Our SEN tutors work one-to-one in a calm, flexible way, at your child's own pace. If you decide that extra teaching would help while their hours are reduced, we can talk through how sessions could fit around the school's plan.
The suggestion usually comes after a hard few weeks. A call from the head of year or a meeting with the SENCo ends with a proposal. Your child could come in for mornings only, or three days a week, while things settle. It may be well meant, and it may even be what your child needs right now. But most parents are left wondering whether the school is allowed to do it, whether they have to agree and what happens to the lessons their child will miss.
A part-time timetable, often called a reduced timetable, is a temporary arrangement in which a child of compulsory school age attends school for only part of the day or week. In England, the Department for Education (DfE) says schools should only use one in very exceptional circumstances, when it's in the child's best interests, and not to manage behaviour. It needs the agreement of both the school and the parent the child normally lives with. It should also have a clear purpose, regular reviews and a proposed end date. Throughout, your child remains a pupil at the school.
Below, we explain what the rules say and which parts are law, what to ask before agreeing, how the missed sessions are recorded and how to keep your child's learning going. We also cover what to do if the arrangement isn't working. Everything here applies to schools in England. It reflects the DfE's attendance guidance as updated in July 2026, which we checked against the legislation on 13 October 2026.
Schools use different names, including reduced timetable, phased return and modified timetable. Whatever it's called, it's a part-time timetable if the school and parent agree that a child of compulsory school age will regularly attend for less than the full day or week. Common versions are mornings only, a later start, a shorter week, or a phased return in which hours build up over a few weeks.
Your child stays a registered pupil, is expected in school for the agreed sessions and is absent with the school's permission for the rest. That separates a part-time timetable from arrangements that can look similar from home, such as flexi-schooling, home education, education arranged by the council and suspension. A short comparison appears towards the end.
The DfE's statutory guidance, Working together to improve school attendance, describes the circumstances. A school may need to provide less than full-time education through a temporary part-time timetable "in very exceptional circumstances, where it is in a pupil's best interests". Its example is a pupil whose medical condition prevents them attending full-time, where reduced hours help them access as much education as possible. Where a pupil's mental or physical health is affecting attendance, the guidance asks schools to consider whether a time-limited phased return would help.
The starting point is full-time education. In the guidance's words, every pupil of compulsory school age is entitled to "a full-time education suitable to their age, aptitude and any special educational needs they may have". Reduced hours are meant to bridge a gap back to that, not to replace it.
There's no list of conditions that qualify. A diagnosis doesn't make a part-time timetable appropriate on its own, and a child doesn't need an EHC plan for one to be considered. What matters is whether it's genuinely in the child's best interests, what it's meant to achieve and what other support goes alongside it. For a disabled pupil, that includes the reasonable adjustments schools must make under the Equality Act 2010.
A part-time timetable should not be used to manage behaviour. The attendance guidance says so, and so does the DfE's guidance on suspensions and permanent exclusions. That guidance lists placing a pupil on a part-time timetable for behavioural reasons among its examples of off-rolling. If a school wants a child out of school because of behaviour, that's a suspension, which must follow a formal process with the reasons confirmed to parents in writing. The same guidance treats sending a pupil home without a formal suspension as off-rolling, even when the parents agree.
Several kinds of rules apply, and it helps to know which is which if you and the school see things differently. The table starts with the law and works down to local procedures.
Statutory guidance isn't a law that gives you a separate right to enforce, but schools can't simply ignore it. They must take it into account and shouldn't depart from it without good reason. Independent schools are covered by the attendance guidance and the registration rules, but not by the DfE's exclusion guidance, so if your child is at one, check the school's own policies too.
National guidance says a part-time timetable should have the agreement of both the school and the parent the pupil normally lives with. The law points the same way. Under the registration regulations, time away can only count as leave for a part-time timetable once the school and that parent have agreed to it. The agreement must cover the days and times the child is expected in school.
So a school can't simply put a child on a part-time timetable. It needs your agreement, and it's reasonable to ask for time and for the plan in writing before you give it. National guidance doesn't require a written agreement. Many councils' protocols do ask for a signed plan, though, and having one helps everyone if memories differ later.
You can say no. Without your agreement, the basic position stays the same. Your child is expected at school full-time, and the school is expected to work with you on the support that would help them attend. If the school then won't let your child attend, or sends them home, the exclusion guidance treats that as a suspension. Suspensions must follow a formal process, with the reasons given in writing, and can't lawfully be used for reasons that aren't disciplinary.
Keep your child going in for the sessions they're expected at. Disagreeing with the school doesn't change your duty to make sure your child attends. Setting out your concerns in writing and asking for a meeting works better than keeping them at home.
Ask for an early review and explain what's worrying you. If you want to withdraw your agreement, say so in writing as well. Ask the school to confirm when your child will go back to their full timetable, so there's no confusion about which days they're expected in.
The guidance expects reviews to include your child as well as you. If your child has a social worker, the school is expected to keep them informed and involved. If your child has an EHC plan, the school should discuss the part-time timetable with the council, so that the support in place can be reviewed as swiftly as possible.
The first list below is what the DfE's guidance and the registration rules expect every part-time timetable to include. The second covers practical points that are left to schools, which are worth settling at the first meeting.
What every part-time timetable should include
Practical questions worth asking
There's no national maximum. You may read that part-time timetables must end after six weeks, but that comes from local practice rather than national law or guidance.
According to the DfE, a part-time timetable should be temporary and in place for the shortest time necessary. It should have regular reviews and a proposed end date that takes the pupil's circumstances into account. After that date, the pupil is expected to attend full-time, at school or in alternative provision. The end date can be extended as part of the regular review process. The guidance accepts that, in some limited cases, a pupil with a long-term health condition may need a part-time timetable for a prolonged period.
Councils fill in the detail differently. Somerset's guidance expects an end date usually no more than six weeks away, with reviews at least every two weeks. Norfolk's guide for parents describes a usual maximum of six weeks. Staffordshire's August 2026 protocol, by contrast, adds a further review for any part-time timetable lasting more than 12 school weeks. Some councils also ask schools to tell them about every part-time timetable, or about any lasting more than a couple of weeks. These are useful prompts, but they're local procedures. Your council's attendance or SEND team can tell you which protocol applies to your child's school.
Each review should check progress against the plan's aim, agree the next step up in hours and set the next review date. If full-time attendance still isn't realistic as the end date approaches, the review should decide what changes. That might mean more support in school, an early review of an EHC plan, education arranged by the council for health reasons or a different plan altogether. A timetable shouldn't simply roll on with nobody deciding anything.
Schools record every session in the attendance register using national codes set by the registration regulations. Choosing the code is the school's job, not yours. Two codes cover part-time timetables.
That's why the DfE's guidance says the absence is "normally" recorded using code X or C2. The two codes aren't interchangeable. A child of compulsory school age on a part-time timetable would normally be recorded as C2.
C2 sessions count as authorised absence. They show up in your child's attendance figures, so their attendance percentage will fall, but they aren't unauthorised absence. In law, absence with the school's leave isn't a failure to attend regularly. The sessions your child is timetabled to attend still count in the usual way. If some of the time away is spent in education the council has arranged, such as a medical needs teaching service, it's recorded as attendance there rather than as absence. And if an attendance letter arrives that doesn't seem to reflect the agreed timetable, ask the school to check how the sessions have been coded.
A note on Reception. Children reach compulsory school age at the start of the term after their fifth birthday. Until then, the School Admissions Code says children may attend part-time where their parents wish. That's the parent's choice rather than a timetable the school decides on, and the time at home is recorded as code X.
A shorter day usually means fewer lessons, so it's worth agreeing early how the gap will be handled. Your child is still on the school roll. The DfE expects a part-time timetable to have a clear ambition and to sit within a wider support, health care or reintegration plan. The school should be able to explain how your child will keep up with the curriculum, even if not every lesson can be covered. In practice, it helps to ask:
Remote work has limits. The DfE's guidance on remote education is non-statutory. It says remote education for an individual pupil should only be considered as a last resort and should be part of a plan to get them back into school. A pupil learning remotely is still recorded as absent. It can help for a while, but it isn't a substitute for the plan itself.
If your child can't attend full-time because of their health, the council may have a duty to arrange education for them under section 19 of the Education Act 1996. That education can be part-time where the council considers it in the child's best interests for health reasons. The DfE's statutory guidance for councils on health needs sets out when to act. Councils should arrange suitable education as soon as it's clear a child will be away from school for 15 days or more because of their health needs. Those days can be consecutive or spread across a school year, and the duty applies whether or not the child is on a school roll. Whether it applies to your child depends on the circumstances, so ask the school whether the council's medical needs service knows about the timetable.
If your child has an EHC plan, the council must secure the special educational provision in it, and a shorter school day doesn't remove that duty. That's why the attendance guidance asks schools to discuss a part-time timetable with the council. If the provision in the plan isn't being delivered, an early review is often the most direct route. Our guide to the EHCP annual review explains how to ask for one.
Some families choose to add private teaching while the hours are reduced, perhaps to keep a core subject going or to help with the step back up. That's their choice. It isn't a replacement for what the school or the council should provide, and it doesn't change their responsibilities. If you do arrange tutoring, tell the school. Reviews can then reflect what your child is actually doing, and teachers can point to the topics that matter most.
Pupils on part-time timetables are far more likely than others to have special educational needs. FFT Education Datalab analysed school attendance registers from autumn 2023. It estimated that almost half of primary-age pupils with a pattern of C2 absence had an EHC plan, and over 90% had some form of SEN.
If your child has SEN, the SENCo should be part of the conversation from the start. Ask what support is in place now, what will change while hours are reduced and what would help your child manage more time in school. If you think their needs go beyond what the school can provide through its usual SEN support, you can ask the council for an EHC needs assessment yourself. Our guide to what an EHCP is and how to apply explains the process.
Be wary if the main reason given for reduced hours is that the school can't meet your child's needs. Exclusion guidance from the DfE says it's unlawful to exclude a pupil simply because they have special educational needs or a disability that the school feels unable to meet. Ask what extra support, advice or assessment would make full-time attendance possible, and talk to the council's SEND team.
For a child whose attendance has dropped because of anxiety or emotionally based school avoidance, a gradual, agreed increase in hours can help. It works best alongside support with whatever is making school so hard. Our guides to EBSA and to school anxiety and school refusal explain what can sit behind attendance difficulties and how schools are expected to respond. Progress isn't always steady, which is another reason for reviews that look at the whole plan, not just the hours.
A part-time timetable can drift. Review dates pass without a meeting, the hours stay the same week after week, or your child falls behind. Support in the plan may not be happening, or your child may be sent home on days they were meant to be in. Any of these is a good reason to ask for a review, and these steps usually help.
A short, factual email is often enough to get things moving again. This is an example to adapt, not a legal template.
Dear [name],
Thank you for meeting us on [date] about [child]'s part-time timetable. We agreed that [child] would attend [days and times], with a review on [date]. That review hasn't happened yet, and [child]'s hours haven't changed since [date].
Could we arrange a review meeting in the next two weeks? We'd like to talk about how [child] is getting on, how the lessons they're missing are being covered and the plan for building back up to full-time. Could you also send us a copy of the current plan before we meet?
Thank you for your help.
[Your name]
Our guides to EOTAS and to homeschooling a child with SEN explain those routes in more detail. Neither is an automatic next step if a part-time timetable isn't working, and each brings different responsibilities.
If a part-time timetable has just been suggested, you don't have to decide on the spot. Ask for the plan in writing. Check that it has a purpose, review dates and an end date, and agree how the lessons your child misses will be covered. Keep a short record of what was agreed and how each week goes. If the arrangement starts to drift, ask for a review early rather than waiting for the end date. A part-time timetable works best as a short, well-planned route back to full-time education, built around your child and reviewed with you.
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