Schools failing the Patten truancy test

ALMOST half the pupils in Kensington and Chelsea missed school without permission last year, according to government league tables published last night.

By contrast, not a single pupil in the Isles of Scilly was away without good reason.

The inclusion for the first time of information about truancy provoked criticism from head teachers and local authorities, who complained that the figures were misleading and inaccurate.

Private contractors were employed to compile the information in an exercise which cost the Department for Education pounds 1.9m. This year is the second in which GCSE and A-level examination results have been published.

Kensington and Chelsea, which includes deprived areas of Notting Hill, is listed as having the worst truancy rates in England, with 46 per cent of pupils missing one or more half days. In Manchester, the figure was 45 per cent, in Westminster 44 and in Hammersmith and Fulham, 41 per cent.

Most of the local authorities which last year came in the top ten for the percentage of pupils with five or more A-C grades at GCSE remain there. The Isles of Scilly, which has only one secondary school, is still top. Kingston upon Thames is second and the London borough of Sutton third. Harrow, which was second, has dropped to 16th.

Knowsley, Merseyside, is bottom; Southwark is next to bottom with Tower Hamlets, also in London, above it.

The top local authority for A and AS-level results is Trafford, Greater Manchester, with an average score of 18.5 on a scale which gives 10 points for an A-grade and two points for an E. It was followed by the London borough of Sutton, with 18, North Yorkshire, with 17.8, and Lancashire with 17.2.

The most successful state comprehensive school was the Liverpool Blue Coat School, where 96 per cent of pupils gained five or more GCSEs at grades A-C. At the Coopers Company and Coburn School in Upminster, Essex, last year's top comprehensive, 91 per cent reached that level.

John Patten, the Secretary of State for Education, said the tables, which include vocational exam results, gave parents 'substantially more information than last year'.

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the collection of truancy figures was fraught with difficulty partly because some truancy was condoned by parents.

(Photograph omitted)