Parents force U-turn on hardline approach that included ban on absence for period pains without medical information

Parents have forced three ­academies to abandon hardline attendance policies in which pupils were told to come in even when unwell and were banned from missing school for period pains without further medical information.

The headteacher of Neale-Wade academy in the market town of March, Cambridgeshire, wrote to parents on Thursday apologising and retracting a previous letter that said that absence for period pain would be marked as “unauthorised” – meaning parents could be liable for fines or prosecution – unless the school had “medical information relating” to this.