A mother jailed for allowing her children to ‘ pick and choose ’ when they went to school because she thought they would learn ‘ more on a beach than in a hot stuffy classroom ’ now admits she was wrong . Claudia Ward , 42 , said prison was the wake-up call she needed and that her children all now had 100 per cent attendance records . Miss Ward said she initially wanted her six children to have ‘ an amount of choice themselves ’ . She admitted that if her two older children were up late and ‘ didn ’ t fancy ’ going to school she would let them stay off . Scroll down for video . Admits her fault : Claudia Ward ( centre ) , pictured with her children Riley ( left ) , six , and Nia ( right ) , nine , had argued that her children would gain more from a ‘ free-thinking ’ day on the beach or a woodland walk . On other occasions she said she had ‘ just wanted some company ’ . But their schools and her local education authority disagreed with her flexible approach and she was prosecuted five times before being jailed for five months . Miss Ward admitted : ‘ When I spent my first night in the cell , the enormity of what I had done hit home . ' I felt so guilty ; my stubbornness had meant I was on a prison wing in Gloucester , miles away from my young and vulnerable children . Great outdoors : Miss Ward let her children play truant because she thought they would learn more on day trips . Pictured above are two of her six children - Riley ( left ) and Nia ( right ) ‘ I accepted that my views on education were not correct and everyone must adhere to the same rules , or there would be anarchy . It was the wake-up call I needed. ’ Miss Ward , who is single , has six children : Jack , 24 , Amos , 21 , Rudy 17 , Annie , 16 , Nia , nine , and Riley , six . They have four different fathers . She was prosecuted in 2008 and then again in 2011 and 2012 . But the court heard her children ’ s ‘ attendance issues ’ dated back to 2002 . ‘ If it was a sunny day and I thought one of my children would have been bored and sat staring out the window of the classroom wishing they were at the beach – I could not see the merit of them not being on the beach looking at rock pools , ’ said Miss Ward , a freelance creative writer from Falmouth , Cornwall . ‘ I thought they would gain far more from that . I thought they would be far better actually there experiencing it rather than sat in a stuffy classroom . Riley and Nia : The children were looked after by other family members while Miss Ward was in prison . ‘ My ideas for education were always more outside the box and free-thinking , ’ she added . ‘ I was all about the children having an amount of choice themselves . 'This didn ’ t tally well with the national curriculum . It got to the point where there was no room for dialogue with the school and it was conflict all the way. ’ Reflected in her cell : Miss Ward was jailed for five months in 2013 at Truro Magistrates ’ Court . During the 2012 court hearing – which Miss Ward failed to attend – magistrates were told that three of the children ’ s education was suffering through their absences and one had missed a GCSE exam . Liz Mozeley , education welfare officer , told Truro Magistrates ’ Court : ‘ She felt they could pick and choose when they go. ’ On that occasion , after a warrant was issued for her arrest , she was given a 12-week prison sentence suspended for 24 months . But the truanting continued and she was jailed for 20 weeks in February 2013 . Cornwall Council said it has been working with her for a decade at a cost of about £15,000 and prosecution was a ‘ last resort ’ . Education welfare officer John Heath told the court : ‘ Claudia is a capable woman but has a very odd outlook as far as education is concerned. ’ The court heard that three of the children ; Annie , Nia and Riley , missed more than a third of sessions between September and December 2012 – equalling 73 whole days . Miss Ward served ten weeks of her 20-week jail term . She was released in April 2013 . Her children were looked after by other family members . She said : ‘ I was shocked and did not for one second did I think they would give me a five-month sentence. ’ She said she used her time inside to re-evaluate her principles .
Claudia Ward said her children would gain more from 'free-thinking ' day . 42-year-old did not want them sat 'bored in a hot and stuffy classroom ' But local education authority did n't agree with 'flexi-schooling ' approach . She was jailed after her fifth prosecution for failing to ensure attendance .