What do we mark these students as

[user20]

Hi,

 

At our school we have agreed to allow our year 13 pupils who are free last period on a Friday afternoon to go home, we are not sure what to mark them as in that period. There will be some students who choose to stay in school which is fine as we can mark them with the / code that period.

 

But would it be acceptable to mark all students as / the last period? In NI the attendance not required codes are: ! = no attendance required (e.g when different year groups are being inducted on different days) X = staff training Y = exceptional circumstances # = holiday. Should we just mark the ones who go home as ‘!’? But how can we bulk mark the ones who are free as ‘!’ If they choose to stay in school as that means we will have to change those marks back to ‘/‘ ?

[elsiegee40]

Get them to attend a registration period , mark them as present for self-study, let them do their self-study in the location of their choice which may not be in school.

 

As far as I am aware sixth form attendance doesn't impact the league tables anyway. Those are reported on Y7-11

[user20]

Thanks. So we just mark them as ‘/‘ regardless of whether or not they stay in school? Or should we use mark them as ‘S’ - study leave here in NI counts as AEA but then again this is only for a lesson mark and will not affect their overall attendance percentage as the PM register is taken in the period after lunch Edited September 15, 2018 by user20

[elsiegee40]

If a kid bunks off part way through a lesson do you mark them as absent? Thought not. They're there at the start and thst is what counts for attendance.

 

As long as you have registered them for the afternoon session, what time they leave is irrelevant. Some schools try to make it less blatant by having a 6th form assembly to start the afternoon or similar

 

They do need to be there to register at the start of the afternoon session though, so you are going to have to come up with something that makes them stay through lunch.

Edited September 15, 2018 by elsiegee40

[msi_school]

There is an inherent conflict between the attendance register and a register of who is in the building at any time.

 

When the attendance system became solidified in its current form it was assumed that a pupil would be in school on a single site for a whole session, any child leaving the site during the day would be a one off and the teacher or administrator would know who was out. This has allowed schools to do the half day closing trick by having pm registration and then closing the school whilst keeping their figures looking good. I don't know if this is a weakness but it is a hack.

 

This however means that the attendance register cannot be used to prove the attendance of any pupil at any time other than when they are registered much like an MOT only proves your car is road worthy when the tester signs the certificate. In order to know the location of the pupils a signing in and out process must be in place which is complemented by individual teachers taking a register each lesson to prove the child is not only in school but in the correct location.

 

If you want to massage your figures and know who is in school your best course of action is to make the pm register compulsory and then sign the pupils out of school afterwards.

 

Mike

[PotNoodleTech]

Just bare in mind that if you use SIMS attendance data for your fire registers then you will have an issue marking Y13s as on site even though many of them won't be. i.e. you registered them at 2.01 and then told them they can go home if they want, but you have no record of who actually did go home?

[CAM]

We have period 6 free for most of the school on Friday and they just go home. We just don't timetable a lesson for them and nothing appears on the register to fill in, just a blank square in Attendance. Those who are on-site will have a timetabled lesson for that period and are registered as normal as they will have something to fill in on SIMS.

 

If you only have a few people in a class who are leaving then you can blank a period on a per student basis by going to Curriculum Assignment by Student, scroll down to the timetable grid, click on the period and under Resolve Clashes at the bottom untick the class to remove it.

Edited September 18, 2018 by CAM

[bobsmith]

you can't mark them present if they aren't in - that's just a straight no as far as I'm concerned.

 

X code is perfect for this situation - non-compulsory school age absence - not required to attend.

[msi_school]

You have to mark the pupils as in or out based on the registration period, this is why there are different marks for present, late and late after registration closed.

 

THis is just like the MOT test on your car, when the mechanic signs the form it is roadworthy but if you disable the lights as you leave the garage it isn't any more but it still has a years MOT.

 

As I said above the register and the fire list are not compatible.

 

Mike