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Truancy rates still too high
Borough rated second worst in country
TRUANCY rates in Islington are the second worst in the whole country, figures show this week.
Cllr Ursula Woolley, Executive Member for Children and Young People, said: “The most important people in getting children to go to school are parents and carers. The vast majority of Islington children attend school regularly and we have stepped up legal action against parents whose children don’t.
“We know children often start playing truant because of other difficulties at home or at school and our schools and attendance officers work carefully with parents and carers to try to avoid getting to the stage where court proceedings start.”
Islington is more than double the national average, and second only to Greenwich, in the number of school days missed because of pupils playing truant.
Over 44,000 sessions, the equivalent of 22,000 school days were missed due to unauthorised absence in the spring term of 2007, according to figures from the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Primary and secondary schools in Islington also have some of the worst offenders in the country, missing more than two weeks’ worth of lessons a term.
The number of pupils who missed more than 27 sessions, the equivalent of two weeks of teaching, in the Spring term 2007 is 1,241 – or 6.6 per cent of all pupils in Islington. In the whole country, only Manchester, Hull, Southampton and Torbay have worse records.
Councillor Richard Watts, Islington Labour’s spokesman on Children, said:
“We’ve seen a worrying pattern emerging in Islington about our kids’ education. Their A-Levels are down and maths for youngsters is the second worst in the country.
“Now we hear Islington has the second worst rate of truancy in the country.
“What chance do our kids have if the council can’t even keep them in the classroom? Young people are at greater risk if they play truant and it raises the danger of crime on our streets.
“The Labour Government has invested heavily in education. But the local Lib Dems are taking their eye off the ball, and putting the success our kids have achieved in jeopardy.”
Cllr Woolley added: “One of the council’s top priorities for children is that every child attends school every day.
“Last year we made good progress improving primary school attendance, but we will continue to do more.
“Islington schools are being transformed. Results are up, Ofsted reports are consistently positive and we’re about to invest millions in school improvement.”
The findings come after the DCSF was, for the first time, able to quantify the number of persistent absentees after taking registers in the morning and afternoon. |
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