Pamphill First School values the working partnership that we have with our parents and carers and are committed to ensuring the best for all children and families. A key aspect for a child to achieve their best is through good attendance in school. Our school target is that every child achieves at least 96% attendance. 

Of course, by law, parents and carers are responsible for ensuring their child attends school and are punctual. As a Trust we follow government guidelines for attendance which means that when a child's attendance falls below an acceptable level, we have procedures in place.

Firstly, we know children get ill, and we certainly wouldn’t want a child to come to school if they are unable to do so. However, we do ask that all absences and on each day of absence, you phone the school office to let us know. 

Punctuality is also important. Morning registration promptly starts at 8:50am and at 1:00pm in the afternoon. All children should be in school and ready to learn by this time. If a child arrives after 9.00am they are coded as L (late).

Please see below a summary of our attendance procedures:

• If your child’s attendance falls below 95% we will inform you, via letter, that we will monitor attendance.

• If your child’s attendance is less than 90%, you will be invited to a support meeting to work together to see how we can help attendance improve.

• If attendance falls further, you may be invited to a panel meeting and the attendance team at Dorset County Council will be informed.

• If attendance does not improve significantly, Dorset County may advise many outcomes, one of which could be seeking prosecution

Please can I urge you to call the school office if your child's attendance is causing you concern. We are here to help and can provide a range of strategies (including accessing outside agencies if required) to support you.

Please be aware that any period of 10 or more sessions of unauthorised absence (this is an absence where we have had no reason or an absence that cannot be authorised), will likely incur a fine from Dorset County Council. DCC have also asked that we make you aware that they are not accepting instalment payments on these fines.

You can find out more about attendance and its importance, as well as useful tips for reluctant children on our trust's website (Initio) by clicking here.

The full attendance policy is available on our 'Policies and Documents' page.