New research from the DfE suggests children who miss seven days’ schooling each year see their chances of gaining five good GCSEs reduced markedly. Only 31% of children who missed more than 14 days of lessons over two years got the “gold standard” of good grades in English, Maths, Science, a humanity and a language compared to 44% of pupils who attended school every day. Meanwhile, just 16.4% of children who miss 28 days of school over two years get five good GCSEs. The report also found that primary school pupils who miss just 14 days of schooling between the age of 7 and 11 are 25% less likely to achieve level five. Ministers claim the new fining regime for parents who take their children out of school in term time has cut the absence rate to a record 4.4%. However, campaign group Parents Want a Say argue that the Education Secretary has conflated statistics for those children playing truant with those who attend normally but take a term time holiday. John Hemming, the Liberal Democrat MP who is campaign chairman of Parents Want a Say, said: “Nicky Morgan should get an F for fail in her statistics. It’s either being done deliberately or incompetently. It is misleading.” He also cited a DfE study in 2011 which concluded that a small holiday during term time at primary school “doesn’t do any harm and potentially is beneficial”.