It's vital to look at the reasons why a child's truanting, she says, as it may be because there are issues at home, they're being bullied at school, or they're scared of going to school because they're lonely or vulnerable.
A survey by the educational charity the Rathbone Trust, which has a base in Coventry, found that just 32 per cent of truanting children would go back to school because their parents were being fined or threatened with prison.
As well as the six-week sentence for truanting, the mum-of-three had received a further seven weeks in prison after admitting committing benefit fraud totalling pounds 2,981.
"We haven't issued fixed penalty notices yet, but we are strong advocates of parenting orders and of the hard work teachers do to stop youngster truanting.
Being out of school either truanting, on holiday or sick for more than five weeks a year cut a pupil's chances of getting one good GCSE at grade C or better by 30 per cent.
But all too easily it can become a way of life - day after day of truanting. That can destroy the future for young people who find that no school means no qualifications and no job.
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