The parents of a pupil from Richard Lander School in Truro have been ordered to pay fines and costs of £2,584 for failing to ensure that their daughter attends school on a regular basis.

Magistrates at Truro on 8 June were told that the Year 10 pupil had 144 sessions of unauthorised absences out of a possible 170 attendances between November 2015 and April 2016.

The parents, both of whom pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that their child attended school regularly, were each fined £550 plus a victim surcharge of £55 and ordered to pay legal costs of £1,374 – making a total of £2,584.

The school hopes the sentence will send a clear message to other parents and carers who are failing to fulfil their legal duty to ensure that their children attend school regularly.

“We work closely with parents and pupils to try to sort out attendance issues” said a spokesman for the school.

“This may involve arranging home visits to discuss the situation. We will try to find out the reasons why the child is not attending school and take steps to try and get the child back into school. This includes offering support or signposting to other agencies.“ “Prosecution is a last resort when everything else has failed. Where parents are finally taken to court for school attendance offences they do run the risk of being fined or sent to prison.