Configuring Attendance

Configuring your attendance statuses before using MySchool attendance is one of the great ways to customise the module on your MySchool system. Make sure all your community understand how these statuses can affect attendance stats.

How to access

Super users with Attendance configuration permissions will find the control panel, in Attendance/Advanced options, or in the module management configuration panel. under the education tab.

What is an attendance status?

An attendance status is recorded against a pupil for a roll call period. Present, absent, or late. Each of these statuses can be configured to alter reporting behaviour. If you wish absent but excused to not count as an absence, this is possible in the MySchool Attendance. 

Changing the attendance layout

The configuration screen allows the Administrator to change the labels, reorder the list, assign short codes, and associate the attendance status with a subsequent action. 

To reorder the fields, select the icon  next to the status name, and drag and drop to the required level. This will affect the layout of the take attendance screen.

Note that the first three labels ONLY will appear in full on the take attendance screen, the other labels will be under Others. Assess which are the most common for your users.

1. Name

The status name that appears in the reports and on the register when taking attendance. Try not to use too many statuses, as this would cause undue lengthy reports with very little data. Make your community understands which status to use.

2. SC

The short code appears in the various reporting features, such as Attendance: History. 

3. Status Configuration

These check boxes are important as they will change the behaviour of the status in the attached reports and screens. Changing the status will affect the historic data. Here is a brief description of the configuration boxes ;

• Enabled - Actively visible status.
• Absent - Sets the status to log as an absent.
• Not Exc - The absence status has no justification noted to the entry. It is classed as a straight absence.
• Med - Medical Certificate required for the Absence.
• Com - Will use the SMS communication feature if enabled.
• Dash - View the absence in the different Overview menus.
• Psr - Specific function for mandatory reports in Canada.
• Late - Absence to be noted as late.

4. Add Student Attendance status

Need some new statuses? Just select to add a new one to the list. Put in a label and short code, and configure according to your needs.

After configuring the status fields, and any edit, press Save. The system will note the changes and confirm they have been saved correctly. You may need to logout of the current session to refresh the views and reports.

Deleting Statuses

If you have created a custom status, you will notice a red cross appearing on the right hand side of the row. This means that no student has been noted with this status, and if required it can be deleted. 

If the status has been used, and data attributed, the X will disappear and the status can no longer be removed. Changing the labels after data has been attributed will affect historic data as well.

You can deactivate used statuses by unchecking the 'Enabled field'. This will maintain integrity of historic reports, but remove the option for future records.

Class or course attendance?

In MySchool the default attendance system is based on a scheduled course period. This allows for a full use of our scheduling solution, but also provides data related to real time teaching minutes. Many of our schools use a system of homeroom subject and course to log their attendance on a daily basis. Normally, one morning period is assigned to the timetable, and used as an attendance period.

If you would prefer to use class attendance instead, whereby the form/grade group is marked against a period, then contact our support team. This setting can be changed per class level. If this method is chosen then certain regional and statistical reports may not be available. 

System settings

If you would like to discuss how to manage your attendance module, then please organise a meeting with your CSM to discuss the alternatives available in the system.

1. Attendance % calculated on roll call only

When a period is configured as a roll call period, MySchool expects attendance. The total attendance % shown will be calculated from the amount of roll call periods per day. e.g. 1 roll call period with student present = 100%, 2 roll call periods with 1 present/1 absent = 50%.

2. Missing attendance handling

There different system settings that can be applied to your attendance handling. By default, MySchool will only calculate attendance where a status has been updated. We advise schools that this method is the clearest and most precise record of attendance. Running weekly attendance audits will ensure that your data remains up dated until the end of the scholastic year. We can enable other attendance handling methods per class level.;

• Ignore (Default) - MySchool will ignore any missing attendance statuses. If is present for one day then a 100% record will show.
• Automatic - MySchool will always assume the student is present. The records will be update on a daily basis during the system update.
• Intelligent - MySchool attendance will take the last recorded attendance status for the day and apply it to all other roll call periods. It will not override manual entries. E.g. If student was present for roll call 1, but absent for roll call 2. Absent would be applied to all remaining roll call periods during the day.

3. How are the detailed reports calculated?

Used for the ES audit report, our BC schools can decide how they wish for their attendance stats to be calculated. Three options are available;

Setting up attendance is vital to a successful launch of the MySchool modules. We suggest confirming these during onboarding or for roll over. If settings need to changed during the active year, then please reach out to the support team for guidance and advice.