SOUTHAMPTON is winning the truancy battle after latest figures showed the number of pupils skipping school has halved in the past four years.

But the city still lags behind other authorities after the figures from the Department for Education showed more children persistently miss school in Southampton than the national average.

It puts the city in the bottom 20 of all local education authorities in the country with five per cent of pupils persistently missing school compared with 4.1 per cent nationwide.

However, the figures taken from the autumn term 2013 and spring term 2014, show a huge improvement when compared to the figures from the same periods in 2009/10, when almost ten per cent of pupils were skipping class regularly.

Hampshire schools continue to have lower rates of absence with 3.8 per cent whilst the Isle of Wight showed a dramatic improvement in reducing the number of absent pupils, going from a percentage of 6.8 per cent in 2012/13 to 4.2 per cent this year.

Southampton education bosses have imposed a raft of new measures to help tackle the problem of truancy in recent years.

A city-wide school’s conference was staged two years ago where ideas including encouraging doctors and dentist surgeries to avoid giving appointments to children during the school day were discussed.

Last month the Daily Echo reported on how police officers had targeted pupils who were skipping school in a joint ‘day of action’ with Southampton City Council, with similar operations planned throughout the school year.

Those measures, along with a government-led drive to fine parents who take their children out of school during term time, are being credited with bringing figures down.

Councillor Daniel Jeffery, cabinet member for education and change, said although the figures were encouraging, more work was still needed.

He said: “The figures from the DfE show that Southampton pupils’ attendance has improved on all three key indicators from 2013 so progress is clearly being made. But there is still work to be done to bring our schools in line with the national average.

“Regular attendance is directly linked to good exam results. Many parents believe that 90 per cent attendance is good but this actually represents four weeks of missed learning in an academic year.

“Parents should avoid taking their children on holiday during term time and not allow them miss school unnecessarily due to minor illnesses. Even visits to the doctor or dentist during school time can have an impact on learning – wherever possible appointments should be made outside of class time.”

Hampshire education chief Peter Edgar said: “This is a good example of Hampshire as an education authority working with its family of schools.

“The fact that we have effective partnerships shows itself in various ways and this is one of them.”

Number of school children persistently absent autumn term 2013-spring term 2014

(A persistently absent pupil is one who has missed 38 or more sessions - a morning or an afternoon - across the two terms):

  • Southampton – 1,282 (5%) out of 25,925 enrolled pupils
  • Hampshire – 5,860 (3.8%) out of 153,390 enrolled pupils
  • Isle of Wight – 630 (4.2%) out of 14,835 enrolled pupils
  • Nationally: - 262,255 (4.1%) out of 6,417,375 enrolled pupils