|
Top class
A Hull project which helps children and young people return to learning after long-term absences has been recognised in the House of Lords - and could inspire similar projects across the country
There are 57,000 primary, secondary and special school pupils in Hull, and around 3,000 of them will be absent on a typical school day.
Aside from genuine reasons such as illness or school trips, there are many other reasons why children are not at school.
Some are young carers who stay at home to look after their parents, or their younger siblings while their parents go out to work.
Others avoid school because they're getting bullied, or because the school environment makes them anxious.
Some pupils are excluded through poor behaviour – with such frequency that they become referred to as "serial exclusions."
And some have much less serious reasons – including that they don't have a uniform, and there are transport problems.
Individual support
But a new project set up by Hull City Council last year has made great strides in helping to re-introduce long-term absentees back into school.
Called the Top 700 Project, it identifies the 700 pupils with the worst records of attendance across the city, and is based on the work of international change management expert Mark Friedman.
Through looking at each case individually and identifying each pupil's specific needs, support workers are able to arrange for a suitable package of help.
"We're talking about 700 individual support plans rather than treating every case the same," says Judith Harwood, Head of Learning, Leisure & Achievement at Hull City Council.
"In each case we look at whether a pupil is already receiving any help from another agency.
"That could be, say, from a social worker, or the Education Welfare Team or the Youth Offending Team - and then we look at whether that help could be modified.
"Where we find pupils aren't receiving any help we send a support worker to their home to find about their needs.
In some cases it might be all that is needed is something as simple as getting some practical transport arrangement sorted out.
"But in other cases bigger changes may be called for.
For example, a child might need to be educated away from a mainstream school in order to gradually reintroduce them into the classroom environment."
Common-sense approach
 |
The Houses of Parliament, in which the House of Lords is situated |
Since the project was set up last year all 700 targeted pupils have now re-engaged in some form of learning.
More than 50 per cent have improved their attendance, and 212 of them no longer require the support of the project.
And the project was one of six, from a total of 116 other projects from across the country working with vulnerable children, to be chosen to give a presentation to a panel of leading experts in children's services at the House of Lords.
The invite was part of the Government's Narrowing the Gap programme, whichs looks for examples of good, effective practice, with a view to rolling them out across other deprived areas of the country.
The panel included Baroness Estelle Morris, former education secretary and president of the National Children's Bureau, and Les Lawrence, chairman of the Local Government Association's Children and Young People Board.
"They were particularly interested in the methods we're using to tackle deprivation," says Nigel Richardson, director of Children and Young People's Services at Hull City Council who made the presentation to the Lords, along with Judith Harwood, and head teacher of Endeavour High School Chris Straker.
"They liked our practical, common-sense approach, and the fact that this is a city-wide project.
"They were also impressed with the working together of the many different partners, including the local NHS, the police, and voluntary and community services."
Long term impact
The project is now being expanded and developed with the aims of:
- Improving children's positive engagement with learning
- Reducing incidents of poor behaviour and fixed-term exclusions
- Improving attainment at Key Stage 2 & Key Stage 3 SATs and GCSE or equivalent examinations
- Reducing the proportion of young people aged 16 or over who become NEETs (those young people Not in Education, Employment or Training)
|
For more information visit www.lga.gov.uk and click on 'publications.'
The Top 700 project is funded by ONE HULL, a partnership of public and private sector bodies, which aims to improve life in the city.
For more details visit www.onehull.co.uk
|
|
