A SCHOOL’S success on the football field has been praised as helping to encourage boys to attend school.
Cwmbran High School’s year nine football team are due to play in the Welsh Cup final this Saturday, May 10 when they will take on northern rivals Flint High School at Park Hall, in Oswestry, the home ground of Cymru Premier league champions TNS.
The team of 13 and 14-year-olds got through to the final after eliminating various Gwent rivals in the earlier rounds and then defeating Cardiff’s St Teilo’s Church in Wales High School, 4-3, in the semi-final played in Bridgend last month.
Their achievement in reaching the final has been praised by Torfaen Borough Council education official Andrew Rothwell who said such activities help sell the benefits of school attendance.
The council’s head of learning and achievement had been asked, at the council’s education scrutiny committee, whether it is confident its ‘Not In Miss Out campaign’ to promote the benefits of school attendance is working.
Mr Rothwell said he believed the campaign is one of the factors contributing to increased school attendance in Torfaen and highlighted how sharing experiences, such as sporting success is part of that.
He said: “Cwmbran High’s football team has got to the year nine Welsh Cup final and stuff like that is really exciting and targeting a specific group, boys, who are often really hard to engage with.
“Pushing messages like that out on why it’s good to be in school has got to be a good thing.”
Labour councillor for Cwmbran’s Fairwater ward, Rose Seabourne, added: “It is history repeating itself. Cwmbran High, or Fairwater High as it used to be, had a football academy at one time that kept students in school.”
The ‘Not In Miss Out’ campaign shares case studies and content from schools, including some videos produced by students, on social media to highlight the benefits of attendance and banners promoting it are also placed outside schools.
Mr Rothwell described the campaign, launched three years ago, as Torfaen council’s “single longest running campaign” and praised support from schools in contributing to it. He also said from September it will also focus on the transition from nursery to primary schools to encourage “good habits from an early stage”.
The council’s director for children and families, Jason O’Brien, said the ‘Not In Miss Out Campaign’ had also promoted new developments such as the 3G football pitch at Ysgol Gwynllyw in Pontypool.