Whole School Approaches

This section provides guidance on maintaining the admissions and attendance registers in line with legislation and DfE guidance. It includes detailed guidance on the use of absence codes and procedures for removing a child from the school role.

Working together to improve school attendance states that schools are expected to use an electronic management information system (MIS) to keep their attendance and admission registers to improve accuracy, speed up the process of sharing and analysing information, and make returns to the LA and DfE easier.

Registers are legal records, and all schools must preserve every entry in the attendance and admission register for 3 years from the date of entry.

Most MIS used by schools will automatically store this data for the prescribed period. However, it would be recommended that this is confirmed with your school's MIS provider.

As the attendance register is a record of the pupils present at the time it was taken, the register should only routinely be amended where the reason for absence cannot be established at the time it is taken and it is subsequently necessary to correct the entry. Where amendments are made, all schools must ensure the register shows the original entry, the amended entry, the reason for the amendment, the date on which the amendment was made, and the name and title of the person who made the amendment.

The Admissions Register

The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 require all schools including independent schools to have an admission register. All pupils regardless of age must be placed on the Admission Register. All sections of the regulations must be complied with and the proprietor of a school who fails to comply with these regulations is guilty of an offence and can be fined in the Magistrates Court.

Admitting a pupil to a Norfolk school

First admission to school and school transitions are critical points at which children are at increased risk of becoming children missing education and it is essential that local procedures and statutory regulations are followed to prevent this from occurring. Efficient enrolment into school is vital to both reduce the length of time children may be missing education and prevention of pupils becoming children missing education. The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 state:

A pupil is a pupil at the school from the beginning of the first day on which the school has agreed, or has been notified, that the pupil will attend the school.

This means that schools must enrol children at the point of school place allocation by the Admissions Team or SEN Team. From the point of notification, the safeguarding of the pupil becomes the responsibility of the school. Schools should contact the family to arrange the first date of attendance as soon as practicably possible and the pupil should be given a start date no later than 5 school days after the date of notification. Although it is lawful to hold a pre-admission meeting with the family this should not prevent the child being placed on roll from the date of receipt of the notification. Refusal to attend such a meeting does not prevent the child being placed on roll.

Independent schools are responsible for making their own admissions arrangements but must have regard to avoiding delay in admitting pupils onto the admission register.

Contents of the admission register

The admission register must contain the personal details of every pupil in the school, along with the date of admission or re-admission to the school, information regarding parents and carers and, details of the school last attended.

Admission registers must include:

1. Pupil's name in full (legal name)
2. Known as or prefers to be known as (name)
3. Pupil's date of birth
4. Year group
5. Pupil's gender
6. Home address
7. Name, address and contact details of every person known by the school to be a parent of the child (including non-resident parent, stepparents or parent's partners)
8. Identify which parent the pupil resides with
9. Contact numbers
10. Emergency contacts for more than one person
11. SEN status
12. GP contact details
13. Date of admission or re-admission to the school
14. Leaving date
15. Name and address of the last school they attended, if any (this will include details of schools outside England)

Emergency contacts

The amendment to 'Keeping Children Safe in Education (opens new window),' states that where reasonably possible, schools and colleges should hold more than one emergency contact number for each pupil. This goes beyond the legal minimum and gives schools additional options to contact a responsible adult when a pupil missing education is identified or where there is as a welfare and/or safeguarding concern.

A regular data collection request from families will encourage parent/carers to keep schools informed of changes to contact details, with an emphasis on emergency contact numbers.

Deletions from the admission register

A pupil can lawfully be deleted from the admission register on the grounds prescribed in regulation 8 of the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 (opens new window) as amended. For further information see "Children missing education and removal of pupils from roll" (last section below).

The attendance register

All children and young people (both of statutory and non-statutory school age) who are receiving an education at the school during the normal school day must be placed on both the admissions register and the attendance register.

Pupils who visit the school to attend other activities such as extended school's activities and services provided by other agencies are not pupils of the school for purposes of the pupil registration regulations and are not entered on the admissions and attendance registers. However, schools should note that they have other duties, including health and safety responsibilities, which may entail them keeping additional records for these visiting pupils.

All schools must follow The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 (opens new window) which specifies how the registers must be kept. These regulations do not apply to further education colleges, work experience providers and alternative education providers. However, we do recommend it would be good practice to adhere to the principles of the regulations wherever possible.

Marking the register

Schools must take the attendance register at the start of the first session of each school day and once during the second session. Schools must take the attendance register at the beginning of each morning session and once during each afternoon session. On each occasion they must record whether every pupil is:

• Present,
• Attending an approved educational activity,
• Absent, or
• Unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances.

Every amendment made to the attendance register must include: the original entry; the amended entry; the reason for the amendment; the date on which the amendment was made; and the name and position of the person who made the amendment.

Absence codes

The school should follow up any absences to:

• Ascertain the reason,
• Ensure the proper safeguarding action is taken,
• Make a decision whether the absence is authorised or not, and
• Identify the correct code to use before entering it on to the school's register, or management information system which is used to download data to the school census.

Schools must record whether the absence of a statutory school-age pupil was authorised or not. There is no requirement to authorise/unauthorise absence of non-statutory school-age pupils, but it is recommended schools adopt the national attendance and absence codes with this cohort to help them to encourage good attendance and identify/monitor attendance concerns at the earliest opportunity.

The national attendance and absence codes (opens new window) available in DfE guidance enable schools to record and monitor attendance and absence in a consistent way which complies with the regulations. The use of the national codes facilitates the successful collection of statistics through the School Census data collection. Schools cannot add to the list of codes or use their own local codes.

Children missing education and removal of pupils from roll

All schools, state funded and independent, have a range of statutory duties under The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 and subsequent amendments relating to pupil enrolment and removal of pupils from the school roll. This section outlines the local procedures all schools must follow including their joint responsibilities with Norfolk County Council to ascertain the whereabouts of any missing child prior to removal from roll. This section should be read in conjunction with Norfolk County Council's Children Missing Education procedures.