I was always grateful my parents let me go.

I travelled across France alone at 15 to stay with a family in the Champagne region. They met me at my destination & I travelled back home alone, in the era of no mobile phones/internet. It taught me skills that served me well when I did an internship at the international Bank in Luxembourg aged 19.

It stands to reason therefore that re-establishing home/school trust and the home/school contract is essential so that attendance improves from where it is now. Disadvantaged pupils are much more likely to be persistently absent than their better off peers.