I really do not understand what happened today &ndash most people when confronted with

I really do not understand what happened today – most people when confronted with the actual legislation will put their hands up to it.”She said there were only four defences allowed by law to a parent of a persistent truant: religious holidays, unavoidable emergencies or sickness, lack of transport to a school more than three miles away and limited leeway for traveller parents.”Speeding is speeding and no TV licence is no TV licence Are our children worth less than that?” she said. “These children are still out of school while this process is still going on. How many of them are going to get involved in crime, drugs or, in the case of teenagers, get pregnant?”A DfES spokesman said the fast-track aspect of the scheme referred to the time between identifying a problem parent and bringing a prosecution and that parents had every right to plead not guilty. “Once a case reaches the courts, it is a matter for the judiciary,” he said.. James Wilding, 49, is headteacher at Claires Court independent secondary school in Maidenhead, Berkshire

James Wilding, 49, is headteacher at Claires Court independent secondary school in Maidenhead, Berkshire
Parents who take their children on holiday during term time are to be fined up to £100 Do you support this?No Truancy fines will set schools against families. Parents who take their children out of school – and they do it occasionally because of holiday plans – will feel persecuted, while parents of persistent truants will have their negative view of the authorities reinforced, and may not be able to pay.

Trying to cut truancy figures by cracking down on holiday absences is just silly. I think the new vocational curriculum options for 14- to 16-year-olds promise to make a difference. As an independent school we don’t have problems with truancy – parents would be punishing themselves because they’ve already paid for tuition.The chief executive of WH Smith says that work experience for schoolchildren tends to be menial and fails to give a positive impression of corporate life Do you agree?Yes. Part of the problem is that it’s quite difficult for companies to find meaningful work for pupils aged 15. We’ve chosen to implement our work-experience programme after the GCSE exams, when students are nearly 17.

We ask parents to help us to come up with good placements, and we hand-pick companies from those that advertise. Where possible we want children to be involved in high-level experience; to work shadowing a manager rather than packing CDs, for example.History lessons at GCSE and A-level are being dominated by the study of Hitler and the Second World War, according to Ofsted. Do you agree?My wife’s the head of history here, and she tells prospective GCSE pupils that the course is about “two wars, a dictator and a nasty murderer” (a reference to Jack the Ripper). We find that a focus on key events is needed to sell the subject to adolescents who are tempted to take newer subjects such as business, IT or drama.