Does a planned absence remove a student's daily meal choice?

For many Primary-aged pupils, a short planned absence that is recorded for the morning session, such as a medical appointment, will automatically remove any prior meal choice that has been entered for them. 

Students who are marked as physically absent automatically have their lesson meal choices changed to the Absent provision. Or, if no Absent provision has been set up, their meal choice is removed and left blank.


Why does an absent mark remove a meal choice?

If a mark indicates a student is not physically in school, this will mark them as absent on the meal register, too. For example, students marked as being on a school trip (V) or Educated off-site (B) are presumed not to be on school premises at the time of the meal and marked as absent on the meal register.

If you change a student back to Present in the lesson register after marking them as Absent, their meal choice reverts to their default choice. A default meal is only possible if you are using regular meal choices for your students. If an earlier meal choice in the register was not their default choice because it had been manually set, the choice still reverts to the default once the student is marked as Present, not the last recorded choice.

If students do not have default or meal menu choices, setting a student to Present after they have been marked as Absent changes their meal choice to blank.


How to re-add a meal choice

To add a meal back in for a student returning to school before lunch, see the following steps:

Step 1 - Go to Meals Daily Summary

Go to School > Meals > Daily Summary. If you have multiple sittings set up, ensure you select the correct tab at the top. Click the green 'View Register' button. 

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Step 2 - Search for the absent student

You can scroll or search in the table to find the student with the Absent meal provision. If you have not set up an Absent meal provision, this will appear blank. Use the bulk action button to change the provision that the student is having for that day.

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