A brand new campaign is launching today to show parents and children if they Miss School, they Miss Out.
The aim is to raise awareness with both primary and secondary schoolchildren and their parents of the impact of missing school on children’s education and later lives, such as finding a job they enjoy and having enough income to thrive. It widens their future choices and options for work and life.
It will also highlight how children can miss out spending time with friends, doing fun activities and learning important life skills such as social development and resilience.
There will be a range of different marketing including Snapchat, social media, and outdoor advertising messages about the impact of missing school, the benefits of attending every day, and the range of support available to families in Salford to help pupils and parents deal with any issues related to school attendance.
There will also be 14 new Family Help Practitioners based in Salford secondary schools who will work with children and their families who often miss school.
School attendance is one of the biggest challenges that COVID-19 has posed to schools, children and young people, impacting on their academic outcomes, well-being and safety. There can also be a range of underlying issues such as social anxiety and financial issues and the campaign will signpost children and their parents to where they can get help.
Councillor Jim Cammell, Lead Member for Children’s and Young People’s Services said: “We are grateful to schools for all their hard work and dedication in supporting our children and young people to attend school regularly. We are working in partnership with schools and all our partners to increase school attendance and provide the right support at the right time for all children to attend school every day.
“We know some absences are unavoidable, but attending school every day is vital both to help children learn, develop, have positive futures and have good mental health. Every day is important and a missed day can cause a child to fall behind in learning and so struggle with their education.
“There are many different challenges for people getting children to school but we are to help where we can. We want to make sure that every young person is able to take full advantage of the wonderful opportunities that education gives.”
Evidence from a recent Children’s Commissioner report shows that attending school at the start of September is really important- children who miss the first few days of term for unauthorised reasons have a predicted overall absence of 45 per cent in the Autumn term.
Find out more about the campaign
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- Date published
- Wednesday 30 August 2023