Managing Attendance

Updated 1 month ago by Darren Cole

Statutory attendance data
- What attendance data is in Insight?
- Attendance code N: Reason for absence not yet provided
Keeping attendance data updated
Viewing attendance information

In this guide, we'll explain what attendance data Insight stores, how it is used and how you can ensure this data is kept up to date.

Statutory attendance data

What attendance data is in Insight?

If you have an MIS sync running for your school, Insight will synchronise the full attendance session data for all pupils. This will include all the associated attendance codes.

An MIS sync is the only way to populate Insight with the full session attendance code data.

Insight also, separately, synchronises the following for each pupil, and each academic year:

Number of possible sessions
Number of sessions attended
Number of authorised absences
Number of unauthorised absences

A "session" means morning or afternoon session. So a pupil can be present for AM but absent for PM.

These separate values match those that are included in the DfE specified Common Transfer File (CTF). As such, if you do not have an MIS sync running, it is still possible to import these or manually enter them if you wish.

This data enables Insight to meet your requirements for parental reporting and to produce attendance analysis.

Attendance code N: Reason for absence not yet provided

Your MIS will include the ability to indicate that an absence is unexplained. This exists to allow a short time to establish how an absence should be categorised.

DfE specification defines these as Unauthorised Absences.

Unauthorised absence is absence without leave from a teacher or other authorised representative of the school. This includes all unexplained or unjustified absences.

Insight will include these in the unauthorised absence count by default. If you'd prefer to ignore them, this can be achieved through the MIS Sync Settings.

Including Unexplained could have an impact on parent reports, if any unexplained absences are subsequently authorised. It is worth ensuring your MIS has no unexplained absences before producing any parent reports featuring attendance data.

Keeping attendance data updated

Syncing attendance data with your MIS

The easiest way to keep attendance data updated is via MIS sync. If you're already syncing data with your MIS, all the attendance data will be taken care of, and you shouldn't need to do anything more. If not yet set up, just get in touch with support.

Updating attendance information via CTF

If you need, or want, to use CTF to update attendance we recommend you import a CTF before you want to complete any analysis which includes attendance data, to ensure it is up-to-date.

If you're using SIMS, your attendance records for the current and past academic years first need to be completed right up to the date you create your CTF, otherwise your CTF may not include attendance records for those years with missing information.

This is the case even if you change the run date when generating your CTF.
See our SIMS guide for details.

In addition, please ensure "Collect Attendance Data From" in section 3 is set to "SIMS Attendance Module".

See our guide on importing a CTF for details.

Manually updating a pupil's attendance records

If there are individual amends that you would like to make to attendance records, it is also possible to manually update a pupil's file.

Only Session totals may be updated manually. It is not possible to manually enter individual session attendance codes.

Only Admin users have permission to do this.

Select Pupils from the menu bar and click the pupil name you're interested in.

Choose Edit Profile to see the detailed contextual data for the pupil.

Scroll down to the Attendance section.

Simply click in any cell to amend its contents.

Insight will allow you to enter invalid values. For example, Possible Sessions could be entered as a lower value than Sessions Attended. If manually entering data, be careful to ensure its accuracy.

When complete, click Save at the bottom of the screen.

When showing a pupil's attendance as a percentage, we divide [number of sessions attended] by [number of possible sessions] and times by 100.

Viewing attendance information

Pupil Attendance Information can be viewed either on individual pupil pages, by selecting Pupils > Attendance from the menubar, or searching for the pupil by name in the Search pupils... tool.

A detailed breakdown of attendance data may be viewed via Reports > Demographics.

Tables reports may also include attendance information.