School Attendance Campaign

Client: Manchester City Council Children's Services Title: Missing Exposure: Outdoor / Press / Radio / Direct / Digital Rationale: Children go missing every day from schools. If students miss registration this counts as being absent and contributes to truancy figures. We therefore wanted to state the importance of being in on time at the start of the new school year, and every day thereafter - be in the right place at the right time. This line acts as an instruction to parents and pupils, and forms a part of the campaign identity. The longer-term strategy for the campaign is to communicate the message that better attendance means higher achievement, and if children aren't in school they will miss out. This was achieved visually by imitating classic school photography: class photo, school sports team and music club. To illustrate the point that children will miss out we removed pupils from the images while poignantly retaining the tangible element that they have sacrificed - a certificate, winners medal, or learning to play an instrument. Effectiveness: Both primary and secondary schools in Manchester have reported an improvement in attendance. In primary schools absence has gone down to 5.56% from 6.31% the previous year. In secondary schools, absence has been reduced to 9.30% from 10.39%. Manchester City council has gone from being one of the worst performing councils in terms of school attendance to expecting to hit the national average by Spring Term 2011. Awards: 2012 Roses Awards Nomination, Public Sector Campaign