Latest 7 magazine

A new intiative to encourage attendance at secondary school celebrates success

Attendance at secondary schools in Brighton and Hove is on the up thanks to Just 24, a new initiative from the council, with the help of local businesses. The Just 24 project held an awards ceremony at Hove Town Hall recently to reward young people for attending school for 24 days during the first half of the summer term.

Prizes included high street vouchers, concert tickets, DS Lites, PSPs, digital cameras and free ‘shakes’ for a year.

The number of young people attending every day during the 24 day period was 3945, more than a thousand more than last year.

And this had a positive knock on effect for all attendance – up from 90.5 per cent to 93.1 per cent this year. The event was sponsored by a number of local businesses including Hays Education, Trevor Sorbie, Shakeaway, Brighton & Hove Albion, Concorde 2, Nandos, SAKs, The Point, Keyhole the Locksmiths, Brighton Centre, Uncle Sams, Lulu Rose, Pineapple, Brighton & Hove Buses.

Councillor Vanessa Brown, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People said, “I’m pleased that Just 24 is proving to be such a success. Some young people have difficulty attending school regularly for this length of time for a number of reasons.

“All schools have reward initiatives, usually for a whole term, so Just 24 concentrates on a shorter period and makes it a competition with rewards for success. The project will also have an impact on some young people who have attended the 24 days, enabling them to get back into the routine of attending school every day.“

This entry was posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 5:49 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.