TRUANCY

ARCH comment on the Truancy sweep figures...

Truancy Sweeps update – figures for Autumn 2005

 The truancy sweep figures for November/December 2005 are at last up on the DfES website, and are pretty much in line with our report on the figures for the same period in 2004.

 Although the DfES document does not give percentages, a few seconds with a calculator reveals that nearly 60% of those stopped were found to have valid reason for being out of school. Of the 40% considered ‘truants’, there is of course no indication of what did or didn’t count as a legitimate reason for absence. Those who read our report will recall that some LEAs were erroneously counting excluded pupils as truants; others were stopping children who were out during the lunch-break. Any pupil who is late for school is counted as a truant.

 The fact that the numbers have remained pretty much the same begs the question: if there is no reduction in the numbers of children stopped, what are truancy sweeps meant to be achieving?