TRUANTING children in Southampton now face a knock on the front door and a demand for explanations for their absence in a crackdown on stay-away primary pupils.

The tough move has seen dramatic improvements in attendance at certain city primary schools in recent months and could now be introduced across Southampton.

Other steps to encourage better attendance include ringing bells to signal the start of the school day, meeting and greeting parents and children at the gate and rewarding youngsters who manage 95 per cent attendance rates.

The "cold calling" is targeted at the homes of persistent late arrivals or truants.

education bosses have set up a group to tackle attendance problems at groups of schools.

Banister Infant, St Denys Primary, St John's Infant, Glenfield Infant and the former Newlands Junior schools formed the first group to take part in the scheme.

Each school registered an improvement

in both authorised and unauthorised absen-

ces from the classroom following the crackdown. Now the focus has switched to Mansel Infant, Mansel Junior, Portswood Primary, Bassett Green Primary and Weston Park Infant schools.

A team of school staff, education welfare officers and special inspectors are at work on the problem and are already seeing improvements.

Head of children and young people's services Peter Lewis said: "The schools have worked really hard to achieve an improvement.

"It is great to see the measures that they have been introducing having an impact on

children's attendance at school. We will be looking at how we can roll this out to even more schools in the city."

Cabinet member for lifelong learning and training, Councillor Richard Harris, said: "We welcome everything which is being done to emphasise to parents and pupils the importance of being in school.

"I am delighted that the measures already being taken by these schools are having an effect on children's attendance and hope that more schools and more pupils will benefit in the future."