A headteacher whose school has the country's worst truancy rate says some parents keep their children at home for fear immigration officials will deport them.

St John's Roman Catholic Primary School in Rochdale was bottom of the league table for absences, according to the Department for Education and Skills figures.

A total of 8.6% of half-days lost at the school are due to unauthorised absences.

Headteacher Jed Morgan said the problem was not truancy, adding that some of the 160 pupils are from traveller communities and those of asylum-seekers and were difficult to trace.

It's not as though we are not doing anything about it - we are doing absolutely everything we can

Jed Morgan

Mr Morgan said his school had not received any extra money for anti-truancy measures.

He said: "We have a large number of traveller and asylum-seeker children who, for reasons we don't always understand, we can't always trace where they are.

"It's not as though we are not doing anything about it - we are doing absolutely everything we can.

"Examples of unauthorised absence are parents who keep their children close because they are afraid that the authorities are going to take the younger children and the mother away and deport them.

"They are frightened and it is an example of one of the difficulties we face."

St John's was in danger of closure after it failed an Ofsted inspection in 1999 but the threat was lifted last March, six months after Mr Morgan took over as headteacher.

He added: "We are desperate to build up the school."

As part of the effort to improve attendance, a reward scheme was set up, and parents were telephoned if their child did not turn up.