What does a school Attendance Officer do?

What does a school Attendance Officer do?

Today’s guest blog is from Chelsea Hopkins, Arbor’s Digital Customer Operations Analyst and former Attendance Officer, sharing her experience of working in schools. 

Everybody who has worked in a school knows that no two days are the same. However, my experience of being an Attendance Officer is that we will tend to have a routine/structure to our morning that we try to stick to.

I thought it would be fun to share my experience of being an Attendance Officer and how that would look whilst using Arbor. So here goes…

Let’s set the scene, it’s a dark gloomy winter morning. I’m already late as I didn’t factor in the extra ten minutes to defrost my car. I roll up to the empty car park, usually I was always the first person in!

I unlock my office door and turn on the lights and can see the phone blinking red with the voicemails from my parents. My first port of call – turn the kettle on!

Now armed with caffeine, I start my day.

The majority of Parents & Guardians would contact the school prior to the school day starting. They would get in touch via email, telephone, SMS. I would always add these reasons onto the system.  There are a couple of ways you can do this.

First Method – Bulk Edit Marks

This is useful for one-off absences such as a headache or other minor ailments.

Second Method – Record a Planned Absence

This is useful for documenting long-term absences such as an injury where they won’t be back for a week. Or future absences such as a medical appointment or a holiday.

I would then refresh my memory from the day before and see who was absent and who I need to keep an eye on today. You can do this using the Absentee’s by Date page:

1. Go to Students > Attendance > Absentee’s > Absentee’s by Date
2. Change the date to the previous day

Then the school day starts and there is a buzz of chatter that fills the hallway. There is a year 11 student in the corner that is crying because they’ve broken up for the twelfth time this week with their significant other (it’s Tuesday).

Amongst the crowd, you see a student that is radiating a pale green colour and is making a beeline to your office to tell you they do not feel well. You ask the student, “Who’s sent you?”, to which they reply “Miss Smith”. You make a mental note to thank Miss Smith later for sending a student to your shoebox office.

You call home for this student, someone’s on their way to collect them and you ask the student to wait in main reception. You say, “hope you feel better soon” as they are leaving, before lunging for the disinfectant.

Then all went quiet, the students are in lessons, time for the dreaded late duty!

I make a note of all the students coming in late and what time they arrive. I would like to tell you that I was kept entertained by an array of elaborate excuses.  Unfortunately, when working in a secondary all you get is “slept in” or “you should be glad I even came” and well, we can’t argue with their honesty!

I then add the late marks via Bulk Edit Marks and I can then monitor/report on these students via Latecomers!

Now that the late duty has been done, time to see who is in and who isn’t!

Of course, Mr Andrews is yet to complete his register, let’s send him his first reminder of the day. (Sending reminders to complete registers or completing them for teachers)

Now to chase all the students that have been marked absent and we don’t know why. In Arbor you can do this on the Absentee’s by Date page:

1. Go to Students > Attendance > Absentee’s > Absentee’s by Date
2. Press the Change (green pencil) button
3. Set Specific Mark to No Reason (N)

 I tick all the students and then use the Blue Pencil tool and select Follow-up with Guardians.

 For most, receiving an SMS/Email will prompt them to call the school and explain the absence. For others, I need to initiate that phone call, so I look back at my list of absent students and identify who will need that phone call.

I can see that Lucy is off today, something is ringing a bell with this student. So, I go to her profile and look at her attendance record.  You can do this by:

1. Heading to the student’s profile and select Attendance on the left.

Looking at the Marks (by Date) section I can see clearly that Lucy has had the last 5 Tuesdays off and that a pattern is forming, I can also see she has double science on a Tuesday afternoon… interesting.

I called home and was told Lucy had a headache, but I also explained my concerns. Feeling rumbled, Lucy made a sudden recovery and will be coming in this afternoon! I also log this telephone call along with all the other calls I made this morning.

Once I’ve followed up with all my guardians, I then like to have a quick skim over my absent students from today regardless of what absence code they have. I can see this overview via the Absentees by date page:

1. Go to Students > Attendance > Absentee’s > Absentee’s by Date
2. Press the Change (green pencil) button
3. Remove any mark in the Specific Mark so that it is empty.

 I do this just to ensure that I always have a clear idea of who is absent and make sure I have accounted for everyone. I also like to check my students that are accumulating consecutive days of absence. I can view this from the Continuous Absence page. This will then allow me to identify those who may benefit from a home visit.

Oh and of course, one of the students that lives 5 miles from the school is off today and we have chased a reason for absence, but no joy! Home visit it is.

So, there it is, a morning as an Arbor Attendance Officer! Let me know what you think and what other Attendance topics you would like me to cover.