10 school days
Application is sent to the principal via admin@birralee.no
Leave rules
Leave students are not entitled to
When it comes to leave that students are not entitled to, Birralee International School must make a two-part assessment. The school must first decide whether it is justifiable for the student to be granted leave. What is appropriate for one student may not be appropriate for another. If the school comes to the conclusion that it is not justifiable to grant leave, the application must be rejected. The elements that are central to the soundness assessment are described in point 5 of these rules.
If the school finds that it is justifiable to grant leave, the school must then assess whether the student can actually be granted leave. If the school decides that they cannot grant leave, the application must be rejected. The guidelines for this are described in point 6 of these rules.
Leave students are entitle to
Regardless of whether it is justifiable according to the Private Schools Act §3-13, members of religious communities outside the Church of Norway are entitled to leave on their religious community's holidays upon application. It is regulated in §3-13 second paragraph:
"A student who belongs to a religious community other than the Church of Norway has the right to leave school on the days the religious community has a holiday, if the parents provide the education necessary for the student to be able to follow the training at school after the absence."
Duration of the leave
The duration of the leave can be a maximum of ten consecutive school days. Leave will not normally be granted for more than ten school days per school year. It is a soundness assessment that is the decisive factor for whether leave is to be granted, cf. point 5.
The decision
A decision on leave from the statutory education is an individual decision (enkeltvedtak), and the authority to issue this is delegated to the school's principal. The principal has delegated the possibility to grant leaves of up to two days to class teachers. The principal must always process applications that are refused. When processing individual decisions, an individual assessment must be carried out cf. points 5 and 6. It must be clear from the individual decision how the child's best interests have been assessed, cf. Private Schools Act §5a-1.
The liability of assessment
Granting of an application for leave requires that the school deems it justifiable for the student to be away from school for a short period of time. The school must base the appropriateness assessment on various factors that are important for the student's education, for example:
What will happen at school during the leave period (point 6)
What is in the best interests of the student/what the student thinks
The student's absence history (e.g. many previous leaves or long absences).
The most weighty consideration should always be assessed based on what is best for the student.
Evaluation of leave applications
The guidelines below give details of the situations in which the school will not normally grant leave, even if it is justifiable.
Leave will not normally be granted during periods of completion of:
Mapping tests (kartleggingsprøver)
National tests (Nasjonale prøver)
Leirskole
Examinations, oral and written, including preparation time.
The last six months of Year 10 are important when it comes to the students' final assessment (behaviour grade and exam grade). This means that it is usually not advisable to grant extended leave beyond one or two days in this term.
Treatment of absence beyond authorized leave
If students are away from school for a longer time than has been authorised, or are absent without authorised leave, this is considered an invalid absence.
Proceedings in case of application for leave
All applications for leave must be sent to, and answered by, Birralee. Applications for leave must be processed in accordance with the provisions on individual decisions in the Public Administration Act. The application must be in the hands of the school well in advance of the leave period.
If all or part of a leave application is rejected, this must be justified with details as to why the absence is not considered justifiable. In the individual decision, parents/guardians must be informed about the right to appeal and the conditions for appeal, cf.§§ 28 of the Public Administration Act 29 and 30. The appeal body is the County Governor (Statsforvalteren) in Trøndelag.
The complet Guidelines for Application for Leave from Compulsory Education can be found in the Policy Section on our website.
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