There is concern from government in each of the sample sites over the role fathers play in supporting their children through school. Fathers have become a more "visible parent" and a focus for policy-makers in education. Family literacy programmes are used in this article as an example of an educational programme where fathers are often absent. The article draws on interviews conducted with mothers in England, Ireland and Malta, regularly attending family literacy programmes and a small number of fathers who were not attending regularly, if at all, for a range of cultural and structural reasons. It explores why fathers did not attend and what might encourage them to do so. The authors argue that being absent from formal sessions does not necessarily mean that fathers are disinterested in their child's education or that they do not contribute to the learning process. (Contains 1 table.)