Mr Nick Harris, Headteacher, is the Attendance Champion for Powerstock School

Attendance Strategy

At Powerstock School, we believe that regular attendance is crucial for our pupils’ academic success and overall well-being. Our aim is to ensure that every child attends school regularly and punctually, enabling them to take full advantage of the educational opportunities available.

Our Attendance Strategy is based upon Promoting Educational Attendance in Dorset 2024-25.

We also strongly believe in the power of relationships and the positive impact these have on school attendance. Please see both our Attendance and Behaviour Policies for more information.

Our Commitment

We are committed to:

• Ensuring that attendance is everyone’s business.
• Working in partnership with pupils, parents, schools, health services, youth justice services, police, and other partners.
• Embracing innovative practices to support and enable attendance.
• Identifying and understanding barriers to attendance.
• Providing high-quality services and early identification and support.

Expectations

• School Leaders: Understand that good attendance is linked to the quality of the school’s curriculum, ethos, behaviour, and inclusivity.
• Parents/Carers: Ensure that your child attends school every day and arrives on time. Inform the school of any absences and provide reasons.
• Pupils: Attend school regularly and on time, ready to learn.

Monitoring Attendance

We rigorously monitor attendance data to identify patterns of poor attendance at both individual and cohort levels. This helps us address issues before they become entrenched.

Support and Interventions

• Early Identification: We listen to pupils and parents to understand barriers to attendance and work together to resolve them.
• Facilitate Support: We remove barriers in school and help families access support outside of school.
• Formalise Support: If voluntary support is not effective, we may formalise support through attendance contracts or education supervision orders.
• Enforcement: In cases where all other avenues have been exhausted, we may enforce attendance through statutory interventions such as penalty notices or prosecution.

Legal Interventions

Schools, trusts, and local authorities work together to use the full range of legal interventions, including:

• Attendance Contracts
• Education Supervision Orders (ESOs)
• Attendance Prosecution
• Parenting Orders
• Fixed Penalty Notices

Children with Health Needs

For children who cannot attend school due to health needs, we have a referral process to ensure they receive suitable education. This may include the use of AV1 distance learning robots to help children participate in lessons from home or hospital or live lessons taught via Teams.

Contact Information

For any attendance-related concerns or support, please contact our school office at office@powerstock.dorset.sch.uk or 01308 485380.