A WORCESTER mother who failed to ensure her children regularly attended schools in the city has been sentenced to an 18-month community order.

Out of a possible 210 sessions the two children only attended a combined total of 85 sessions between January and June last year.

The 36-year-old mum admitted three charges of knowingly failing to cause regular attendances of a registered pupil at a school when she appeared before the city’s magistrates. The court was told the woman’s 14-year-old boy only attended 43 sessions out of a possible 102 between Friday, January 16, and Thursday, April 23. Fifty-four of those were unauthorised and five were authorised.

The boy then only attended 19 out of a possible 52 sessions between Tuesday, May 19 and Tuesday, June 30. Just two sessions were authorised absences with the remaining 31 unauthorised.

The 15-year-old girl, who attended a different school, was not authorised to be absent for 33 of the 56 sessions she missed.

In mitigation, Nick Roberts said his client, who cannot be named because magistrates turned down an application by your Worcester News to lift reporting restrictions on the case, realised she was responsible for making sure her children attended school.

“She had addiction problems for 24 years,” he said. “One addiction has been dealt with through the community drugs team and she has been clean for eight weeks. She still struggles with the other one. If that is dealt with her children will be motivated to go to school and she will have motivation to make sure they go.”

The court was told the son’s attendance had got better since the start of the new academic year but the daughter’s had gone down a “slippery slope”. While passing sentence chairman of the magistrates Jill Hart said: “They are at an age where it is vital they attend school.”

The mum will now be supervised by the probation service for the next 18 months and she will be made to attend an alcohol treatment requirement for six months. She was also made to pay £100 costs.