School’s out as pupils head off on holiday early

ATTENDANCE rates are dipping by almost 60 per cent at some Scottish schools as parents try to get a head start on peak holiday seasons to beat price hikes.

Opportunistic travel companies have been criticised for increasing prices by as much as £1,000 during school holidays.

And with the next long break just around the corner, some families are already heading off.

Children who skip school may miss out on important lessons and disrupt ‘the rest of the class and the teacher’, the Scottish Government has warned.

However, while families in England can be fined £60 per child per parent for pupils’ unauthorised absences, these sanctions do not apply in Scotland.

New figures show the extent of the problem. They reveal that on Friday, April 1 – the last day of the spring term for many Scottish schools – Paisley Grammar, in Renfrewshire, which has a

‘Pitfalls of disrupting learning’

roll of about 880, recorded an unauthorised absence rate of 43 per cent. The authorised absence rate was 14 per cent, suggesting hundreds of pupils did not attend school that day.

Similar levels of absenteeism were recorded in state primary and secondary schools across the country.

At St Mungo’s Academy in Glasgow, the absence rate hit 49 per cent and at Ayr Academy, in South Ayrshire, it was 40 per cent.

Dozens more schools reported unauthorised absence rates in excess of 20 per cent. In Perth and Kinross, 1,658 primary and secondary school pupils were absent on March 31, rising to 2,572 on April 1.

Jacqui MacDonald, chief education officer in East Dunbartonshire – where the absence rate hit 36 per cent at Turnbull High School – said: ‘We encourage all our pupils to complete the term at school and attend every day of the school year.’

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said attendance was at an all-time high. She added: ‘Schools, pupils and parents all have an important part to play in making sure attendance levels are maintained throughout the school term – including the run-up to any holidays.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said it was up to education authorities to decide on sanctions. She added: ‘Parents and pupils are encouraged to recognise the value of learning and the pitfalls of disrupting learning for the pupil, the rest of the class and the teacher.’

Liz Smith, the Scottish Conservative education spokesman, said: ‘These figures are very worrying. Young people are missing out.’