Lincoln City and Lincoln City Foundation are launching Attendance4Attendance – a new scheme that will reward Lincolnshire pupils with tickets to watch the Imps in action at the LNER Stadium should they achieve a good attendance at school.
First, the news itself, courtesy of the official press release.
Along with the Foundation, Lewis Montsma visited St Hugh’s Catholic Voluntary Academy and Ling Moor Academy to talk to pupils about the Attendance4Attendance programme along with other benefits they will receive as a partner school.
Headteacher of Ling Moor Academy John Sisman said: “This is going to be a great opportunity for us to reward those children who have a high level of attendance and offer them the opportunity to link to the outside community. To be able to give more children and their families the opportunity to access football is going to be a wonderful thing for us.”
Fixtures that are eligible for Attendance4Attendance will be dotted around half-term dates so that attendance awards can be handed out at the end of each academic term.
A4A gold memberships will also be provided to schools that join the programme to allow them to reward good behaviour or other reward-based initiatives. Oxen retail discounts are an additional benefit included in the package, along with the option of either a player visit, a mascot visit from Poacher the Imp, or a coaching session from Lincoln City Foundation.
Mr Sisman added: “We’ll also use the Oxen partnership to be able to get some more resources to support our sports provision in school. There’s lots and lots of benefits to the Attendance4Attendance programme.”
Chief executive Liam Scully also explained why the club has decided to launch this programme. “Attendance4Attendance is a hugely important community initiative, and we hope it will support our education leaders in their desire to recognise and reward positive school attendance.
“Additionally, we hope it provides young fans, new and old, the chance to see their local team on several occasions within a regular session and academic year, directly linking attendance at the LNER stadium with positive attendance at school.
“Naturally, we hope to welcome many new members into the Lincoln City family through this initiative that has been co-designed, linking our own ambitions as a club, as well as recognising and playing our role in supporting the local education system.”
In order to sign up to be an attendance partner school, please email a4a@theredimps.com with your school’s name and contact number, and a member of our A4A team will be in touch.
I consider myself, without being too arrogant, a bright(ish) boy. I went to a decent school and perhaps should have done university and then pursued whatever career would have taken me off into the big wide world.
Instead, and to put a fine point on it, I didn’t really apply myself. I remember Mum and Dad were both working, at times leaving before we were to go to school and back after. That presented an opportunity, and on several occasions throughout my school days, I got what was termed ‘newcomputeritis’. The week I got my Amiga 600? Poorly. A new Championship Manager has dropped? Can’t go to school. I wasn’t absent everyweek, but I certainly never had 100% attendance in a school year. Never.
Could I have gone on and achieved my dreams if I had? I’m a bit different because I live my dream now, but maybe I’d be doing so without 20 years in a job I hated if I’d just had an incentive to stay in school. Here’s that incentive for pupils right now – free football tickets. Of course, the scheme is aimed at families as well as pupils, but as someone who was averse to going to school, someone who felt life was better without lessons and all that jazz, I can wholeheartedly back this project.
