Attendance codes

[sue1957]

When my daughter was away for a week on a residential trip with the school, she is marked as being present on the school site. I think this may have something to do with a school having to do a return of total absences, (not just unauthorised absence, ?)

 

Anyway for some reason they are also recording sickness as medical/dental. Does anyone know if that is not counted as absence (as it might for example be classed as an appointment, but not missing the whole session), or is there any other benefit to a school in terms of statistics to use that code instead of recording a child with the code for sickness?

 

Any help appreciated

[Viper]

Hi. I don't know all the codes but when Ben was being sent home every afternoon They were putting him down as education off site, which was totally wrong and should have been down as excluded. If your daughter is on a residential trip then that would come under education off site.

 

If your daughter is marked as on site then this could cause all sorts of problems in a fire. Registers are checked to make sure everyone is out of the building, they could have a situation where a fireman is looking for kids who aren't even in the school. I think this is very irresponsible and should be stopped. My daughter says in her school register if they are absent they get an "A" on the register meaning Absent. I think there might be some dodgy dealings going on there.

 

Phas may be able to help better with this one, but I would look into it if I were you.

[phasmid]

They are due to change (if they hven't already) this link should explain.

[phasmid]

Wasn't sure this would work! But it seems to have done...even if they are all 'squished up:

 

CODE DESCRIPTION MEANING

 

/ Present (AM) Present

\ Present (PM) Present

B Educated off site (NOT Dual registration) Approved Education Activity

C Other Authorised Circumstances (not covered by another code/description) Authorised absence

D Dual registration (i.e. pupil attending other establishment) Approved Education Activity

E Excluded (no alternative provision made) Authorised absence

F Extended family holiday(agreed) Authorised absence

G Family holiday (NOT agreed or days in excess of agreement) Unauthorised absence

H Family holiday (agreed) Authorised absence

I Illness (NOT medical or dental etc. appointments) Authorised absence

J Interview Approved Education Activity

L Late (before registers closed) Present

M Medical/Dental appointments Authorised absence

N No reason yet provided for absence Unauthorised absence

O Unauthorised absence (not covered by any other code/description) Unauthorised absence

P Approved sporting activity Approved Education Activity

R Religious observance Authorised absence

S Study leave Authorised absence

T Traveller absence Authorised absence

U Late (after registers closed) Unauthorised absence

V Educational visit or trip Approved Education Activity

W Work experience Approved Education Activity

X Non-compulsory school age absence Not counted in possible attendances

Y Enforced closure Not counted in possible attendances

Z Pupil not yet on roll Not counted in possible attendances

# School closed to pupils Not counted in possible attendances

 

 

A FULL return must be made in all cases. There is code for everything they could think of and the correct one must be used. The register is a legal record of attendence (never mind the use in fire drills etc). Failure to keep it correctly filled in is BIG trouble for the school!

[sue1957]

Thanks Phasmid and Viper. We are in dispute with the school after being threatened with social workers if we went on holiday in term time (which has resulted in a rigged complaints procedure, banned from seeing HT without CoG present, fake minutes etc etc) We got the attendance records to prove we are not a truancy problem, and were surprised by them. We've asked questions with the LA and they are not keen to answer to say the least. I suppose the Dfes is next.

 

Thanks for you help.

[Elenes]

This post is of particular interest to me.

 

Does anyone know if there is a stipulated threshold whereupon parents get prosecuted for failing to get their child to school? Does it have to be continous days absences?

 

What have people's dealings been with EWO's, when their ASD child school refuses or attends regularly late?

 

I would appreciate your thoughts and experiences.

 

Thank you.

 

Elenes

[phasmid]

It can vary from LEA to LEA. They tend to look at the long term pattern of things. If there are a lot of 'odd days' off here and there they may well look into it. There is no hard and fast rule that is applied that I know of across the country. Some LEAs are quite relaxed over things others however, aren't.

[sue1957]

Ours is in excess of 10 days unauthorised (and hence our 11 day holiday) is automatic referral to ESW. (We're disputing this as it isn't truancy, and the school is misquoting an Act to make it look like it is truancy in an effort to improve statistics). Didn't think they would risk going so far as they have to improve their figures though

 

The rest is pretty vague, but if attendance falls below 90 % it is definately regarded as a matter for concern.

[Kazzen161]

I was told last year that our EWO is not interested unless the child is regularly absent more than 20% of the time.

 

I was very honest about the problems I was having getting R into school, and then getting him to attend lessons - I called the EWO and asked for help - she said she didn't know what to suggest, and I heard no more. I didn't write letters for his absences, but I did let the school know when he refused to come in. I don't know what they recorded it as.

 

Surprisingly, R got a card from the EWO today saying she was pleased he was doing so well this year.

 

Karen