THE New Year has seen local education chiefs getting a new boost in the battle to reduce truancy and bad behaviour in schools.

The local education authority (LEA) has been given more than half a million pounds from the Government's Social Inclusion Pupil Support Standards Fund.

Bury gets £533,100 for the next financial year to help provide support and school places for difficult or excluded pupils.

It has also received £52,259 towards school learning support units which will ensure that disruptive pupils are taken out of the classroom.

Schools minister Jacqui Smith said: "Too many school children are missing school and cutting their chances of success in life. Some schools are raising attendance levels, but more needs to be done to reduce significantly the 50,000 pupils away from school without permission on any given day."

The extent of the truancy problem was made plain on the local front shortly before Christmas.

A four-day purge by education staff and police in Bury resulted in 66 children being questioned as to why they were not at school.