Should this be 'authorised absence' or 'attendance'?

[stickygotstuck]

I thought that educational activities offsite should be classed as attendance. Isn't that the case?

DC (y10) went on a 3-day intensive course as enrichment for one of her GCSE options. It was organised by the LA and in previous years the school sent letters to parents about it earlier in the year.

This was marked as authorised absence, which I was very surprised about as I took this as being 'educated elsewhere'.

And now it turns out DC's recent Geography school trip had also been marked as authorised absence.

Is the school is wrong on both accounts?

I'd agree. Why the hell is it any sort of absence? The absence away from school is part of the course they're studying or part of their school year so why is it counted as absence at all because surely it's attached???

Thank you Holy.

The trip was organised by school. It was indeed part of the course, although not compulsory.

The course was not organised by school but by the local authority, and it was aimed at school children with a special interest in the subject (almost everyone taking part was doing their GCSE or A level in the subject).

The trip seems extremely clear cut to me. But is the course any different? I'll be writing to the school to query thisl, but I wanted to know if anybody has been here before.

I'd expect a B code for the course and a V code for the trip.

So they weren’t in the building therefore the register has to reflect that. Does it actually matter? Sounds like a mountain / molehill situation.

There should be a specific code for the trip. The course is different. Authorised Absence is right for that one. Does it matter?

It does matter as its supposed to be a legal record of what happened. The c code which is the authorised absence code is still an absence code and will still be part of a pupil being considered persistent absent for instance.

B and v codes aren't counted as absent but present.

The b code means the pupil is at a supervised education activity and safeguarding is in place.

@Frowningprovidence , what do codes B and V mean please? And would either of those be classed as 'unauthorised'? 'Unauthorised' is how they appear in the school app. Would the school's own system be different?

It does matter because DD has been very unwell this year and has had numerous medical appointments and a couple of sick days. All these are marked as authorised absences. But as a result, her attendance is considerably lower than it should be.

At the end of the day, DD needs all the appointments and her health comes first, by a country mile. But I need clarity from school.

Ah, cross posted, Frowning ! Thank you

I think I'll ask the school if they have been marked correctly in their system and take it from there then.

Actually, I just googled and found a list of all the codes.

For morning appointments she's missed the first one, sometimes two lessons. Shouldn't this be classed as 'late' rather than just C?

No L is for people that are only a little late. It's a patch of time between the register being taken and the register closing - normally about 20 minutes.

If she has had a medical appointment it should be m.

Great, thank you Frowning .

I'll ask the Attendance office for a full report, see if they have all been recorded correctly.