Are truants overwhelmingly from poor backgrounds?

Recent research completed by the Tories suggests what we’ve known for a long time that kids from socially deprived backgrounds are much more likely to bunk off school than their middle class peers. I appeared on BBC Breakfast talking about the issue. I categorised children who bunk off into three categories: the arrogant, the alienated and the pathetic. The arrogant are too cool for school, the alienated are frequently bullied or can’t do the work, while the pathetic are the mollycoddled ones who would prefer to stay in bed, indulged by their parents.

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