‘Truant’ doing well at school

Press, 21 January 1982, Page 19

‘Truant’ doing well at school

By

KEN COATES

in London

Top marks have been achieved by the worst truant in Britain in his first end-of-term report. Tony Laing, aged 11, has been praised by his teachers as doing “magnificently.” Since the age of five, Tony Laing, of Mile End, London, preferred to spend every day with his father, a maintenance worker.

However, in between times, Tony taught himself to read, and visited museums and libraries while his father was on the job.

He has lived with his grandmother since his parents’ marriage broke up. He turned up at school once, for a morning, but went straight home because he could not stand the bullying.

His father did not insist on his going back because it made the boy upset. Eventually, the education authorities caught up with Tony Laing and he was sent to a London school.

Apart from two days away sick, Tony’s attendance has been 100 per cent.

“He has astounded us with his progress and he is a joy to teach,” said the headmistress, Mrs Doreen Clery. “I am learning as much from him as he is from me. It is a great experience to work with a boy who has not been to school for so long.”

Tony’s father said he realised that his son should have been at school, but the boy was always learning, “and we just never got round to making him go along to school.”