Headteacher Merna McVeigh has a novel way of tracking down truants.
Each morning – she hops on her bike to lasso in the truants!
She
even cycles to the homes of children whose parents keep their child off school and her aim? To improve the 93% attendance rate of Old Moat Primary, Withington – as she has to reach a target of 95% - and it seems “lates” are also classed as “truants” after a certain time….
Eh? So what if they cancel the train or bus for some poor child?
It seems that the bikes were purchased for Merna and attendance officer Linda Lane so that they could scour the streets of Withington to chivvy along late pupils and truants.
Merna in the paper wrote:
the problem of tardiness is more to do with the smaller kids dawdling in a morning
Can identify ... mine are aged 16 - twins and bolshy with it.... they can sleep for Gold Medal in term time if I let them...and what with Wildy and my daughters fighting over the bathroom..... .. a wonder any of us get to work - let alone school on time... 
Quote:
– so they help them dress into uniforms in a bid to get them to school on time – and to help parents avoid fines over unpunctuality and truancy.
It seems that illness is the only valid excuse for missing school these days.
Hmm… not always possible to have family hols only in term time. We usually end up with our mob missing the last two days of summer term and the odd tag to half term.
But... I would have thought a people carrier or minibus would have been better ... to load the rounded up kids inside .. that way you are sure they arrive at school...
So... good idea? Certainly it is a good idea for kids to see "Miss" on her bike...but does it do the job
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