A Penryn mother has been jailed for 20 weeks after she failed to ensure that her three children attend school on a regular basis.

Kevin Hill, prosecuting on behalf of the local authority, told the court on February 15 that all three children, aged 15, 14 and 6 years, had missed school on numerous occasions and that despite the parent being prosecuted for similar offences on four previous occasions, their attendance had failed to improve.

On the last occasion she was given 12 weeks imprisonment suspended for 12 months but still failed to ensure that her children attended school. She also failed to attend meetings with representatives of the council’s education welfare service and her children’s schools.

Magistrates in Truro invoked the suspended sentence and imposed a further eight weeks imprisonment for the new offence. The sentences are to run consecutively.