January 11th, 2011
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.
September 9th, 2010
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.
June 4th, 2010
Painting Brighter Futures
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
February 23rd, 2010
The MOTIV 100% Challenge was this week nominated for ‘Best Marketing Campaign’ in The 2010 Football League Awards, as a result of our work over the last 12 months with Nottingham Forest Football Club.
MOTIV’s work with Forest has included the ‘Sports Reporter For A Day’ Experience as well as Forest providing family match day tickets as extra rewards for pupils who successfully completed The 100% Challenge in Nottingham.
Nottingham Forest have been nominated for 5 categories at the awards and in announcing the shortlists Football League Chairman, Lord Mawhinney, said: “The annual Football League Awards gives us the opportunity to recognise excellence both on and off the field. I congratulate all clubs who have made the shortlists for this year’s event. The number and quality of entries has been outstanding.”
Expert judging panels were assembled for each category including representatives of the media, the sports industry and The Football League.
The Football League Awards will, once again, recognise footballing excellence on and off the field, with clubs and players honoured alongside fans. There will be 19 award categories in total, including a range of football awards and industry-specific honours.
To find out more about The Football League Awards, and for a full list of Award categories, please visit www.footballleagueawards.com.
