A SCHOOL is celebrating after slashing its truancy figures in half.

Figures released by the government have named and shamed Tendring as the worst performing district for truancy in Essex for last year’s autumn term.

Overall, the absence rate for Tendring is 7.05 per cent compared with 5.89 per cent for Colchester and 6.27 per cent nationally.

Persistant truants are also top of the table with 4.3 per cent routinely missing school, well above the national average of 3.3 per cent.

But The Harwich School, Hall Lane, has cut the numbers of persistant truants by half in only one year.

Figures show a drop from 12 per cent in the period September 2008 to April 2009 to six per cent in September 2009 to April this year.

Nigel Mountford, headteacher, said: “It is something we are very proud of and we are contiunuing to work very hard to keep improving.

“We have been told we have made one of the biggest improvements in the whole of the district which is obviously very positive."

Lynne Gettings, deputy head, said: “We have changed our system so that instead of an automative system being used when someone is missing from school, parents are phoned up.

“It makes it harder for the children to skip school and it really seems to be working.

“We are also targetting year 11 students by only allowing those with good attendance to go to the prom."

Essex County Council said it takes unauthorised absence very seriously.

“It is encouraging to see that overall absence and persistent absenteeism has fallen in Essex, however we are determined to continue reducing the amount of school time our children are missing,” said spokesperson Michael Page.