Daily Echo education reporter Clare Kennedy joins a team with a mission - to get stayaway children back at their desks at school...

HE'S 14 years old and should be at school. Instead he is in his bedroom while his mum is downstairs watching television in the living room.

His reason is simple - he just does not like school.

Nearly two hours after the teenager should have started sitting behind his desk at The Polygon School there is a knock on the door.

PC Nigel Evans and education welfare officer Sara Smith have arrived to find out why he is not at school.

His mother answers and says she was half-expecting them as her son's a persistent non-attender.

After leaving the house for school the boy decided he did not want to go and returned home.

"I couldn't take him because I have a younger daughter who I need to get to school," said the mum.

Ten minutes later her son has put on his trainers and is escorted back to school in an unmarked police car.

During the short five-minute journey from his Coxford home he shrugs his shoulders and says he does not want to go to school because he does not like it.

"With no ambition, no goal in life, many think 'What's the point?'" said Sara.

"You only spend 11 years in school. To leave school with no exams would be such a shame," she tells the boy, who then admits he would quite like to become an electrician or bricklayer.

It is Monday morning and for thousands of youngsters across Southampton the start of the school week.

For Hampshire police and Southampton City Council it is the beginning of a series of truancy sweeps to get youngsters back to class.

Working in pairs, education welfare and police officers drive around their designated patches looking for youngsters bunking off in popular haunts.

For PC Evans and Sara their patch includes Oaklands Community School and its feeder schools in the Lordshill, Lordswood, Shirley Warren and Coxford areas.

They set off just after 10am and head for Sainsbury's in Lordshill before slowing down as they scan the area outside the supermarket and the neighbouring parade of shops, looking around to check no youngsters are hiding in any of the secluded enclaves.

Next, in their unmarked car they travel through the estate.

"They don't want to walk too far away from their homes," said PC Evans.

Every cul-de-sac, every path, and every alleyway is scanned for possible truants.

Their first encounter comes just 15 minutes into the morning - but it turns out the man having a cigarette in the front garden is aged 21.

It is then back to Sainsbury's where the mother of a seven-year-old boy who is a pupil at Holy Family School is asked why he's out shopping and not in lessons.

She says her son has an upset stomach but admits she has not telephoned the school to let them know.

Sara reiterates that parents should telephone the school on the first day of absence and advises an unwell child should stay at home.

At 11.45am a mother is stopped outside the store with her five-year-old daughter who is a pupil at Mason Moor Primary School and has to go to a dental appointment.

Again the woman has failed to let the school know and the child has missed an entire morning when the dental appointment is only at lunchtime.

Sara telephones the school to let them know that the parent has said she will take her daughter to school in the afternoon.

A 13-year-old on a bike is then stopped. He explains his absence from school by saying he is on a part-time timetable. A call to Millbrook Community School confirms this to be true.

Next, the father of a seven-year-old boy who is a pupil at Redbridge Primary is stopped going into the store.

"He was sick last night and I telephoned the school to let them know," says the dad.

A call to the school confirms his statement.

Driving past Thompson's News and Food in Holly Oak Road in Aldermoor a seven-year-old boy is spotted buying a loaf of bread and bottle of cola.

He is known to the police officer ,who drives to the boy's house. The mother says she had to collect her son from Fairisle Junior School because of his bad behaviour.

Forms are filled in for each of the pupils who have been stopped and in some cases letters are sent to parents, or further home visits are made.

During the same morning education welfare officer Ros Gardiner, accompanied by PC Antony Wagborn, covered the Millbrook and Redbridge area managing to send four pupils back to school.

"Youngsters need to go to school and try to access education and there must be something they can succeed in," said Ros.

" It gives them the right attitude to go to a workplace and get used to the routine.

"Socially, it's important for them to mix with their social peers. They can be quite isolated if they are not coming into school."

She added: "If there are problems they can be resolved. There is always something that can be done."

Working with parents is the key.

"We are trying to work with families, parents and the child, not against them," said Ros.

WHERE TO GO FOR HELP:

No Limits: 023 8023 6237

Parentline: 0808 800 2222

Southampton City Council Education Welfare Duty Desk: 023 8083 3279

Hampshire County Council Education Welfare Duty Desk:

Fareham and Gosport: 023 9244 1415

Winchester: 01962 876227

New Forest: 023 8081 2113