LEADERS at a Southampton college will employ a team of staff to stop students missing classes.

City College principal Sarah Stannard said the group will start working from September to boost attendance at the St Mary’s Street site where average attendance is between 80 and 85 per cent.

It comes just weeks after teachers were slammed by her majesty’s inspectors, who said the college “requires improvements” across the board.

Speaking to the Daily Echo, Ms Stannard said changes in education mean college lecturers don’t have the same powers to improve attendance as school teachers.

She said: “Attendance is an issue. It is across the city, but one of the things that helps schools is that the council can take parents to court if their child doesn’t attend.

“The government put the age of compulsory education up to 18 but they didn’t give us anything to help us.”

She added that although previously 16 year olds could choose whether they attended college or not, they now must to go to college before leaving education for full time employment.

Ms Stannard said: “When we’re talking to employers about apprenticeships a lot of them don’t realise that a 16 year old can’t work full time now either.”

As well as employing a team of people to monitor attendance, the college will also be asking parents to sign a form that says ‘we need them to be here 100 per cent of the time.’

Lecturers will also be working on timetabling to sandwich English and maths between other lessons in a bid to improve results - which were also highlighted in the Ofsted report.

She said: “In the further education sector a lot of people believe that even though students might resit and resit English and maths, it doesn’t mean they will eventually get a C. But this is what the government is now asking us to do. For many students getting a D is still an excellent result.”

“Over half of general further education colleges inspected have been graded below Good.”