����Vlog

Hastings and Scarborough are the first areas included in the government’s Mission Coastal initiative, the Department for Education has confirmed.

Mission Coastal - designed to help children in England’s “most underserved” coastal communities - and Mission North East will provide support to teachers and leaders, as well as mentoring and community opportunities for pupils, from this September, the government said at the weekend.

The programmes seek to identify what works in the most disadvantaged communities, then feed those lessons back into national policy.

The North East has the lowest exam results of any region in England, at 1.9 points below the national average of 46.0 in Attainment 8. In Hastings, disadvantaged pupils average just 26.0 and in Scarborough, around 27.

Second drive to aid coastal areas

The programme was first announced in the schools White Paper earlier this year. It is designed to emulate the London Challenge, a school-improvement programme started by Tony Blair’s Labour government in the early 2000s.

Both Hastings and Scarborough were previously part of the last government’s Opportunity Areas programme.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “I grew up in the North East and know the challenges families face. I want every child there, and in coastal communities like Hastings and Scarborough, to have the same opportunities I was lucky enough to have.”

She added: “That is not a matter of ability; it is a matter of justice. Mission North East and Mission Coastal are our commitment to change that postcode lottery for good.”

����Vlog has asked the government how much funding will support the programmes, and when it will be widened to other areas.