Yorkshire truancy figures soar after shake-up

The region also has England’s poorest truancy record at secondary school while Hull was the worst performing local education authority in the country.

Official figures show that 51,120 pupils in Yorkshire missed too much of their education in the first two terms of the last academic year.

In previous years children were classed as persistent absentees if they missed a fifth of more of their lessons

Now the Government has raised expectations by making the threshold 15 per cent or more of school time.

As a result the number of persistent absentees in Yorkshire has more than doubled from the same point last year when it was 23,180.

Using the old measure of persistent absence the figures still increased slightly this year with 23,850 pupils missing the equivalent of at least one day a week of their schooling.

Nationally 450,000 pupils are classed as persistent absentees.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said the latest figures revealed the “true scale” of the problem.

He added: “By introducing a tougher threshold of what defines persistent absence we are asking schools to step in earlier before the problem really takes hold.”

Mr Gibb said: “We have to break the vicious cycle that starts when a child loses interest in their studies which leads to them missing school and eventually leads to a life of poor job prospects and missed opportunities.”

In previous years Yorkshire has had the country’s highest level of persistent absentees.

Under the new tougher measure, however, it has moved off the bottom of the league table with schools in the North East having more pupils who missed 15 per cent or more of their lessons.

Yorkshire still has the highest level of truancy from secondary school and the second highest overall truancy rate behind only inner London.

The tables measure unauthorised absence – pupils playing truant or being taken out of school without the head teacher’s approval in half days.

The figures released yesterday by the Department for Education show 1.84 per cent of half-days were missed through unauthorised absence in the region’s secondary schools.

Hull has the highest level of unauthorised absence at secondary school and overall in the country. Figures show 3.65 per cent of half days were missed by the city’s secondary school pupils, while across primary and secondaries together it was 2.36 per cent.

Other council areas in Yorkshire with the worst attendance records include Bradford, Leeds and Sheffield.

The truancy rate across England’s schools has increased by two per cent, the latest figures show.

Statistics show the unauthorised absence rate for the autumn and spring terms of 2010-11 stood at 1.03 per cent, slightly up from 1.01 per cent for the same period in 2009-10.

The figures are for state-funded primary and secondary schools.

The truancy rate stood at 0.97 per cent of half days for the autumn and spring terms of 2006-07.

Around 64,500 pupils of all ages skipped school sessions without permission on a typical day in the autumn and spring term through truancy, family holidays, illness and other reasons, an analysis of the figures suggests.

In primary schools alone, the truancy rate rose to 0.69 per cent from 0.68 per cent for the same period in 2009-10. And in the region’s secondary schools the truancy rate stood at 1.41 per cent, up slightly from 1.4 per cent the year before.

The most common reason for absence was illness. Family holidays accounted for nine per cent of absences, and 2.54 per cent were for family holidays that were not agreed by the school.

Schools in North Lincolnshire had the region’s lowest level of persistent absenteeism and of pupils playing truant or being taken out of lessons without official permission.