More than 80 schools in Donegal have signed up to Tusla’s launch of its first national School attendance drive ‘Every School Day Counts’ to promote regular school attendance.
Each school day approximately 60,000 students miss school in Ireland, according to the Tusla Education Support Service (Tess) and to combat that trend they are running an attendance drive throughout the month of November.
In addition, Tess believes that attendance is everyone’s business and encourages the wider community to come on board and endeavour to make ‘Every School Day Count’ this November and throughout the school year.
Over 1700 schools right across the country have already signed up to the drive and will be running attendance initiatives in their schools throughout the month.
During the launch, the service will also be unveiling its new name and logo as part of its brand refresh project, to highlight the integrated supports available through its three service strands – Educational Welfare Service; Home School Community Liaison Scheme; and School Completion Programme.
The three services work with children, young people, parents, schools and community family support services to improve attendance, participation and retention.
Addressing over 350 attendees, including government representatives, education professionals, children and young people, Bernard Gloster, Chief Executive of Tusla, said: “Research has shown again and again that regular school attendance is vital in helping children get the best possible start in life.
“It lays the foundation for developing good social skills, building relationships and achieving success later in life. Children who attend school regularly are more likely to stay in school and achieve better educational outcomes.”
Noel Kelly, Director of Tusla Education Support Service, added, “Access to education is a child’s right. We know that investing in education is the most effective way of offsetting the impact of poverty and helps create a level playing field, which gives children from disadvantaged backgrounds a better chance to reach their potential.
Equal access to educational opportunities has the power to pull families and communities out of the cycle of poverty which in turn can help generations to come.
The focus of our work in Tess is to give additional support to the most marginalised 8% of children and young people in our education system who are most likely to leave school early without any qualifications.”
Speaking about the rebrand, Noel said: “I’m also delighted to be here today to reveal our new name and logo. The overall aim of the process is to educate the public on the services we provide to ensure that anyone in need of support, can access the right service, at the right time.
“Over 150 children, young people, parents, schools and staff were engaged in this brand refresh process, to ensure the new name and look resonated with its users and reflected the supportive services it provides.”
