10,200 school truants a day in the capital

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During autumn term last year and spring term this year, more than one million school days were lost in the capital through "unauthorised absence".

The figures from the Department for Children come despite ministers spending £1 billion on combating truancy since 1997. They show truancy in London's primaries soared, although it was down slightly in secondaries.

Shadow schools minister Nick Gibb called the rise of unauthorised absence in primaries "alarming".

But Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "This isn't truancy, it's about primary schools getting much tougher on reporting absence."

Children's minister Baroness Morgan claimed absence was "at its lowest ever levels".

Across England, the truancy rate - the percentage of school sessions missed by children - was 0.56 per cent in primaries. In London, it was 0.91 per cent. Six per cent of pupils account for 77 per cent of truancy.