Minster College has the highest rate of persistently absent pupils in the county.

A new indicator in the latest Government school league tables reveals that 21 per cent of pupils there were persistently out of school.

Headteacher Alan Klee said: "We take non-attendance very seriously and over the last school year we have sent 1,200 letters to parents with regards to attendance issues, resulting in 58 fines being issued and more than 15 parents being taken to court."

Two of Kent's newest academies also had some of the poorest attendance figures. At Folkestone Academy and the Marlowe Academy at Ramsgate, nearly 18 per cent of pupils were regularly out of class while at Swanley Technical College, the figure was 19 per cent.

Minster College will be transformed into an academy from this September.

For full story see next week's Sheerness Times Guardian