Eleven secondary schools across the district have been named among the worst 200 in the country for truancy.

A league table put together using Department for Education and Standards statistics identifies Bradford Cathedral Community College as the worst offender in the district, at fifth from bottom nationwide.

Other schools identified were: Belle Vue Boys, Belle Vue Girls, Tong School, Greenhead High in Keighley, Immanuel College, Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College, Hanson School, Nab Wood School, Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College and Oakbank School, Keighley.

The schools were ranked by the percentage of half-days lost due to unauthorised absence by GCSE students in their final year.

Bradford Cathedral Community College in East Bowling posted a figure of 8.4 per cent, with Belle Vue Girls in Heaton next worst in the district at 5.2 per cent.

Education Bradford, the private company that runs the district's schools, has implemented measures to combat truancy, including surgeries in schools for parents and pupils, meetings with at-risk pupils, home visits, truancy patrols, pupil-tracking and, as a last resort, fixed penalties and prosecutions.

An Education Bradford spokesman said: "We are continuing to provide support to schools which have attendance issues.

"However, the Department for Education and Standards' focus is now on schools with persistent absence problems and we are now providing additional support to those schools."

Lyn O'Reilly, head teacher at Tong School, named in the league table, said her staff had now switched their focus to bringing down persistent absence figures.

She said: "We have made huge in-roads in improving our attendance, exceeded the Government targets last year and are on track to do the same thing this year."

Elaine Shoesmith, head teacher at Nab Wood School, said: "We are extremely pleased to see that our attendance figures are already vastly improved this academic year."

Bradford Cathedral Community College declined to comment.

e-mail: dan.webber@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

  • Start or join a debate on this issue in our online forum - Click here