ATTENDANCE

Process

This process is normally performed weekly, but may be done for any period.
For continuity, it is best to always use the same start date, eg. a Monday.

Establish your selection and sort criteria, then select Search.

Results are displayed and if required, can be sent to Excel.
A warning is displayed if results already exist for the same period, and the "original" results are displayed in the "Errors" tab, to allow change if necessary.

Hours are calculated, by looking at the hours per week, per day or per timeslot on the Course record, and by assuming the student attends 100%.
Only those students not attending 100% need to be modified.
Use the arrow keys to select. Scheduled and actual hours can be adjusted by a value, eg. for a short week (public holiday) by clicking the heading.

Example of a course record (for General English 20):

Reporting

A wide range of selection criteria is available, enabling schools to focus on the students not within certain parameters, over a period of time.
To produce a simple summary, set the number of history periods per student to zero.

 
Student Records - Enrolment

The attendance is shown as a tab on the Enrolment record, together with relevant attendance figures.
Individual lines may be amended from this screen.

Document Merge

The following fields are available for merging documents, eg. for certificates/letters:
Enrolment total scheduled hours
Enrolment total actual hours
Enrolment % attendance attained

ABSENCE

Absence reporting was added to Class to meet the 2010 UK Border Agency requirements for mandatory reporting of students who breach their Visa conditions by being "unauthorised" absent from school for more than 10 continuous days. Although the regulation is specific to the UK, every effort has been made to make the process flexible to enable other countries that may have similar regulations to make use of the system. Users may also consider using absence recording for welfare tracking purposes, eg. a student absent over 3 days needs to be contacted.

Users wishing to make use of absence recording will need the Attendance Module, as absence recording is an extension of this module.

Absence is recorded by "class" and schools not using the classing function and wishing to enter absence data will need to create a single class to which all students can be automatically allocated. This is done by allocating the single class to all Course Master records.
Before entering data, please read the following notes to ensure settings (rules) are established first.

Settings

Absence Types
These can be found under Maintenance/Settings > General Settings > Admissions > Absence Types.

The above list is automatically set but should be updated to reflect the school's requirements/rules.
For example, it may be decided that a breakdown of unauthorised absence is also required.

Single codes have been used to make batch entry easier/quicker. The list is in "code" sequence enabling users to manipulate the code to achieve the best sort order.

The "school closed" record has "ignore checks" set and this will ensure such absence is ignored from authorised absence calculations; also the visual presentation is different.

Permissions
These can be found under Maintenance/Settings > General Settings > Company > Users

Absence recording and reporting is controlled by user permissions, and these need to be set for users needing access, unless the user is set as an administrator, in which case access is automatically granted.

Enrolment Data

Manual Entry
Data may be added manually or via batch process (> Enrolment)

Adding an entry (detailed) - this is suitable for single entries, but if for example 2 weeks' authorised holiday is to be entered, rather than making numerous individual entries on this screen, the user may find it quicker to use the "batch" button.

Display Summary (no filter)

Note:
A student may have other enrolments and/or may have moved from another school.
Only by producing an absence report will you know for certain whether a student has had continuous absence over time, as the system will check across all activity (course/enrolments/schools).
Just checking an individual enrolment may not give a complete picture!

"Class" sequence

Summary - "Unauthorised Only" filter:

Batch Entry
This is the same screen (but enhanced) as used for batch attendance entry.
Absence can either be entered separately or at the same time as attendance.

There are several ways a school could consider operating "absence", and 2 examples are given below:

1. Updating absence and attendance together - weekly
This has the advantage of being a weekly process, entering both attendance and absence at the same time, but could not be used for welfare purposes in identifying students who had, for example, only been absent for 3 days.
Update setting = "both"

2. Updating absence independently of attendance - daily or weekly
If entered daily, absence could be used for welfare purposes.
A school has to provide details of 10 days' continuous absence within 10 days of the event occurring.
Update setting = "absence"

Note:
Absence recording is best suited to schools that use teachers/registers to record absence/attendance.
The process may not be totally suitable for schools wishing to enter "attendance" by checking off students as they enter the school!

Example of Attendance and Absence update (both together):

* Students where the enrolment is set as "not requiring absence recording" will have the absence area greyed out to stop entry
* There is no automatic link (eg. the recording of the absence) to the "Insert Holiday" function within a booking
* Entries already made manually will be displayed, and can be changed
* Use the arrow keys to move around the screen and use single codes to enter values...it's quicker!
* Click the heading if the column required defaulting to a single value, eg. school closed (see Friday column)
* If mistakes are made, values can be changed
* Data is not saved until "Commit" is selected
* Update the attendance as normal

Reporting

The absence report will check across classes, courses, enrolments and schools for continuous absence.

Enter the date to which absence has been entered, and also the number of weeks Class is to check back for continuous absence.
Additional filters can be added, although if a single school is selected, Class will still check across all other schools for any additional absence/attendance.

Note:
If a student is attending multiple classes, continuous absence only exists if the student is absent in ALL classes.

Documentation

It is anticipated that letters/documents will need to be sent.

Each student can have documents selected and either sent individually, or in batch (eg. selecting documents for each student first, and then sending all in batch together).

The advantage of Single Processing is that each student is treated separately, and documents can be manually changed before sending and a variety of send methods used, eg. an email to the student, a printed copy via the host family, or an email to the agent.

Batch Processing allows a single document (for each student) to be selected and sent, without the option to change.

Each student has their 'Last Document Sent' shown, giving guidance as to the next document in the process, although double-clicking the row will bring up the enrolment documents folder, giving a complete history. The appropriate document is selected for either processing individually or in batch.

New merge fields for documents
Under Documents > Enrolment > Enrolment

The number of days is set in the absence document header:

When clicking on Word, you are presented with a Word document and edit fields to choose from:

The document below is a sample showing how Class could produce a letter giving details of absence (unauthorised or both), covering a number of days:

Note on Merge Fields for Quick Reports:
Absence merge fields are available for use in Quick Reports, although it is expected that most reporting will be done via the report provided, as Quick Reports will not intelligently look across schools and enrolments for related absence.