Schools Minister Damian Hinds visited North Shore Academy in Stockton today (Monday, January 8) to mark a new government bid to tackle absenteeism.

The Department for Education has appointed children’s charity Barnardo’s to run a three-year mentoring programme, which is a new approach to tackle absenteeism.

The programme provides intensive one-to-one support to pupils who are persistently absent from school. The mentors work with them and their families to find out why the child is missing school.

The programme is running in five areas of the country with Middlesbrough being one of the first test pilots.

The Northern Echo: Schools minister Damian Hinds visited North Shore Academy in Stockton to mark government bid to

The programme aims to provide extra support for students, including more intensive work with teachers or in some cases bridge-building between school and families. To allow schools and parents to work in partnership to support children who are struggling to attend.

Education chiefs see this as particularly important in schools due to the pandemic breaking attendance habits leading to more children being absent than previously.

Attendance is a wide priority for the Department of Education as absenteeism has wide impacts on social mobility and inclusion. This is particularly damaging for disadvantaged pupils who already face an attainment gap.

With an investment of up to £15million, over three years, this programme will provide direct intensive support to more than 10,000 persistent and severely absent pupils and their families.

The programme will see trained attendance mentors working in 10 further areas from September 2024 including in Hartlepool. 

The mentoring programme will act alongside several other measures including current attendance hubs which allow different schools to share tips and resources to improve attendance.

The Northern Echo: School Minister Damian Hinds was able to see some of the ongoing lessons at North Shore Academy

Attendance hubs are expected to more than double, to support 1000 more schools reaching 1 million pupils to boost their attendance.

North Shore Academy has been a success story in becoming an attendance hub, so on his visit, Mr Hinds was able to see the facilities at the school and speak with the pupils who are eager to maintain excellent attendance at school.

Mr Hinds said: “This is obviously a fantastic school; it’s made amazing progress to the extent that now this is our hub for other schools wanting to hear what has been achieved

"We're talking about attendance today but the journey has been across all elements of schooling and there is a massive congratulations to the team here for what they have achieved."

When asked about how additional pressure to support children in intensive attendance schemes may impact teaching staff he said: “Teachers are at the front of everything that happens in schools, and teachers are what makes it work, it is also true that teaching can be a pressured profession.

“I would like us to bring the workload of teachers down, particularly in non-teaching time and they do some interesting things here at North Shore Academy on trying to manage down workload.

We have the best generation of teachers we’ve ever had and that is incumbent on all of us to support them in all they do.”

He added: “There is a lot to being at school, it’s not just GCSE’s it’s about everything else it’s about your development from being a child to being a grown up, making friends and not missing out on experiences like taking part in sports or learning a music instrument. These are key parts of being in school.”

The Northern Echo: North Shore Academy has been a success story in becoming an attendance hub,

Alex Cunningham Stockton Labour MP was also in attendance and in full support of the Department for Education’s scheme.

He said: “It’s great to see the minister taking the time to come and see North Shore Academy.

“The government have announced that they are going to copy the hubs we have in the North East in order to drive these improvements elsewhere in the country.

“I remember when this school first opened, and they’ve had to do a lot of hard work up front in order to ensure children were in school and that has paid off in the long run.”

“Schools like North Shore Academy cover deprived areas and have the recipe right here, so I’m pleased the government are recognising good practice and the good work of schools in the North East.”

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Following a regional pilot in Newcastle, the government have also launched a national communications campaign to highlight the importance of attendance, which will be targeting parents and carers.

Using the tagline ‘Moments Matter, Attendance Counts’ the campaign outlines the importance of attendance for attainment, wellbeing, and development as well as signposting to advice for further support. 

The government has also committed to further legislation in the coming months that will mean all schools will be required to share their daily school registers.

Which aims to modernise how schools record and share data on attendance and support them to understand what is driving absence in their school as well as in providing early support and intervention where pupils are displaying worrying trends of absence.