This article explains the process of recording attendance for Post-16 sixth form students in Arbor. While there is no legal requirement to track attendance for these students, schools can choose to do so by extending Roll Call times or creating a 'dummy' course. It also provides guidance on marking attendance for students not required to be in school and managing free or study periods.
Attendance information is required to be submitted in the School census for students who are 5-15 years old, as categorised by the birthdates in the DfE's Census data items guidance. Because there isn't the same legal requirement to report on attendance for 6th form students, you are not required to take attendance for your Post-16 in Arbor if you don't wish to do so.
If you do wish to record post-16 attendance in Arbor, you can either:
- Extend your Roll Call times to cover the whole morning and whole afternoon.
- Create a 'dummy' course for your Post-16 students.
Top Tip: You can also change your attendance calculations to look at the 'first mark' rather than the 'best mark'. Please note that any changes to Roll Call settings will apply to your whole school: Can we use the first attendance mark recorded rather than the best mark?
Creating a 'dummy' course
If you'll be using a 'dummy' course, you'd set up an AM and PM Registration Form type class for your Post-16 Students: Set up or add a Registration Form. Make sure that:
- Schedule registration sessions based on this registration form, making sure that the timetable slots overlap with your Roll Call times
- Admins know to go in and open the registers to pull in any planned absences, and add student marks: Do we have to open every register for marks to appear?
Marking them when not due to be in
You'll need to implement a way to mark their attendance when they are not required to be in school, because Post-16 students may not attend full time.
For when students are not due in, you can either:
- Add planned absences to automatically mark students with the X code
- Add a Timetable Slot Student Exception to remove the student from the timetable slots and registers
Free periods and study periods
You don't need to specifically define a free period on a student's timetable - you can just leave a gap in scheduling.
If you want to take attendance for these students, you can set up a course for the Study Period: Building one new course
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