School attendance: Bullying main reason for skipped classes

BULLYING, or poor relations with teachers, are more likely to cause pupils to miss a lot of school than attitudes at home, which have previously been blamed, research has found.

The point was made in presentations to the first national conference on school attendance yesterday, where focus was placed on ways of engaging pupils more in class.

Professor John Dwyfor Davies of the University of the West of England outlined work in Bristol through interviews with students who have persistent poor attendance, education welfare officers, parents and teachers. He said that contrary to much of the previous literature the students tended not to come from families with a history of non-attendance.