AN irate mum is calling for an apology after receiving a letter warning she may face prosecution over her daughter's lateness at school.

But mum-of-two Elaine Massey says that even though her 13-year-old daughter Michelle has been marked late 31 times at Kearsley's George Tomlinson School, she drops her off every morning in plenty of time for registration. The furious mum of Newport Street, Farnworth, has accused the school of sticking too rigidly to its rules and is now threatening to take her case to Education Secretary David Blunkett if her daughter's record of lateness is not retracted.

Mrs Massey says she drops Michelle off at the Springfield Road school at 8.20am every morning for registration between 8.30am and 8.35am.

She said: "The children are not allowed into school until 8.25am which gives them just five minutes to go to their lockers and get to their classes.

"She has been marked late for arriving seconds after 8.30am. She has been walking into the classroom as the register is being taken and has still been marked late.

"The first I knew of this was when a letter came from Bolton Local Education Authority saying Michelle had been referred to them because she was always late. The letter says I could face prosecution and I am concerned about how it could affect Michelle's future employment prospects because of her lateness record."

However, eight of Michelle's late marks were recorded at afternoon registration which Mrs Massey attributes to the children only having half an hour for lunch.

Under LEA rules, if a child arrives as the register is being taken they are marked as late-present. If they arrive after the register has closed they are marked as late-absent.

The LEA say it would not prosecute in a case where a child has a large number of late-present marks but late-absent are taken more seriously.

The letter sent to Mrs Massey was a standard one sent out to all parents of children who are persistently late for school.

But Mrs Massey said: "The school has changed the rules to suit itself. They are saying that school no longer starts at 8.30am but at least one second before.

"It makes you wonder how many other parents have been caught out by this and how much public money is being wasted in referring all these cases to the council?"

But George Tomlinson headteacher Tony Buckley said that, while he could not comment on individual cases, the rules were the rules.

"Children are expected to be in their classroom for 8.30am," he said. "This is when school starts and if they arrive after this then they are marked as late.

"Children are allowed into school five minutes early to get to their lockers and get to class in plenty of time.

"If we were to get sloppy about this then we would be very rightfully taken to task over it.

"Punctuality is important not just in school but in later life and every parent would expect us to be instilling it into their children. If we didn't then nobody would send their children here."