School attendance falls as more being taught at home

Overall attendance rates at schools in Carmarthenshire are the lowest in Wales.

- RICHARD YOULE Senior local democracy reporter [e-mail]

OVERALL attendance rates at schools in Carmarthenshire are the lowest in Wales and action is being taken, a council meeting has heard.

Across the county as a whole, provisional attendance rates in March this year were 88% for secondary schools and 92.7% for primary schools.

These are not much below the Welsh average, but a report before the council's education, young people and Welsh language scrutiny committee said that Carmarthenshire was currently placed 22nd out of Wales's 22 local authority areas.

Owain Lloyd, director of education and children's services, said improving attendance was "probably our top priority" and that progress was being made.

However, he said this was not consistent across the county, and he felt there was a wider "inclusion challenge" linked to additional learning needs, behaviour and a rise in the number of home-educated children.