A CRACKDOWN on Southampton youngsters who bunk off school swings into action again today.

Police and council chiefs will be teaming up to comb the city's streets in a bid to cut the number of pupils who are wrongly taking time off school.

The week-long blitz in the run-up to Christmas is the latest stage of a massive initiative launched in April this year. It comes as school league tables published last week revealed how Southampton's Weston Park Junior School, in Weston Road, was among the worst 200 schools in the UK for truants.

Those caught without valid reasons to be off school will be quizzed by education welfare and police officers and could find themselves escorted back to lessons and a letter sent to their parent or guardian.

Meanwhile parents could find themselves facing criminal prosecution for allowing their children to cut classes.

When the scheme was first launched, officers stopped 25 youngsters in the Shirley area of the city in just one day, and more than 100 pupils were returned to school during the week. Many of the reasons given for their absence were found to be genuine, but others were completely fabricated.

Head of Southampton City Council's Children's and Young People's Services Peter Lewis said: "We hope that by carrying out this series of truancy sweeps we will be able to ensure that more of our children are regularly attending school.

"Truancy has an impact on young people's education and their options for their future and we want to make pupils and their parents aware of the importance of getting an education."

Chief Insp Beau Fisk, of Hampshire police, said: "Truancy sweeps have a significant part to play in the partnership response to reducing crime and disorder.

"The issues surrounding youth nuisance causes the public major concern and this is one of many responses to addressing this. There are also concerns that during the period that a child is truanting they could be at risk."

National figures based on schools' registers show that at least one million children take at least one day off school per year without permission. seven and a half million school days are lost each year through truancy.

According to Ofsted inspectors, 50,000 pupils truant each day and 80 per cent of young people found on truancy sweeps are accompanied by a responsible adult. Further sweeps are planned for the remainder of the school year.