We're launching a new campaign to highlight the importance of school attendance in making sure children and young people achieve their full potential.  
 

The ‘Attend Today, Achieve Tomorrow, Attendance Matters’ campaign aims to raise awareness of how every day in school matters, with regular school attendance playing a vital role in helping learners to achieve more and improve attainment during their school lives and beyond. 
 

School attendance in Northumberland has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. But new initiatives are having a positive impact, with overall absence better than regional and national averages in our secondary and special schools, and persistent absence better than regional and national averages in the primary and secondary schools. 
 

The council has expanded its Education Welfare Service so that every school in Northumberland now has access to one of the council’s specialist education welfare officers who can help and support with any challenges around a child's attendance at school.  
 

Cllr Guy Renner-Thompson, Cabinet member for Inspiring 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. 
 

“If a child or young person is in school – it also importantly means they are safe and are getting the support they need. 
 

“We don’t just want to get our attendance back to pre-pandemic levels – we want it to be better than that – and that’s what this campaign aims to achieve.  
 

“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.  
 

Nadine Fielding, Headteacher, Morpeth First School, 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 so that they can get the most out of school life.  
 

"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, and children describe their Friday morning assemblies as 'the most fun you can have in 15 minutes'. 
 

"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."