ATTENDANCE figures in Torbay secondary schools improved by seven per cent last year — the highest figure for four years.

Torbay Council launched a new attendance strategy in the summer of 2009 after which performance improved across all secondary schools in the summer term.

Attendance reached 93 per cent.

A council spokesman said the strategy involved early identification of children at risk of poor school attendance, agreeing plans with schools to support families, penalties and prosecution.

More attendance improvement officers have also been employed, based in the council's teams working with other organisations such as health, police, schools and Connexions youth service.

A spokesman said: "We still have progress to make, but the figures are moving in the right direction and if children are not at school, very obviously their attainment is jeopardised."

Jane English, joint head of schools leadership at Torbay Council, said they had made a real effort to make sure more children attended school, even down to supplying alarm clocks and offering rewards for good attendance.

"These figures are good news. It's like the lottery, if the children don't take part they don't win.

"We have had a concerted effort by the schools and the local authority and we are committed to ensuring children are in schools and involved in learning."

She said Torbay had particular problems because of the size of its transient population with some children moving into the area who had poor attendance in their former schools.

"We do have a tough job in some cases to break habits which have built up over time," she said.

But she said often children who stay away from school miss out on the opportunities to socialise and make friends which gives them more incentive to attend and can become worried about going to school.

They also support parents where necessary.

"We have been known to supply alarm clocks," she said.

Schools also have a lot of support from senior staff working on attendance as well as the council's attendance improvement officers.

However, she said there were some children who had good reasons for their absences, such as carers who needed flexibility and support and they also believed in recognising good attendance with rewards, such as attendance at the David Beckham academy.

"Children need to experience the reward of success," she said. "Nothing breeds success like success."

New figures show that the performance of pupils at Kings Ash primary school in Paignton has improved.

Kings Ash is under notice to improve from Ofsted, and despite recent successes will remain in this category until the next Ofsted visit.

The pupils recorded an eight per cent rise in their scores for Key Stage 2 tests for children aged 11 as well as a two per cent rise in school attendance.

The council spokesman said this was due to a number of factors including getting every child in to do the test, which hadn't happened in previous years.

"The leadership of the school is also more rigorous, with increased local authority input and improved consistency and monitoring. Our measures show quality of teaching and learning is much improved, which is a consequence of better attendance, better curriculum and quality of lessons.

"The school carried out the Key Stage 2 test as recommended, which gave it opportunity to show their improvement," said the spokesman.

Last year Kings Ash was one of four Bay primary schools picked out by former education secretary Ed Balls for failing to hit the 'floor target' of 55 per cent of pupils reaching level four in both English and maths national curriculum tests. Kings Ash was one of those asked by the former education secretary to turn the corner with its English and maths results or be branded as a 'failing school'.