ATL COMMENT ON SCHOOL ABSENCE AND TRUANCY RATES

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said:

“Children are absent from school for the same reasons adults are absent from work - illness and holidays.

“Schools should be congratulated on their work to cut absence. 

“But no one should be surprised that there continues to be a hard core of a few persistent truants, because these are the children and young people who are totally disengaged from school, often with difficult and chaotic home lives and from families with financial problems.  Their reluctance to go to school is further compounded by continuous testing which repeatedly brands them as failures from seven upwards.”