'Skip school and you pay the price'

HEADTEACHER Andy Byers had a harsh message for parents of students at Durham's Framwellgate School this week, on what he described as an "unremarkable Wednesday" where 10% of the young people - and 17% of Year 11s - simply did not turn up.

- ROB PARSONS

"These patterns of absence are now considered normal in schools," wrote Mr Byers in a letter published on social media, before warning parents of "the significant correlation between absence and exam results." 

"Put simply, students who miss school regularly, reduce their lifetime earning potential because they achieve worse exam results than their peers, and develop poor habits to take into the workplace where high levels of absence, poor punctuality, or an indifferent attitude to responsibility can result in dismissal."

He's not the only headteacher to be worried. It's now emerged that a record number of parents in the North were fined for their children's absence from school last year, mainly because of term-time holidays.