Region's schools top truancy league

YORKSHIRE secondary schools have the highest level of children playing truant and the most pupils who regularly miss lessons, according to damning new Government figures.

Updated statistics from the Department of Children, Schools and Families showing how many half-days have been missed through authorised and unauthorised absence, confirm the region’s secondary schools have the worst attendance records in England.

More than 1.4 million half-day sessions were missed by truants at Yorkshire’s secondary schools in the autumn term of 2008 and spring term of 2009.

A further 615,910 half-days were missed through unauthorised absence in the region’s primary schools.

There were 20,200 secondary school pupils from Yorkshire classed as persistent absentees – by missing at least a fifth of their education – the equivalent of a day a week.

In Hull, one in 10 secondary school pupils were persistently absent, second-worst in the country behind Manchester.

Hull’s council-run schools had the worst truancy rate in the country, with 4.18 per cent of half-days being lost through unauthorised absence.

Elsewhere in Yorkshire, Leeds had the second highest level of persistent absentees in the region with 8.5 per cent, followed by Sheffield with 7.4 per cent, Doncaster with 7.3 per cent and Bradford with 7.1 per cent.

The results confirm provisional figures published by the Government in October, which showed Yorkshire secondary schools continuing to suffer the highest truancy rates in the country.

The most commonly reported reason for authorised pupil absence was illness, followed by family holidays.