The Staffordshire County Council has launched a new campaign aimed at improving school attendance levels throughout the district. The campaign features the HERO acronym, which stands for Here Everyday Ready and On time.
As part of the campaign, the council have introduced attendance activities as well as the ‘Helpful Heroes’ workbook, which is aimed at pupils who are missing school as a result of their emotional health.
This comes after it was reported that school attendance dropped in Staffordshire by 2.3% over the last year. School attendance in the UK has dropped significantly in recent years across the UK.
A recent Ofsted inspection at Peak Education Audley concluded that attendance “requires improvement”. The report stated that “too many pupils continue to be persistently absent”.
The council will monitor their Helpful Heroes initiative to determine whether incentives encourage school attendance.
“Our Little Heroes campaign has been carefully designed to encourage and engage with children about the importance of attending school and to support children that may be avoiding school due to emotional barriers”, said Cabinet Member for Education Jonathan Price.
Experienced writer and journalist James McKean leads the daily editorial output at StaffsLive. To contact him, email news@staffslive.co.uk
