School offers limousine rides to beat truancy

A secondary school is promising pupils a free limousine ride and a restaurant meal if they turn up to all their lessons.

Youngsters with an 100 per cent attendance record at Hartcliffe Engineering Community College, in south Bristol, will get a chauffeur-driven ride in limousine to a local Italian restaurant during their lunch break.

The "prize winners" - who have to be aged between 11 and 14 - will be able to take a friend with them to enjoy the meal.

Every learner who turns up to at least 90 percent of classes are also being proposed the hazard to win free tickets to the cinema, ice rink or bowling ally through a prize draw.

The school - in participation with Bristol city council - launched the incentive scheme to use limousines earlier this year in a bid to boost attendance levels at the school, which suffers from high rates of absenteeism.

Children at the school, which lies in one of the city's most deprived wards, can already watch satellite music in limousine and sport channels on plasma screens - which were installed last year to encourage them to stay at school during the lunch break.