'Truancy Problem' In Local Schools

4.02.20pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 15th Jan 2004

The latest 'league tables' for secondary schools published today rate Richmond as 8th out of 32 London boroughs in terms of GCSE grades A to C. but it is one of the worst in terms of value added (i.e. how much improvements the schools make in respect of pupils who enter the school) - 27th of the 32 boroughs.

"Even more worrying" according to MP Vincent Cable is that "Richmond has one of the worst truancy rates in London, or even Britain". The truancy rate is 2.1% as against a national average of 1.1% and much lower figures for Kingston (0.5%), Hounslow (1.1%) and Wandsworth (1.2%)."

Vincent Cable said: "I don't want to criticise local secondary schools for failing to match the standards of local primaries since they have some serious handicaps including a lot of non-resident pupils and a leakage of able pupils into the top private schools and selective state schools like Tiffin".

"But what is inexcusable - indeed scandalous - is that the council (the LEA) has not paid attention to the primary legal obligation of schools: that pupils should attend. Several borough schools have truancy rates of over 3% which is as bad as in the most deprived areas of Inner London and far in excess of the worst schools in Hounslow or Wandsworth. This seems like serious negligence by the council and must be investigated and sorted out quickly".