Greenwich Suffers London’s Worst Truancy Rates

As children go back to school after the summer holidays, new figures show that Greenwich pupils have a truancy rate that is DOUBLE the average for the rest of England.

Statistics published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families show that the borough of Greenwich has the worst truancy rates of any London borough.

The figures were collated across the 2009 Spring Term and recorded 2.2% of sessions being missed in primary and local authority maintained secondary schools due to unauthorised absence.

This compares with an average for England of 1.1%, and figures of 1.6% in Lewisham and 1.18% in Bexley.

Unauthorised absences have gone up across England with some commentators attributing this to cash strapped families taking family holidays during term time to avoid price hikes at peak times.