Children skipped almost 3.9 million days of school during the spring term to the latest government statistics.
Overall truancy rates rose to 1.1 per cent this year from 1 per cent during spring term 2008.
Anaysis of the Department for Children, Schools and Families’ findings suggests almost 68,000 primary and secondary pupils missed classes without permission on a typical day, through truancy, family holidays, illness and other reasons.
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