Pupils skipping school are being targeted in a crackdown by anti-truancy officers.
Hotspots across the city will be targeted by the city council’s Education Welfare Service and Community Protection Officers on Tuesday.
Both Nottingham’s truancy or ‘persistent absence’ rate and overall absence from school figures are above the national percentages for the academic year of 2014/15.
Overall around 4.2 per cent of city children are persistently absent from school – or just below one in 20 pupils, compared with a national average of 3.7 per cent.
Graphic: Figures suggest Nottingham has a problem with truancy
The city council’s portfolio holder for schools, Councillor Sam Webster said: “Our message is a strong one but we have to be clear; children who are registered with a school need to be in that school, it’s the law.
“It’s not acceptable to be off school in term time, missing school can seriously harm your child’s education.
“We want all parents to be in no doubt that the council will take action when a child is persistently absent without agreement from the school.”
Children need to be in school, it’s the law
Fines of £60 per parent per child can be imposed by the courts for unauthorised absence and this could escalate to a prison sentence if the fine is not paid on time and warnings are ignored/
A total of 254 penalty notices have been issued since the start of the academic year for unauthorised absences.
So far, no parents involved have faced prison.
Missing 17 days of school is the difference
Cllr Webster added: “We know that the majority of parents act responsibly to ensure their children are in school when they should be but it is vital that we tackle those who are breaking the law.
“We also recognise that some children are educated at home, however the vast majority of Nottingham pupils receive a school education and for these pupils, there is a legal requirement for parents to ensure their child attends school.
“Even a pupil with 90 per cent attendance is effectively missing one day of school every two weeks and in the working world, that’s almost a month of absence every year.
“Most importantly, missing 17 days of school has been proved to be the difference between getting one higher grade at GCSE level – and that is crucial for our young people.”
