YOUNGSTERS skipping school in Southampton could find the city council has set SAM the dog on them.

In a new scheme designed to boost attendance levels at city primaries, education bosses have created SAM the dog, depicted above, to spell out that School Attendance Matters.

The cartoon character will feature on certificates for every child who has improved or maintained a good attendance record, and there is also a star-rating system.

All children in city primaries are to be targeted by the system to tackle an attendance rate which was worse than the national average at the time of the last Ofsted inspection in 2001.

The inspectors also described city youngsters' attendance level as "unsatisfactory".

The drive, which begins at the start of the autumn term, aims to deter children from taking unauthorised days off school or from arriving late. Head of Children's and Young People's Services Peter Lewis said: "Unauthorised absence is where parents do not inform the school of the reason for the child's absence by 11.30am on the first day of their absence.

"Since we have become a unitary authority we have made inroads into the unauthorised absence rates of our pupils and our rates are now lower than our comparator authorities. However, we appreciate there are still improvements we can make.

"It doesn't matter how good teaching is in schools, if the children aren't there to take advantage of it then that learning is lost."

The campaign builds on a successful initiative started last year.

A cluster of schools was targeted with measures such as ringing a school bell to indicate the start of the day, meeting and greeting parents at the gate and cold-calling non-attendees.

Education portfolio holder Councillor Calvin Horner said: "This project will help get the message across to all the city's primary schools and extend the good work to improve attendance which is already taking place."