Missing School

Children who skip school are increasingly on family holidays, government figures revealed today. Fewer children played truant this spring term compared [blank] the spring term last year. Children missed 3m unauthorised days of school last term, compared with 3.7m days of school in the same period last year. But a hardcore group of truants - 6% of the school [blank] - who account for more than three-quarters of all those on unauthorised absence, are more likely to be on a family holiday than they were in the same period last year. Some 1.2% of all absence was for family holidays not agreed by their school the last term, compared with 0.9% for the [blank] term last year.More than 60% of all absences were for illness, the same figure as last year. The children's minister, Kevin Brennan, said: "Overall absence is at a record low, having continued its downward trend over the past decade." The Conservatives' shadow school minister, Nick Gibb, [blank] the government of failing a target it set in 1998 to reduce school truancies by a third.