Northumberland County Council launches campaign to get pupils back into school

The local authority says the new campaign aims to “highlight the importance” of attending school as much as possible.

Entitled ‘Attend Today, Achieve Tomorrow, Attendance Matters’, officials are hoping to raise awareness of how every day in school matters and claim regular attendance plays a “vital role” in helping learners achieve more during their school years.

While attendance in Northumberland remains below pre-Covid levels, the council says new initiatives such as the campaign are having a “positive impact”.

Overall absences in the county are better than regional and national averages in the county’s secondary and special schools, while persistent absence rates are better than regional and national averages in the primary and secondary schools.

Coun Guy Renner-Thompson, cabinet member for young people, said: “We all want our children and young people to have the best start in life and school attendance is vital for this and making sure they get the most out of their time at school.

“It’s not just about what they learn in the classroom, it’s also about all the extracurricular activities that are available to help develop skills such as teamwork, creativity, independence and self-confidence.

“We understand that some children and young people face challenges with school attendance, particularly post pandemic, and we want to assure families that support is available.”

One of the county’s schools to join the campaign is Morpeth First School.

The school’s headteacher, Nadine Fielding, said: “We are really proud that we have excellent attendance and we want all our children to feel safe and secure in school and to enjoy coming in every day.

“One way we round off and celebrate the end of the week and all that the children have achieved is our special weekly assembly, modelled on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway. Pupils are also awarded “the best seats in the house” for demonstrating the character values in school.

“But we also know that sometimes there can be important reasons why a child is not attending and so I think that I think this campaign is really important as it sends out the message that we are all here to offer help and support.”