May 15, 2023 07:41am
A campaign to encourage children and families to understand the importance of having good attendance at school has been a huge success across three schools.
Moorings Way Infant School, Meon Infant School, and Meon Junior School came together for a joint poster competition to find the best designs which will be scanned, printed, and displayed across the schools.
There were four winners in total, Lenny in Year 2 at Moorings Way, Olive in Year 2 at Meon Infant, Harry in Year 3 at Meon Junior Lower School, and Isaac in Year 6 at Meon Junior Upper School.
Charlotte Osborne, the Attendance Welfare Lead at all three schools, says the competition has been a huge success.
She said: “I’m so pleased about how the children have engaged with this project. Having worked in attendance within a senior school in the Trust, I had seen cases all too often where a child has had poor attendance throughout their school career.
“These children frequently struggle with their learning which in turn causes them to become withdrawn. Many display avoidance behaviours in school, truanting lessons when they do turn up, because they do not understand the work they are being taught, often because they missed the foundation work needed for that topic or subject.
“Here at the M3 schools, we want to work with both our pupils and their parents to do our best to prevent this from happening so regularly. We want to instill a positive attitude to school attendance as early as possible to ensure that all of our pupils go on to thrive throughout their school and future careers.”
Earlier in the year, 12 ‘Attendance Councillors’ were recruited to be a voice of all-things attendance on behalf of every pupil. The competition was their idea and judged by the teachers.
Miss Osborne continued: “In every other aspect of life, if someone achieved 90% of their goal, they would be celebrating a huge achievement and receive praise. However, when it comes to school attendance, a percentage of only 90% can leave a child falling behind their peers in their education. 90% is the equivalent of almost 4 weeks of school missed in an academic year and more children than ever across the country are finishing school years with 90% or less attendance.
“From experience, this frequently leads to anxiety, behavioural issues, and a pattern of school avoidance, because the child goes on to find future work too difficult.
“As of March 31st 2023, according to figures from the Department for Education, 22.6% of pupils across the country fell into this category which is known as "persistent absenteeism". Some of these are due to genuine illness and could not be avoided.
“However, a huge number of these will be because students have been taken on holiday, have had days off for mild illness like a cold when in reality, they would have been fine in school, and in some cases, because school is just not seen as important by a family. Good attendance not only gives a child a better education, but also encourages positive traits for the child's future with timeliness and work ethic.
“Children get to spend time with their friends, which in turn improves their social skills. It also provides a routine and safe space for children who really need this.”
The winners received a Goodie bag consisting of stationary set (thanks to Morrisons Anchorage Park), colouring pencils pencil case colouring book (thanks to Tesco Extra Fratton Way), soft toy, sweets and a book voucher.
