A secondary school in Manchester has adopted an unconventional approach to tackle poor attendance by rewarding pupils with televisions, bicycles, and gift vouchers. Co-op Academy Belle Vue introduced the initiative in 2022 under principal Scott Fletcher, allowing students to exchange merit points for tickets in prize draws. The more merit points a pupil earns for good behaviour, character, or attendance, the more tickets they can use for chances to win items such as designer bikes, footballs, and chocolate.
The school also runs a 'golden ticket raffle' for pupils with exemplary behaviour, offering bigger prizes like £100 Tesco vouchers or JD Sports gift cards. A recent raffle distributed over £2,000 worth of rewards, including a 40-inch television for a student who maintained 100% attendance during the final week of term. Mr Fletcher noted that the school once gave out 10 televisions in 10 days to reward good behaviour.
Mr Fletcher defended the scheme, stating: 'Whether we like to provide these incentives or not, the harsh reality is that these children don't have them and they've not got access to them throughout their childhood.' He emphasised that strong attendance is a powerful predictor of long-term achievement. The prizes, which also include toys, stationery, football cards, and tablet computers, are funded from the school's budget.
The initiative has reportedly reduced the school's persistent absence rate from 20% to 10.5% over two years. This improvement comes despite nearly 58% of pupils being eligible for free school meals, well above the national average of 26%. Nationally, severe absence—where pupils miss more than half the school year—has risen to 2.3% of all pupils, up from 0.8% before the pandemic, prompting Ofsted to call it a 'scandal of attendance'.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has announced a roadmap requiring every school to implement AI-powered minimum attendance improvement targets, based on local circumstances. However, teaching unions have raised concerns about additional pressure on struggling schools.
