AN education authority has been congratulated by the Government for surpassing school attendance targets.

Stockton Borough Council was applauded after secondary and primary school pupils in the town attended school for 93.64 per cent of the time last year.

The council's target for the year, as previously set by the Government, was 93.25 per cent, and the national average was 93.31 per cent.

Attendance service manager Julie Armstrong said there had been a steady decline in the number of children taking unauthorised absence and playing truant in the past five years.

However, she said figures could only continue to fall if parents, children, teachers and the council worked together.

In 2002-2003, the overall attendance figure in Stockton was 93.13 per cent; in 2003-2004 it was 93.46, and last year it rose to 93.64 per cent.

"The increases may seem really small, but they do amount to a large number of pupils," said Ms Armstrong.

"The better we get, the harder it is to maintain, but we will continue, because every lesson counts.

"The improvements we have made so far are down to initiatives, where we intervene early to support and advise parents and students, and we work with a number of agencies. Parents have been willing to work with us, but that must continue."

Secondary schools in the town must hit an attendance level of 93.4 per cent by 2007-2008 and primary schools 95.5 per cent.

At present, they are at 92.58 per cent and 94.78, respectively.

There are 26,000 students in Stockton. However, in 2003-2004 1,800 of them were not in school on any given day throughout the year.

But last year, that figure was reduced to 1,700 through a combination of initiatives, including early intervention, parental support and court action.

Last year, 1,200 pupils with attendance problems were referred to the council's attendance service, and 255 of them were referred to the council's fast-tracking scheme for early intervention, where serious problems had just surfaced.

After six weeks, 250 of them had improved significantly, with the majority attending school 100 per cent of the time.

There are few pupils in need of extensive support and it is only those parents who do not co-operate who end up in court.