Little Heroes Campaign Toolkit

Little Heroes campaign toolkit

Why are we running an attendance campaign?

Regular school attendance is important for children and young people. Research shows there is a clear link between high attendance and educational outcomes, leading to better life opportunities and the best results that an individual can achieve.

There are also other benefits to young people’s wellbeing such as nurturing long-lasting friendships, engaging in new activities and enabling young people to be able to develop in a supportive environment. 

Across the UK, we are seeing a drop in attendance rates and attendance in Staffordshire schools is down by 2.3% compared to previous years.

We know that many schools are running their own great initiatives to boost attendance, but we feel that there is a real benefit in running a unified campaign across Staffordshire to support students and schools.

For this reason, this September, we are officially launching our ‘Little Heroes’ campaign to support key stage one and key stage two students, to all signed-up primary schools across the county.

What is the Little Heroes campaign?

We understand that for many families, getting their children to attend school can be a real challenge, and many children face significant barriers. We have considered this when planning our campaign.

We reached out to all Staffordshire primary schools for them to opt in to receive a campaign ‘starter kit’ to help support their students.

The campaign is split into two elements:

1. ‘Little Heroes’

The fun, motivational and engaging side of the campaign to encourage school attendance and the message:

Here
Everyday
Ready
On time

Creative materials will be displayed around schools and children will receive certificates and stickers to recognise their attendance efforts.

Little Heroes Assemble! Here Every day Ready On time

2. Helpful Heroes

The educational side to support children who are emotionally struggling to attend school due to anxiety.

Helpful heroes. Every hero has worries, but together we can manage them.

For pupils that are struggling with their emotional health, we have created a Helpful Heroes workbook to understand children’s barriers to avoiding school and to help children manage their worries.

The Helpful Heroes workbooks educate children about different feelings and emotions and why their body reacts in certain ways, explaining the feelings they are having are normal.

Through a variety of hero-themed mindfulness activities, designed suitable for their age group, children will also learn how to cope with anxiety in different scenarios to help them in real life situations.

We encourage parents and teachers to go through the workbooks with children who may be struggling, to enable them to also understand what barriers the child is facing and what helps them feel calm when they become anxious.

How you can get involved

Spread the word on social media

You may also spot our Little Heroes campaign on our social media channels.

We encourage you to like, share, comment and engage with our posts to help us spread the word far and wide – we hope you like our little characters’ school tales and look forward to hearing your feedback.