Cool to be in school star tells pupils

The brown-eyed boy of the Channel Four teen soap dropped his Craig Dean screen persona to enthuse about getting to class on time as part of Cumbria County Council's School Attendance Matters Campaign or SAM for short.

"Whatever you choose to do in the future, an astronaut, actor, whatever, turning-up and being on time, is important," he said. "If you do those things while you are in school, the discipline will help in the future."

About 300 pupils from schools across Cumbria gathered on Tuesday for the launch of SAM at the South Lakes Wild Animal Park in Dalton-in-Furness, which lent the zoo's services for free.

The campaign is based on the park's animals, with a cheetah called Sam leading the cast of animal characters who will help to get across the message: don't cheat on school'.

In the paw prints of characters like Tufty, the road safety squirrel, story books featuring Sam alongside Marlow the monkey, Rukey the rhino and Sissy the snake, will be used by education welfare workers to deter youngsters from skipping school.

"We can churn out all sorts of numbers about the links between poor school attendance to youth offending, drug and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy and unemployment but people get enough of that," said Barry Archibald, CCC's attendance and exclusion manager.

"The message here today is education is fun and if people enjoy their education, they will come to school."

Cumbria does not have a particular problem with truancy about 0.2 per cent of school days in the last academic year were missed due to unauthorised absences, about half the national average.

Yet Mr Archibald said CCC could not be complacent.

"We believe we can make further improvements and that these will benefit everyone in our society.

"This campaign will raise awareness about this important issue and give our young people even better opportunities in adult life."

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