More primary pupils miss school

There has been an increase of 7,000 in the number of primary age pupils in England identified as "persistent absentees", the latest figures show.
More than 6% of secondary pupils also missed more than a fifth of lessons.
In seven local authorities more than one in 10 secondary pupils were persistently absent.
There was a slight decline in overall absenteeism, from 6.44% to 6.26%, prompted by a fall in authorised absences such as family holidays.
The figures, showing children missing school in autumn term 2007 and spring 2008, record that almost 10 million half-day sessions were missed in unauthorised absences.
But the rate of unauthorised absences remained unchanged at 0.97% of all half-day sessions.
The absenteeism rate for primary schools rose to 0.56% of all sessions, up from 0.52% last year.
Regional differences
This more detailed breakdown of absenteeism shows the impact of pupils who are persistently missing on the overall figures - defined as those who miss more than 20% of school sessions.
They accounted for more than half of unauthorised absences.
There was a 7,000 increase in the number of primary pupils classified as persistent absentees to 81,530, representing 2.4% of enrolments.
In secondary school there were 191,240, which was 6.4% of the total.
The government figures reveal areas of the country which have a much greater problem with such persistent absenteeism.
In Hull, 12.9% of secondary pupils are classified as persistently absent, 12.3% in Manchester and 10.1% in Southampton.
At the other end of the scale, in Redbridge only 4% were persistently absent and 4.3% in Barnet.
However the classification for "persistent absentee" also includes those who have been given permission to miss school, such as those with illnesses.
The figures for overall absenteeism include both those playing truant and those "authorised" to be away.
The most common reasons for missing school were illness and family holidays - with 86% of such family trips being approved by the school.
Academies, usually based in deprived areas, continue to have above-average absenteeism rates, currently 8.55% on average - down from 9.52% for the same period last year.
The complete annual figures will not be available until February - but the projected annual absenteeism rate for primary and secondary schools is 6.26%. (from BBC news)

Thsi has got to be an unacceptable amount of children not attending school, I wonder what the Channel Island figures are, but I hope that percentage wise they are not like the UK..