Truancy

A new report on truancy has suggested that fining the parents of absentee children does not work. In the absence of the report itself - it's resisted my best efforts to track it down - this BBC news story should give you a flavour of its contents.

It's not the first time that this topic has been looked at in recent years; Improving School Attendance in England was published in 2005 by the National Audit Office, and provides a detailed overview of the various issues surrounding truancy. The DfES site on School Attendance is also worth a look, as it provides access to documents which cover legal information, good practice and further research.