Attendance - Adding a “Not Required At School” – “Student Free Day” Attendance Code

There are times when you wish to mark a student as being “not required” at school so  they do not show up as being either present or absent. When you create this code, students marked with it will have their half days at school adjusted to reflect a lesser number of days attending. This can be used when senior students start later than junior students, or when Pre-Schoolers/Kindy students are only booked in for particular days.

Below is an example for Australian Schools (not marked absent is considered as present in Australia, in New Zealand, the roll will need to have been marked as present):

A year 4 student starts school on a Monday and is present all week. By Friday, they will be shown as being present 5 days of 5.

A year 10 student at the same school is scheduled to start Wednesday. If no roll marking takes place, they to will show as present 5 days of 5.

If the above year 10 student is marked as “Not Required At School” for Monday and Tuesday, at the end of the week they will show present 3 days of 3.

To create a “Not Required at School Code”, append a code not currently in use to the AttendanceCodes.XML in the …\PCSchool\Documents folder.

1. All attendance codes start with <code>.
2. The description within the <reason> tag is what the staff will see, as well as the code below.
3. Choose a <schoolcode> currently not in use. In this example it is “Q”. Although this is up the to school to decide, some countries/states govern these.
4. The <auditcode> should be set to “J”.
5. The <truancycode> MUST BE “H” (Holiday).
6. The <calhalfday> can be “A” (absent from school). It should never be “P”.
7. All attendance codes end with </code>.

Please be aware that New Zealand and some Australian states have mandatory codes. Please consult with the relevant Education Board before creating this code.