For students who are not attending school, you may be running online classes or supplying work to them.
The DfE does not collect information on attendance for online classes and work. As such, any students who are not physically present on-site due should be marked with the correct absence code, regardless if they are attending online classes.
We advise only marking students as present if they are physically in school to prevent safeguarding issues (e.g. in case of a fire evacuation).
Although it is not currently possible to track attendance for online classes in Arbor, we integrate with a number of distance learning providers - you can see how to set up a connection here.
Comments
Just in case this is useful to others, the DfE emailed this out this morning:
Attendance recording in schools
As vulnerable children are still expected to attend school full time, they should not be marked as Code X if they are not in school (except if they are shielding, self-isolating or quarantining). Schools and colleges should encourage vulnerable children to attend but if the parent of a vulnerable child wishes their child to be absent from school, the parent should let the school know that the pupil will not be attending. The Department for Education expects schools and colleges to grant such applications for leave given the exceptional circumstances. This should be recorded as code C (leave of absence authorised by the school) unless another authorised absence code is more applicable.
As with vulnerable children, critical worker parents and carers should let schools know if their child will not be attending and, if not, schools should grant a leave of absence (code C) given the exceptional circumstances.
All pupils who are not expected to be in school should be marked as Code X. They are not attending because they are following public health advice.
Hi Alex, thanks for posting this here!
If anyone has any further questions or comments, please join the discussion in our community thread here.
Hi we have received a daily update from our LA today which says that we should be marking pupils of Key Workers who are not attending certain days as their parents are working shift work/part time as an X not a C as we have been previously advised. Has the guidance changed? I can't seem to find anything on the daily DfE emails or their website and your instructions are still showing as using C code.
Hi Julie, thanks for getting in touch. You can see in the section on What attendance codes should we use in Arbor? that X should be used for children who are not required in school (such as the children of key workers and vulnerable students). C should be used for children who would be required to attend but who's parents do not wish to send them in.
The guidance has not changed in that if you would usually require the student to attend and they are refusing to, it would be C, but if your school does not require them to attend on that day it would be X. Please note though that the DfE has advised wherever possible to not use a rota system.
Hi Gwyn
Thanks for your message. Sorry I'm still a bit stuck on this.
The message below is the one we have received from our LA which says about part time attendance for Key Worker children. We have actively encouraged Key Worker parents to keep their children at home if they don't need to send them into school i.e. if they work part time, to reduce the numbers of children in school. They are not technically refusing to send them to school but they could attend if they needed to. Should these children be marked X or C?
The Arbor guidance you refer to says 'As certain children (such as the children of key workers and vulnerable students) are still expected to attend school, they should not be marked as Code X. If the parent of one of these children does not wish to send their child in, this should be marked with C unless another absence code is more applicable'.
Attendance Codes in the register
Action: Please share this with any staff recording in the register and attendance leads.
Code X – Government restrictions / Local Lockdown is to be used for all students not expected in, engaging in learning from home.
Children of Critical / key workers who are physically in school will have daily attendance codes \ / entered in the register. If part-time attendees, as some parents / carers work shifts and only require a part time place, they will have the X code – Government Restrictions/ Local Lockdown entered for the days when they are remote learning from home.
Vulnerable students are expected to be in school full time, attendees will have daily attendance codes \ / entered in the register. If they are Clinically Extremely Vulnerable or self-isolating the appropriate X codes should be used, If their parent/ carer choses to keep them at home for remote learning, the C - Other Authorised Circumstances code is to be used. In these circumstances ensure the child’s social worker and multi-agency team agrees that this leave of absence is granted.
Hi Gwyn
Following on from my previous message, new DfE guidance has just arrived which makes it clear which codes to use for Key Worker pupils when they are absent.
Many thanks
Julie
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