From the classroom little superheroes grow...

Published: Wednesday 11 June 2025

Five-year-old Ellie and Councillor Gavin Keatt jump in the air, wearing eye masks and capes to promote our superhero campaign.

South Lanarkshire Council this week launched a new campaign celebrating the youngest superheroes in our classrooms.

And, it’s all designed to boost and maintain attendance in schools.

Under the banner ‘Every School Day Matters’, the council is keen to remind families of the educational, social, and lifelong benefits of education.

This early phase of the campaign is aimed at the youngest children in our schools, including those moving from early years to primary level this year.

Featuring children from South Lanarkshire schools, the messaging is designed to show that with the learning, nurture, and support being in class offers, every young person can harness their own superpower.

The new campaign will run at various times across the coming school year and will focus on specific groups, including secondary schools, as it progresses.

Five-year-old Ellie, wearing her eye mask and cape with hands on hips.

It comes in support of a Scottish Government commitment to improve attendance across all sectors, to boost attainment, outcomes, and prospects for every young person.

Councillor Gavin Keatt, Depute Chair of the council’s Education Resources Committee, met with the ‘face’ of the new campaign, five-year-old Ellie, last week. And he took the opportunity to reinforce the important reasons behind it.

“I was taken aback to discover from our research that a young person who misses even a few weeks of school each year, from P1 through to S3, loses an entire year of education.

“Family life is busy, and from time to time it might seem that a day’s absence here or there doesn’t make a difference… we know that’s not the case.

“Coming to school is about so much more than books and numbers. It helps to nurture, support, and create social skills, friendships, support networks, resilience, and the ability to learn, change, and adapt.

“We believe that every pupil can find their superpower in the classroom, in the art class, music hall, playground, science lab, and playing field.

“School is the foundation upon which happy, successful, and resilient young people are built.”

A dedicated page is now live on the council website, with lots of information, support, links, and advice on our campaign and the issue of attendance in general.