LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre’s iconic LEGO character – called Buddy – today lent a hand to award winning Social Enterprise MOTIV CIC in support of school pupils developing good attendance habits as a life long skill.
Pupils at All Saints Primary School in Newton Heath, Manchester were treated to a visit from ‘Buddy’ to launch their 100% Challenge for Attendance which is available to all schools in Greater Manchester. The MOTIV 100% Challenge recognises both excellence and significant improvements in school attendance, rewarding school attendance in two categories – 100% attendance and 100% effort in attendance.
The scheme is run by award winning Manchester Community interest Company MOTIV CIC and was very successful last year as part of Manchester City Council attendance drive (in association with Crayola), with 54% of all pupils (aged 5-16) with improved attendance.
Headteacher Lorraine Tennant commented ‘We are committed to doing everything we can to giving the pupils at this school the best start in life but we can only do that if they are committed to being here, without fail, unless they are sick. The assembly is designed to give them a vision for their future and what it might hold if they work hard and come to school, on time, everyday.’
The class assembly features role play with the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre model maker to demonstrate to pupils what affect poor and attendance and lateness would have in the real world of work. The class with the highest attendance from last term will be treated to a demonstration from the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre team.
MOTIV Director Rose Marley who is a winner of the Women in Ethical Business Awards (Tridos Bank & The Times) commented ‘the LEGO brand is a popular and trusted brand amongst pupils and the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre is an ideal environment to engage youngsters in their learning through play. It’s an ideal message we are putting out their for kids with the Centre – if you work hard, you get rewarded, it’s a lesson for life!’
Neil Crittenden, General Manager of LEGOLAND Discovery Centre commented ‘It’s a superb way for us to put something back into the community, knowing we can make a social impact with our LEGO character. Putting children first is at the heart of the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre brand, so we are of course happy to endorse Buddy’s efforts to support the idea of private companies playing a bigger part in that community.’
If you would like more information about running The 100% Challenge with LEGOLAND Discovery Centre in your school please contact Sam Evans at MOTIV on (0161) 282 8380 or via sam@motiv.org.uk
Click here to find out more about LEGOLAND Discovery Centre, located at The Trafford Centre, Manchester.
Almost 30,000 Manchester pupils improved their school attendance this year.
The news that more than half the city’s primary and secondary pupils have had fewer days off school, comes as Manchester celebrates its record GSCE results.
A major drive to improve school attendance began in January led by Manchester City Council, working with schools and parents. Since the launch of the Citywide Attendance Campaign 29,383 pupils (54% of all pupils aged 5-16) have had better attendance and of these 7,191 (13.59% of all pupils aged 5-16) improved their absenteeism by 10% or more.
Councillor Sheila Newman, Executive Member for Children’s Services at Manchester City Council, said: “These figures show the direct link between good attendance and getting good results. Absenteeism rates have reduced in the year where the number of pupils who achieved five or more GCSEs at grade A* to C has risen to 45% from 38.6% last year. This is fantastic news for everyone involved.”
The Citywide Attendance Campaign was threefold: it included publicity about the benefits of good attendance; a motivation programme and reward system for pupils from MOTIV CIC; and a step-up in home visits and enforcement measures for parents where necessary.
During the spring and summer terms Manchester’s primary and secondary schools participated in the MOTIV 100% Challenge commissioned by the council. Pupils with 100% or improved attendance earned badges, rewards and participated in celebration events.
In addition, a total of 3,325 home visits were carried out across Manchester in the spring term. During this monitoring period 2,500 warning letters were sent to parents. After the letters 1,500 pupils did not have any further unauthorised absences. Close consultation with schools over the remaining pupils resulted in 554 penalty notices being issued, of which 235 have led to further legal intervention.
By the end of the spring half term Manchester’s results showed that:
Absence rates in primary schools had decreased from 6.31% last year, to 5.54% this year;
Absence rates in secondary schools, including academies, had decreased from 10.39% last year to 9.27% this year;
Absence rates in maintained secondary schools had decreased from 9.89% last year to 8.71% this year.
The rate of persistent absence, classed as pupils who have missed 32 or more days, has also improved:
In primary schools persistent absence reduced from 2.9% last year to 1.77% this year;
In secondary schools including academies it reduced from 10.62% last year to 8.62% this year;
In maintained secondary schools it dropped from 9.63% last year to 7.48% this year.
Cllr Sheila Newman concluded, “Parents, teachers and pupils should all be congratulated on their hard work. But, we can’t afford to be complacent when it comes to our children’s futures and we must keep up the momentum in September with the new academic year.”
Recently published national data, which is due to be validated in October, indicates that Manchester’s secondary school absence rates have improved by four places in country’s overall performance during the spring term, and that primary schools have come in line with the national average during the same period.
Please contact MOTIV on (0161) 282 8380 or support@motiv.org.uk to find out more about the success of The 100% Challenge in Greater Manchester and other local authorities.
Staff from St Willibrord’s RC Primary School in Clayton, Manchester last night enjoyed a special banquet at YO! Sushi at Selfridges, Exchange Square as a part of The MOTIV 100% Challenge, supported by Manchester City Council.
The banquet was an acknowledgement of the hard work the school staff had put it on over the academic year at St Willibrord’s and through their successful running of The 100% Challenge. St Willibroads saw a rise in overall attendance of nearly 2% across the duration of The 100% Challenge compared to figures from last year. 100% attendance at the school has risen an impressive 20% year on year.
Acting St Willibrord’s headteacher Carl McIver said “The 100% Challenge has been successful within our school. The children have enjoyed receiving the prizes that have been offered and this has helped our attendance to increase and it has also spurred us on to look at other attendance issues. The staff at the school very much appreciate that their hard work has been acknowledged by MOTIV and YO! Sushi and will continue to highlight the importance of attendance to all of our pupils”
YO! Sushi manager Dave Taylor commented that “YO! Sushi are proud to support The 100% Challenge in Greater Manchester and to acknowledge that as well as the hard work pupils put in to attend school every day, there’s a team of people at every school who work incredibly hard year round in providing an excellent environment to learn in”
MOTIV director Rose Marley said “We’re very aware that the staff at each school participating in The 100% Challenge have worked extra hard to raise attendance for all their pupils and we’re glad they had this opportunity to celebrate their hard work. We look forward to continuing our work with schools in Greater Manchester in the new academic year”
Over 200 primary and secondary schools, containing more than 150,000 pupils across Greater Manchester took part in The 100% Challenge 2010, Pupils were rewarded with exclusively designed badges at each half term and for completing a whole term with full attendance or significantly improved attendance they received a special reward tailored to their year group and their school.
YO! Sushi supported The 100% Challenge in Greater Manchester in providing the exclusive staff banquet for the school, as well as providing a number of family meals at the Exchange Square restaurant for pupils that completed The Challenge by either achieving 100 per cent attendance or 100 per cent effort for attendance. Other supporting partners of this year’s 100% Challenge include Crayola, Ben Sherman, ODEON Cinema, Tenpin Bowling, FC United, Nando’s, Hollywood Bowl, Snapfish and eMusic.
Pupils from more than twenty primary schools in Manchester were treated to their very own private screening of the latest blockbuster must-see for youngsters ‘The Tooth Fairy’ at the ODEON cinema in The Printworks, Manchester this week.
The youngsters were invited to the exclusive screening of the film with their family as a reward for their 100 per cent attendance and effort for attendance at school during the last term.
The Council is working with award winning social enterprise MOTIV as part of a package of measures to improve school attendance in the city.
The cinema reward – organised by MOTIV – is just one of a package of rewards to pupils at the city’s schools for 100 per cent attendance and 100 per cent effort for attendance that also includes family meals at Nando’s and YO! Sushi, TenPin bowling, and Hollywood Bowl family tickets, free entrance to Laser-ace and Asylum Paintballing, and FC United match day family tickets.
Every primary school and secondary school in the city was invited to take part in The 100% Challenge. Pupils are rewarded with exclusively designed badges at each half term and if they complete a whole term with full attendance or significantly improved attendance they receive a special reward tailored to their year group and their school.
Councillor Sheila Newman, Executive Member Children’s Services, Manchester City Council, said: “Attending school every day they should is one of the most important lessons children and their families need to learn. If children and young people do this they stand the best chance of success both in school and in the future.
“The cinema visit was a well deserved treat for some of those pupils and their families who have achieved 100 per cent attendance over the last school term.”
Pupils from the following schools attendedthe ‘Tooth Fairy’ screening:
St John’s Primary, Longsight
Charlestown Primary School, Blackley
Victoria Avenue Primary School, Blackley
King David Junior, Crumpsall
St Lukes School, Longsight
St Richards Primary School, Longsight
New Moston Primary School, Moston
Webster’s Primary School, Blackley
Medlock Primary, Chorlton-On-Medlock
St Clare’s RC Primary, Blackley
Birchfields Primary School, Fallowfield
Claremont Primary, Moss Side
Baguley Hall Primary, Baguley
St Margaret’s Primary, Levenshulme
Crumpsall Lane Primary School, Crumpsall
Irk Community School, Crumpsall
Saturday Morning Rocks 2010 was a huge success – many thanks to Daisy Dares You for an excellent live set, to Scam for hosting the show, Vitaminwater for the drinks and to Hard Rock for providing mini burgers and a great venue!
& of course thank you to all the pupils and chaperones who made up the audience – for a full list of attending schools please see below.
We filmed the whole event and will be producing a video of the day very soon but in the meantime we have uploaded some photographs from the event to Snapfish – you can view the images as a gallery and order prints and a collage using your MOTIV Reward Card to claim up to 30 free prints and 1 collage (please see the T&C on your Reward Card for further details)
Click here to view the MOTIV Saturday Morning Rocks Snapfish gallery and to order prints. Please note that you will need an adult to set up your Snapfish account if you have not already got one.
Daisy Dares You’s new single ‘Rosie’ is out today – available on download now!
The full list of schools who sent pupils and chaperones is below:
Oldham Schools:
Blue Coat C.E.
Breeze Hill
Counthill
Crompton House
Grange
Our Lady’s R.C.
North Chadderton
South Chadderton
St. Augustine of Canterbury R.C.
Manchester Schools:
Manchester Creative Media Academy for Boys
Manchester Creative Media Academy for Girls
Plant Hill Arts College
Wright Robinson Specialist College
St Peter’s RC High School
St Paul’s Catholic High School
Parrs Wood High School
Our Lady’s RC High School
Newall Green High School
Manchester Health Academy
Manchester Enterprise Academy
Manchester Academy
Levenshulme High School
Burnage Media Arts College
Abraham Moss High School
Cedar Mount
Chorlton High
On Saturday 19th June over 300 secondary school pupils from 27 schools across Greater Manchester will come together to celebrate completing The MOTIV 100% Challenge for school attendance at Hard Rock Manchester for an exclusive, invite-only concert by DAISY DARES YOU.
Supported by Manchester City Council and Oldham Council and produced by award winning social enterprise MOTIV The 100% Challenge was issued to every primary and secondary school across Manchester to encourage greater school attendance across Manchester.
MOTIV Director Rose Marley commented ‘Daisy Dares You is an ideal choice of artist for this great celebration of achievement as she is a shining example of hard work resulting in reward. Attending pupils will get to find out more about the entertainment industry on the day though – they can’t all be rockstars but they can all have a successful career if they put the effort in!”
Saturday Morning Rocks will be headlined by Sony Records artist DAISY DARES YOU. Daisy, who is 16 years old and was signed to Sony last year and has already enjoyed huge chart success with Number One Enemy , featuring a guest appearance by Chipmunk. Daisy describes her music as “delirious funky produce”. “I really do feel ready for this,” she says. “This is the best thing that could’ve happened to me.
Not a lot of people my age get a chance like this to perform and release their own records.” Daisy’s aspirations for herself remain at 100% “I’m not aiming too high at this point. But a global smash hit would be nice.” She comments.
The 100% Challenge has been running in over two hundred schools across Greater Manchester in Spring and Summer Terms. Pupils have been rewarded with exclusively designed badges at each half term and if they completed a whole term with full attendance or significantly improved attendance they receive a special reward tailored to their year group and their school.
Councillor Jack Hulme, Cabinet Member for Children and Families said: “Oldham Council is anticipating some positive results at the end of this school year. We have been working hard as an authority and with MOTIV for the past couple of years and we can really start to see that relationship bear fruit”
The MOTIV 100% Challenge is delivered by MOTIV on behalf of Oldham Council and Manchester City Council as part of a range of measures to poor tackle poor school attendance and low aspiration across the city. Early results from Manchester indicate a significant improvement in school attendance over the whole year with a 19% increase in full attendance across Spring Term.
Councillor Sheila Newman, Executive Member Children’s Services, Manchester City Council, said:
“This is going to be a fantastic event for the young people who attend. They thoroughly deserve this exciting reward for their good attendance in school and for demonstrating through this that they value their education and understand the importance of attending school every day they should.”
Rose Marley said: “A child’s future can be mapped out by their attendance record so it’s important that we communicate in a way that is appealing. It’s not just about reward though, through events such as this, we demonstrate just what can be achieved through hard work, teaching pupils valuable skills and raising aspirations in the process.”
The attending schools from Manchester and Oldham are:
Oldham Schools:
Blue Coat C.E.
Breeze Hill
Counthill
Crompton House
Grange
Our Lady’s R.C.
North Chadderton
South Chadderton
St. Augustine of Canterbury R.C.
Manchester Schools:
Manchester Creative Media Academy for Boys
Manchester Creative Media Academy for Girls
Plant Hill Arts College
Wright Robinson Specialist College
St Peter’s RC High School
St Paul’s Catholic High School
Parrs Wood High School
Our Lady’s RC High School
Newall Green High School
Manchester Health Academy
Manchester Enterprise Academy
Manchester Academy
Levenshulme High School
Burnage Media Arts College
Abraham Moss High School
Cedar Mount
Chorlton High
Loreto
The Painting Brighter Futures galleries are now live in the Manchester, Nottingham and Oldham microsites – please click on each area to view them.
In association with Crayola, MOTIV produced the ‘Painting Brighter Futures’ resource to get children thinking and talking about what they aspire to be. It also illustrates that there is a direct link between good attendance and their futures.
Thank you to all the pupils and teachers for all their hard work – we received 100′s of entries from primary schools across Manchester, Nottingham and Oldham.
Those pupils fortunate enough to have won a special star prize from Crayola will receive it from the school as we will be sending the prizes out with the HT5 100% Challenge badges. If your school entered the competition and has yet to submit your badge figures for HT5 please do so as soon as possible by clicking here
Coronation Street star Jennie McAlpine (aka Fiz Stape) gave a thumbs up to the top attenders at Lily Lane Junior School in Moston last Friday 16 April
Jennie joined pupils at a special assembly being held to reward those who have achieved 100 per cent attendance or 100 per cent effort for their attendance during the last two half terms.
Pupils in schools across the city are currently being rewarded for their full attendance in school during the Spring Term with designer merit badges from Crayola and Ben Sherman.
The badges form part of The MOTIV 100% Challenge, a scheme that rewards pupils who get to school on time, every day, all term. Pupils receive exclusively designed badges at each half term if they do so, and if they complete a whole term with full attendance they receive a special reward tailored to their year group and their school.
The Challenge operates on two levels: 100 per cent attendance and 100 per cent effort for attendance. This dual approach celebrates the achievements of everyone, from hard-working, responsible pupils to those who make a significant effort to improve their attendance record.
Pupils at primary schools are being rewarded with Crayola packs, whilst secondary school aged pupils receive MOTIV reward cards containing Ten Pin Bowling and Hollywood Bowl Family tickets, free entrance to Laser-ace, Asylum Paintballing and FC United match day tickets as well as digital photos from Snapfish and music downloads from e-music and Unity Radio.
Additional family rewards can also be won by pupils and include family meals at Nando’s, YO! Sushi and tickets to an exclusive family film screening at the ODEON Printworks.
Kieran McDermott, Assistant Director Children’s Services, Manchester City Council, said: “Many pupils at schools across the city are now receiving their rewards for 100 per cent attendance during the last two half terms and we’re very encouraged at the numbers who are doing so. Pupils who attend school every day they should, stand the best chance of success both in school and in their future careers.”
Sixty per cent of pupils at Lily Lane Junior School achieved 100 per cent attendance during the last half term from February to Easter.
Sheila Keegan, Headteacher at the school said: ”The effect of the MOTIV scheme on individual pupils is very positive – the children love collecting their badges. Children who previously had poor attendance have made superb efforts to get into school, and it has also had a big impact on children’s punctuality at the start of the school day.”
Friday’s lively assembly for pupils and their parents, hosted by MOTIV, includes ‘Tips Top Tips for Good Attendance’ and a ‘Painting Brighter Futures’ colouring competition.
Jennie McAlpine, who is an ambassador for MOTIV, said: “A strong work ethic combined with a good education is a great gift for a parent to offer their child so it’s wonderful to be part of a school and parent assembly that helps make the connection between coming to school and a child’s future in such a colourful and dynamic way.”
The MOTIV 100% Challenge is delivered by MOTIV on behalf of the Council. The Challenge is available to all schools in the city and is the brainchild of Manchester social entrepreneurs Rose Marley and Lee Stanley, Directors at MOTIV who have a successful track record in areas including Oldham and Nottingham.
Rose Marley said: “A child’s future can be mapped out by their attendance record so it’s important that we communicate in a way that is appealing. It’s not just about reward though, through the school resources we provide, we demonstrate just what can be achieved through hard work, teaching pupils valuable skills and raising aspirations in the process.”
Five pupils from the Creative and Media Academy (Girls) experienced the trappings of business success today when they were picked up by luxury chauffeur driven car from the school gates to be taken to see the fruits of their labour displayed at The Sharp Project in east Manchester.
Last year pupils from three north Manchester high schools – North Manchester High School for Girls (now The Creative and Media Academy Girls), North Manchester High School for Boys (now The Creative and Media Academy Boys), and Plant Hill High School – were charged with the task of designing a building wrap on the theme of ‘Sharp Futures’ for young people. The best design from one of the three schools was to be produced and displayed on the outside of the former Sharp warehouse in Newton Heath.
Today the competition winners from the Creative and Media Academy (Girls) were driven to The Sharp Project where they will see for the first time their winning artwork draped down the outside of the building on Oldham Road. They then went on to a winners’ reception at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Manchester where their winning pitch to competition judges took place last year.
The pupils’ winning design was chosen for its clear concept, concise message, and for best meeting the design brief that was set. The competition was devised by award winning local social enterprise company MOTIV as part of their ongoing partnership work with The Sharp
Project. This involves giving fourteen year olds valuable experience working on real life projects whilst they are still in school that will benefit them when they leave school and have to put together their CVs for future employers.
Competition judges included Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council; Sharp Director Susan Woodward; local entrepreneur David Derbyshire, Director of successful local business Astra Signs; and Lee Stanley, Director of award winning social enterprise, MOTIV.
Sue Woodward said: “The idea of Sharp Futures is to engage fourteen year old pupils now so that by the time they do leave school they have an armful of real projects they have delivered on their CV giving the best opportunity for their future. They were given a real design brief and the mural ideas they presented were outstanding.”
The competition was sponsored by Astra Signs who agreed to produce a large scale impressive building wrap, based on the winning artwork from the school that came up with the most inspiring artwork, for The Sharp Project on Oldham Road.
Manchester City Council and New East Manchester is transforming the former Sharp warehouse in east Manchester into a new centre for creative and digital industries – offering talented starters, young entrepreneurs and established professionals the opportunity to develop and prototype their ideas in a purpose-built environment that provides unrivalled access to very high speed broadband connections.
Sir Richard Leese said: “The finished artwork is really stunning and something that each of the pupils involved in should be really proud of. The Sharp Futures project goes to the heart of innovative and creative Manchester, giving the opportunity to our young people, in this case from North Manchester, to show what they can do, and to see what doors might open for them in the future if they put the work in. Great stuff!”
LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre’s iconic LEGO character – called Buddy – today lent a hand to award winning Social Enterprise MOTIV CIC in support of school pupils developing good attendance habits as a life long skill.
way for us to put something back into the community, knowing we can make a social impact with our LEGO character. Putting children first is at the heart of the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre brand, so we are of course happy to endorse Buddy’s efforts to support the idea of private companies playing a bigger part in that community.’
