More children skip lessons in Bradford's schools than almost anywhere else in the country, it was revealed today.

The district has the third highest rate in the country for unauthorised absences in both primary and secondary schools - behind only Manchester and Greenwich in London.

And Bradford is ranked fourth worst for the number of unauthorised absences in secondary schools, according to figures released by the Department for Education and Skills.

The number of unauthorised absences for primary schools rose by 0.5 per cent in 2005/6 with the figure standing at 0.95 per cent, resulting in an average number of nine half days being missed.

The overall percentage of half days missed by primary and secondary pupils stands at 1.66 per cent.

But despite a slight improvement on 2004/05 when the percentage of half days missed stood at 1.73 per cent, Bradford has slipped one place down the league table of truancy of the country's local education authorities.

Bradford Council's executive member for education, Councillor Dale Smith, said: "Education Bradford and the Council take a very serious view of this. We need to impress upon parents the value of education and need to attend school."

Coun Smith stressed that hundreds of parents were being taken to court for failing to ensure that their children attended school.

Between September 2005 and Easter this year there were 466 prosecutions for unauthorised absences.

Parents can face fines of up to £2,500 or three months in prison.

But Coun Smith said: "We clearly need to redouble our efforts and will do."

Education Bradford, the private company which runs the district's education service, argued that the DfES figures did not accurately illustrate the number of children who play truant because of the way the absences from school are recorded.

Barbara Lawrie, its principal education social worker, said: "These figures do not reflect the good news on attendance taking place across schools in Bradford. They also do not take into account the various reasons unauthorised absence is recorded.

"Yes, pupils do stay away from school, but they can be marked down for a half day absence if they are late for school, or the school is told late of a child being off sick.

"The high unauthorised absence figures have mainly come about as a result of a success story for Bradford schools.

"In order to provide the courts with rigorous registration figures which are used to prosecute parents who do not ensure their children attend school regularly, Bradford schools have a very strict registration system which records all unauthorised absence."

Councillor Phil Thornton, chairman of the Council's Young People and Education Improvement Committee, said his committee was planning an extensive investigation into absences from schools which he hoped would be able to come with hard-hitting recommendations to improve the situation across the district.

  • In February the DfES released the names of nine Bradford schools on a list of 207 schools which had been identified as having the country's most prolific truants targeted as part of a crackdown by fast-tracking parents to court.

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We're all working to curb truancies

Since June last year Education Bradford has issued warnings and Fixed Penalty Notices to parents whose children are persistently absent from school.

More than 1,000 warnings were issued between last September and Easter with 603 parents being issued with fixed penalties which can range from a £50 to a £100 fine.

For the previous academic year (September, 2004 to July, 2005) 676 parents were taken to court for failing to ensure their children attended school.

Latest available figures show that, from September 2005 to Easter 2006, 466 prosecutions were carried out.

Barbara Lawrie, Education Bradford's principal education social worker, said: "Working in partnership with schools, Education Bradford's social workers are imposing fixed penalty notices on parents whose children persistently play truant from school including those on truancy sweeps and truancy patrols.

"The fixed penalty notices and prosecutions are being used alongside wide-ranging support for pupils who do not attend regularly."

But such actions are only carried out after a number of steps have been taken to resolve the attendance problems with parents and children once the school has noticed that there is a problem.

Initial discussions are likely to take place with parents to try to remedy the situation if the attendance problem persists, then education social workers are brought in.

If the problem still continues, letters will be sent out to parents to state that the school will be monitoring the attendance of their child over a set period.

Across the district many schools have also started to adopt the traffic light initiative to help them improve attendance. This involves working with a year group or a number of year groups to increase attendance by working with parents or carers.

Pupils with good attendance are at Green, those at Amber are set targets to improve their attendance and Red signals very poor attendance.

As attendance improves, pupils move from Red to Amber to Green.

Other agencies also work within schools to try to tackle the root causes of truancy or poor attendance. The Prince's Trust XL project has been very successful at Buttershaw High School by working with students with poor attendance and tackling the root causes of non-attendance such as bullying and low self-esteem.

Education Bradford also carries out truancy patrols and truancy sweeps throughout the academic year.

Truancy patrols involve education social workers, police, careers staff, youth workers, park rangers and school staff. A place of safety or a neutral venue is booked where the young people who are playing truant can be brought to discuss reasons why they are not in school. A wide range of support is provided for dealing with the problems that can arise as a result of these discussions.

Truancy sweeps are aimed at pupils who are accompanied by their parent or carer. City centre wardens and education social workers are involved in sweeps of specific areas of the district on given days. A short interview will take place on the street, and, if appropriate the young person is taken back to school.

For the period September 2004 to July 2005, 30 truancy sweeps and 13 truancy patrols were carried out. For the period September 2005 to Easter 2006, 15 truancy sweeps and 13 truancy patrols were carried out.

e-mail: sunita.bhatti@bradford.newsquest.co.uk