Attendance
Our Attendance is in line with the latest guidance from Dorset Council
Attendance at Wimborne First School and Nursery
It is essential that children and young people form good habits of regular attendance at school from an early age and that good attendance is maintained throughout their school career. It is a legal requirement that all children should attend their education provision and it is the parent/carers responsibility to ensure that their children attend school. .
The following are fundamental in working in partnership with school and parents to ensure our young children attend school:
- It is important that pupils are in school on time. Lateness is monitored by the school and contributes to absence rates.
- We will monitor the attendance of our pupils and work closely with Dorset Council’s School Attendance Service to support children and young people whose attendance levels are causing concern.
- Whilst we understand that children do become ill on occasions, children who lose a lot of time at school can suffer in the long term from significant gaps in their learning. If a child’s health continues to affect their education, schools are obliged to make a referral to School Health to ensure that appropriate medical advice and support is provided.
- If a child is ill it is the responsibility of the parents/carer to ensure that they inform the school on the day of absence.
- No leave of absence will be granted during term time, except in exceptional circumstances.
Therefore, we are informing parents/carers that, should you wish to take your child out of school for any leave of absence, holidays or otherwise, requests will not be routinely granted. It is essential that any requests for leave of absence are made in writing to the Head Teacher.
Any absence which has not been authorised will be recorded as “unauthorised” and this has the potential to impact on your child’s overall absence figure and could result in legal action.
This academic year, we will continue to monitor every child’s attendance against the below system:
- Attendance below 95% - we will write to let you know that we will be monitoring your child’s attendance
- Attendance below 85% - we will invite you to a meeting to discuss your child’s attendance. If attendance does not improve we will refer to Dorset Council (DC) School Attendance Service.
School Times
The School day starts at 8.40am and ends at 3.15pm.
School pedestrian gates are opened from 7.30-8.50am to allow parents to drop off and from 3pm – 3.45pm to allow parents to collect their child/ren.
There is no access to drive into the school staff car park for drop off or pick up, unless by prior arrangement with the Site Manager. Those requesting access must have a current blue badge.
Pick Up
In order to help the teachers and teaching assistants with seeing the children out of school safely, we ask parents to complete a ‘Child Pick Up Form’ on ParentMail, indicating who will regularly be collecting their child/ren. This means that as long as the person collecting the child/ren are on the list, parents do not have to call the school to advise who is collecting their child/ren.
If the form is not completed, only parents will be allowed to collect their own child/ren.
If there are any changes to collection arrangements, it is the parents' responsibility to inform the school.
A new pick-up form will then be sent to primary contacts on ParentMail to be completed.
Leaving School Early
Should you need to remove your child from school early for a medical appointment, please ensure you bring the appointment letter/card to the school office.
Illness
Should your child be ill in school and need to go home, the school office will call parents initially and if no response, will work their way down the list of contacts held in school.
IT IS THE PARENTS’ RESPONSIBILITY TO KEEP THE SCHOOL ADVISED OF ANY CHANGE IN CONTACT DETAILS/PHONE NUMBERS.
A change in contact details form can be downloaded by clicking on the link below and returned to the school office.
If you have any queries regarding attendance, please speak to your child's classroom teacher.
Click on the following link for more information regarding Dorset Attendance Attendance Information - Dorset.