Tsar issues school absence warning

Parents are sometimes overzealous in keeping their child off sick and should send them to school if they have the sniffles, the Government's behaviour tsar has said.

Charlie Taylor also called for a clampdown on term-time holidays warning that youngsters who regularly have time off can end up missing a year of schooling by the time they reach 16.

A Government adviser has warned parents against
being 'overzealous' when it comes to keeping children off school

Absence rates for pupils in the reception year (ages four and five) are also set to be published in a bid to get primary schools to pick up patterns of poor attendance early on.

Mr Taylor, who is head of The Willows, a special school in west London for children with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, said schools must do more to teach parents about the importance of good attendance and to pick up those who are falling into "bad habits".

And he warned that time missed in nursery or primary school was as important as time missed in secondary schools. Speaking as he published his review into attendance in schools, ordered by ministers in the wake of the riots last summer, Mr Taylor suggested that parents can be "trigger happy" in keeping children off sick.

At one West Bromwich school, he said, parents are taught "what represented a sniffle, and what represented something that was genuinely serious enough to keep a child off from school for."

"Some parents think they're being a good parent by keeping their child off school, but actually sometimes they can be a bit trigger happy, particularly with young parents and young children," Mr Taylor said.

He added that there was a tendency to "be more precious" with younger, or first children. "I think it's just an education job, it's helping parents to understand what's the difference between a bit of a sniffle and 'don't worry we'll look after him and if there's a real problem we'll give you a ring' and something that's really serious and the kid needs to be at home.

"I think it's about if in doubt send them to school, and we say that a lot with our parents. Send them to school, because, you know, sometimes the kid is just playing it."

In his review Mr Taylor also recommends a crackdown on term-time holidays, saying there is often an "automatic assumption" that pupils can have two weeks off a year.

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