|
|
 |
| |
Sophie Burton outside the court
|
Mother of truanting boy from hit-list school in court
She says she couldn’t stop son returning home during the day
A MOTHER-of-five has been hauled in front of a court after her son skipped lessons at a school identified on a government truancy hit-list.
Sophie Burton, 37, was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £200 in legal costs after pleading guilty to failing to send her 15- year-old son Dominic to school. His attendance at Hampstead School in Westbere Road, West Hampstead, fell below the council’s 90 per cent target.
The school is among five in Camden identified by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) as needing urgent work to crack truancy.
Haverstock in Chalk Farm, South Camden in Somers Town and William Ellis and Parliament Hill in Highgate have also been told by ministers that they must take immediate action.
Ms Burton, of Westcroft Close, West Hampstead, was sentenced at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on Monday. She said she was a victim of the council’s get-tough policy, adding: “Dominic’s not going out and stealing. He’s generally a good boy. He just went through a bit of a hard time when he was having a lack of confidence.”
She had given up a midwifery course so she could stay at home and make sure her son was going to lessons.
Richard Keogh, defending, told the court: “Dominic is somewhat of a free-spirited child and lives across the road from the school. He would return to the house. Ms Burton could do nothing about this other than stay in 100 per cent of the time. Ms Burton took the boy’s keys off him.”
A council press official said: “Camden’s schools are among the best in the country, however attendance is still not good enough. We are currently doing intensive work with the schools identified by the DfES and offering additional support packages to vulnerable pupils and are already seeing marked improvements.”
She confirmed that, at Hampstead, overall attendance had risen since the appointment of new head, Jacques Szemalikowski, last year.
The official added: “We have a range of measures in place to tackle truancy, from preventing poor attendance and support for parents to court prosecutions for those who persist in jeopardising their children’s future by condoning truancy.”
|
 |
|
|
|
