Pupils come up short on attendance

There are 34 primaries in the region featured in a list of 200 schools with England's highest level of persistent absentees – children who miss a fifth of their education through either truancy or authorised absence.

Old Bank Juniors and Infants, in Mirfield, had more pupils missing lessons than any other in Yorkshire with one in five classed as being persistently absent.

Only two primary schools in England had worse figures according to yesterday's league tables published by the Department for Education.

There were eight other primary schools in Yorkshire where at least one in ten pupils was persistently absent from classes during 2009/10.

Langtoft Primary, near Driffield, had the second highest level in Yorkshire and the 12th worst in the country, with 14.3 per cent of pupils missing the equivalent of a day a week of their education.

It was followed by Laycock Primary, in Keighley, St Oswalds Primary, in Bradford, and Toll Bar, near Doncaster.

Despite featuring in a national list of schools with the highest level of absentees, Toll Bar has actually seen its attendance levels improve. The school was named as having the worst attendance record in Yorkshire in 2008/09, with 15.3 per cent of its pupils missing a fifth of their lessons. However, in the last academic year this figure dropped to 12.5 per cent.

Crays Hill Primary, in Billericay, had the worst attendance record in the country, with more than half of its pupils classed as persistent absentees. The Essex school had 53 per cent of pupils regularly absent in 2009/10.