Patricia Amos was sent to jail for 60 days in 2002 for the same offence

Patricia Amos, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, let her 14-year-old daughter Jacqueline Bird avoid class almost every other day, Bicester magistrates heard on Tuesday.

She missed 31 out of 80 days at Banbury School between May and October 2003, education officers told the court.

Amos, 45, was jailed for 60 days in 2002 after failing to stop Jacqueline's sister Emma, then 15, from truanting.

She will be sentenced on 23 March for her latest offence.

English prize

Amos had argued that she had made "every effort" to get Jacqueline to go to school.

The prosecution said that despite repeated phone calls, home visits and written warnings, Amos failed to give explanations for many of her daughter's absences.

Jacqueline told the court most of the time she had missed school had been without her mother's knowledge, but this was rejected by magistrates.

Emma won a top English prize after returning to lessons last year.

The teenager was one of just three pupils at the 1,750-strong comprehensive to be given the Key Stage Four award in July.

Banbury School's headteacher Dr Fiona Hammans told BBC News Online at the time: "It's superb for everyone in the school and for Emma particularly, bearing in mind the last time she appeared in the national papers.

"It's a complete turnaround for her."