Tracey has welcomed the news that the number of pupils persistently skipping school have fallen by 36 per cent in Kent and 13.7 per cent in Medway since 2010.

In 2009/10 13,962 pupils were persistently absence from school in Kent and 1,985 pupil in Medway, but this has fallen to 8,938 in Kent and 1,713 in Medway in 2012/13.

Tracey said “The evidence shows that persistent absence for school has a serious detrimental effect on pupils’ performance and so it is great news that truancy has dramatically reduced in our local schools. However, there is still further improvements to be made, so we must continue to work on this.”

These figures show we are making progress, with 130,000 fewer pupils regularly missing school under this government. Alongside our measures to give teachers powers to search pupils and impose same-day detentions, this demonstrates our determination to get tough on bad behaviour.