Brief absences from school (4)

I believe the answer is:

hols

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'brief absences' is the definition.
The definition suggests a plural noun which matches the answer.

'from school' is the wordplay.
'from' becomes 'hol' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'school' becomes 'S'.
'hol'+'s'='HOLS'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for hols that I've seen before include "vacation" , "Time off school" , "Leave" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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