TWO parents persistently let their children stay away from school because the father believed they did not need to go.

Hereford Magistrates Court heard that the parents had received a limited education themselves. The father had worked fulltime on a farm from his early teens while the mother was out of class at 10 and caring for younger siblings.

Together, the two admitted three charges of failing to ensure a child's attendance at school. Each was ordered to complete 100 hours of community service and pay £50 in costs.

At an earlier hearing the couple - with cautions and convictions for similar offences - had been warned of possible prison sentences.

Magistrates made an order banning any identification of the children involved; two are at primary school and the other at secondary.

Geoff Hardy, prosecuting for Herefordshire Council, said that the authority's education welfare team had worked with the family for some time.

The latest charges arose out of 'unacceptable attendance' at school by the two youngest children. On several occasions school staff saw the children playing outside their home, on a nearby common or in several vehicles when supposed to be in class, said Mr Hardy.

That these staff were prepared to make such statements showed the strength of feeling over the situation, he said.

Evidence offered by Aiden McGivern, defending, outlined a deeply dysfunctional family background with the parents responsible for six children in all, one of which had just had a child herself.

The mother, in particular, had survived abusive relationships and was reluctant to 'lay hands' on her own children. The father thought that, when it came to education, what had been good for him was good for them, said Mr McGivern.

Illiterate, innumerate and inarticulate, the couple were vulnerable targets, he said.

The court was told that a social worker had now been assigned to the family and even the police local beat officer was willing to help them establish some sort of domestic structure.

"If the prosecution is to help the children get an education, what damage could be done by the parents, imprisonment? How would the children gain by their parents being locked away?" said Mr McGivern.