Schools to clamp down on primary school absence in Reception

Currently schools do not have to collect data on children’s absences in nursery class and reception, and according to the Department for Education many schools do not take action to improve pupils’ attendance until children reach statutory school age at five.

Headteachers would be able to increase fines for parents whose children truant and the money for unpaid fines should be deducted automatically from parents’ child benefit.

Parents who do not receive child benefit and fail to pay the fines would have the money recovered through the county courts.

In his independent review Improving attendance at School, published today, Charlie Taylor is calling for the Government to publish data on attendance in Reception, along with local and national averages and for this to be taken into account during Ofsted inspections.

He also said that primary schools should analyse data and pick up on children who are missing school regularly and support parents in nursery and reception who are having problems getting their children to school.

Other recommendations include allowing schools to increase the fines they issue to parents of children who continually miss school without a valid reason to £60 (an increase of £10), doubling to £120 if they fail to pay within 28 days.

More than 32,000 penalty notices for school absences were issued to parents last year, but around half were unpaid or were withdrawn.

Currently, after 42 days the penalty notice has to be withdrawn and the last recourse is for local authorities to prosecute parents for the offence.

In 2010 out of 9,147 parents found guilty by the courts, 6,591 were fined or faced more severe penalties.

Latest figures from the Department for Education show that almost 400,000 pupils miss 15 per cent of schooling a year – the equivalent of having a month off school.

Ministers say that evidence shows that if parents allow their children to miss lots of time in primary school, they are more likely to truant as teenagers. Much of the work these children miss when they are off school is never made up, leaving them at a great disadvantage for the remainder of their time at school.

Most parents who are taken to court for their children’s poor attendance are in Years 10 and 11, but this is usually too late to do anything about the problem.