Good school attendance can support your future

You may be experiencing emotions that make you feel nervous about attending school. Worries about friendships, learning difficulties, bullying, schoolwork and exams are common. It’s important to know you’re not alone.

It’s not too late to turn things around! Once you’ve recognised the importance of good attendance and the link between achieving your best grades, you can make changes to improve your attendance and achieve your goals.

Benefits of attending school

By maximising your attendance at school, you are more likely to benefit from:

• better social skills

• higher grades

• stronger friendships

• enhanced life skills

There are many reasons your attendance may be dropping, whether you’re starting to miss a couple of hours a term or arriving late to lessons, it all adds up. Even being five minutes late every day can equate to a chunk of time that is being missed in the classroom and in the long term this can impact on your grades.

Did you know missing 17 school days in a year is 85 hours of lost learning? This could reduce your GCSE results by an entire grade. Don’t let a slipping attendance determine your future.

Available support

There is a range of support available depending on your needs. By addressing your worries, you will feel more resilient and better able to cope with the demands of being in school.

If you or someone you know is being bullied you can get support from ChildLine via www.childline.org.uk

Being bullied is never your fault, you can find support on various types of bullying, whether it is something you’re experiencing in school or cyber bullying online. ChildLine have a series of threads where students share their fears and feelings and offer each other advice.

Struggling with school and how you feel

For support with your mental health, you can access an online mental wellbeing community through Kooth. The website offers free, safe and anonymous support for young people.

It’s important to recognise you’re not alone if you’re struggling with your mental health. Young Minds provide practical tips and advice from young people like you, as well as information on getting the support you need.

If you’re feeling stressed, Mind provide information and tips for managing stress and looking after your wellbeing at www.mind.org.uk/information-support/ types-of-mental-health-problems/stress/ managing-stress-and-building-resilience

Host of initiatives recognised in 2023 health and care awards for mid and south Essex teams

Innovative ways of working are making a real difference for patients in mid and south Essex and are catching the eye of judges as this years’ awards season gets under way.

Partners in Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System have won and been recognised in multiple awards in recent weeks for work that is making a real difference to our communities.

The Innovate Awards which are run by the Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) and the NHS Confederation, held Thursday 21 September saw Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System win Innovative Health System of the Year. Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust also won the ‘Diversity in Innovation Award.

“The growing number of people living longer and with long-term conditions is leading to ever-increasing demands on health and care services. Continued innovation is vital to enable us to meet these demands and continue to offer patients the support they need to live well.

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I’m very proud that within mid and south Essex we are at the forefront of some of these developments and that the hard work of teams within our health and care services is being recognised.”

Dr Matthew Sweeting, Interim Medical Director, Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board.

“We are absolutely delighted to have won the Diversity in Innovation award. Working on the oVRcome project was an incredible experience, which gave us the opportunity to utilise VR technology to positively engage our patient population, supporting reduction of the fears and anxieties they have when using our services, resulting in better experiences and better health outcomes.”

Claire Turner, Learning Disability, Dementia, and Autism Service Lead at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust.

Local teams are also up for a number of awards in the HSJ Awards and the HSJ Patient Safety Awards, all feature shortlisted projects from this area.

The clinically led teams behind the projects will find out if they have gone on to win any of the awards at the awards ceremonies over the coming weeks.