Region’s schools shown to have worst truancy rate in country

Rising numbers of pupils were playing truant or being taken out of school without permission both in Yorkshire and across the country in the last academic year.

Figures also show Hull schools have one of the worst attendance records of any of England’s 150 council areas.

The Department for Education (DfE) published statistics yesterday showing the number of half-days missed by pupils in the 2010/11 academic year.

The truancy rate in the region was 1.3 per cent, up slightly on last year’s 1.26 per cent and higher than any other Government region in the country.

Nationally it increased to 1.1 per cent, up from one per cent the year before. Around 62,000 youngsters in primary, secondary and special schools across England missed sessions without permission on a typical day last year, through truancy, family holidays and other reasons.

Almost 400,000 were classed as persistently absent from school last year under tougher new rules.

Previously pupils were classed as being persistent absentees if they missed a fifth or more of their education – the equivalent of a one day a week.

Now children are put in this category if they miss 15 per cent of lessons – just under six weeks of an academic year. In Yorkshire there were 44,550 persistent absentees last year – 6.7 per cent of pupils.

Hull had the third highest level of pupils who were persistently absent out of 150 council areas in England. Almost one in 10 pupils in the city missed at least 15 per cent of their school year.

High truancy levels in the region’s secondary schools gave Yorkshire the worst unauthorised absence figure across all schools.

In secondaries 1.9 per cent of half days were missed by truants or pupils taken out of school without permission. The national figure was 1.4 per cent.

The statistics for the 2010/11 school year show that children on free school meals, or those with special educational needs, were around three times more likely to be persistently absent.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said: “The effect that poor attendance at school can have on a child’s education can be permanent and damaging. Children who attend school regularly are four times more likely to achieve five or more good GCSEs, including English and maths, than those who are persistently absent.”

He said much of the work children miss when they are off school is never made up. Previous figures show that of the pupils who miss more than 50 per cent of school, only three per cent manage to achieve five A* to Cs, including English and maths while of the pupils who miss less than five per cent of school, 73 per cent achieve the GCSE benchmark.

Penalty notices can be issued to parents for unauthorised absence. DfE figures, also published yesterday, show that 32,641 notices were issued last year but that 13,629 of those went unpaid or were withdrawn.

In Yorkshire 3,660 fines were issued with 770 parents prosecuted for failing to pay within 42 days.

The Yorkshire Post revealed last year that £1.5m had been cut from council budgets for work to improve school attendance and 46 jobs had been lost through retirement or voluntary redundancy.

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