SWINDON is winning the fight against truancy as the town prepares to take part in the latest nationwide sweep to get errant pupils back to school.

The Department for Education and Skills has just released figures for the two most recent week-long sweeps, which were in May of this year and last December.

Last December, educational welfare officials, accompanied by police officers, stopped 120 children in the town centre during school hours. Of those, 38 were truants and 21 were with adults.

In May, only 53 suspected truants were spotted, of whom 24 were actual truants and 18 were with adults.

At an undisclosed time during the next few weeks, a further five-day sweep will be conducted nationwide.

Coun Garry Perkins (Con, Shaw and Nine Elms) the council's lead member for education, believes the decline is the result of a special strategy designed to coax even the most reluctant pupils back to school.

He explained: "All one can say is that this success can be put down to the schools' strategy of working with pupils.

"Many pupils who were previously reluctant actually want to go to school, and are finding out that education is not such a bad thing."

According to the most recent figures, Swindon fares far better than the national average in terms of truancy.

In September, the Government revealed that almost one in eight Swindon pupils 12 per cent skipped school during the previous academic year.

But nationwide, the figure stood at nearer one in five 17 per cent.

Coun Perkins said schools put across the message to pupils that education was important, and that everybody could discover fulfilment by taking part.

He added: "Many of our schools have links to other institutions of learning.

"For example, if a pupil does not believe that strictly academic subjects are for them, there are opportunities for other courses with more of a technical and skills-based emphasis."

Coun Perkins' views on truancy were echoed by Nigel Pickering, the council's social inclusion manager.

He said: "This is a success story for Swindon.

"All 10 of our secondary schools, for example, have improved their attendance this year.

"We have a strong team of educational welfare officers who send out the message that truancy will be challenged."

Mr Pickering said working time arrangements meant that Swindon had the equivalent of eight and a half full-time welfare officers.

But he revealed that in many cases, as demonstrated by the figures, truancy seemed to occur with the compliance of parents.

Mr Pickering said some parents whose children were with them when they were stopped said the child was recovering from an illness, or was out on a treat to mark a birthday or some other celebration.

He added: "We have to get the message across to parents as well as pupils that education is important."

bhudson@newswilts.co.uk