Attendance... an Admin Guide

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• ATTENDANCE OPTIONS
  • Mark Attendance
  • Future Attendance
  • Unexplained Absences
  • Manage Days
  • Manage Reasons
• MANAGE REASONS
• ADD A REASON TYPE
  • Type
  • SIF Reason Code
  • Custom Name
  • Display on Parent App
  • Active
• MANAGE DAYS
• MARKING ATTENDANCE
• LATE ARRIVALS AND EARLY DEPARTURES
• ROLL LOGS
• FUTURE ATTENDANCE
• UNEXPLAINED ABSENCES
• SETTING UP UNEXPLAINED ABSENCES and SMS SCHEDULE

ATTENDANCE OPTIONS

Admins have the same options in the nForma portal roll as in the old nForma roll. There are 5 different

areas to the nForma portal roll for admins:

Mark Attendance

Where both admin and teachers can mark the attendance roll

Future Attendance

Where both admin and teachers can mark a student’s future attendance and recurring absences

Unexplained Absences

A page to view roll statuses and students who are marked as absent unexplained

Manage Days

Where admins can mark “non-school days”

Manage Reasons

Where admins can add/edit reason types for the teacher roll and the options for the parent app

MANAGE REASONS

Manage reasons is where admins can add/edit and remove reason types for the teacher’s roll and also from the parent’s app. You will be able to filter by the attendance type, search for the reason type, add new reasons and edit old ones.  

ADD A REASON TYPE

Type

Select the option of Absent, Present, Unmarked or Other

SIF Reason Code

Select the SIF code that best relates to what you are adding

Custom Name

This is the name of the reason type that will be displayed

Display on Parent App

Tick this box if you want the reason type to be an option for parents to use

Active

If you want to remove a reason type, you can deactivate. It cannot be deleted if it has been used before

MANAGE DAYS

Manage Days is where admins can go in and mark “non-school days”. To mark a non-school day, click on the “Manage Days” option. Go to the term and find the day. Click on the dropdown and select “Student Free Day”. If you receive an error, it means there is a student absence recorded. You will need to go to the roll for that day and mark the roll as “unmarked”. This will remove all attendance records marked on the roll. Once done, repeat the process, you will then see the day marked as a student free day.   

You will notice that Public Holidays are already in the system, they will not need to be entered. 

MARKING ATTENDANCE

The attendance roll is available to all users to mark. Staff will be able to select the date, home group and roll type. The quickest way for a teacher to mark the roll would be to mark all the student absences first.

Once done, confirm the roll via the blue "Confirm Roll" button.

They will then be prompted with a message asking if they would like to mark all remaining students as “Present”.

Accept the message and then the roll will be marked.

Roll Updated. 

Note: There is no “Communication type” in the new roll. All communication notes can be added to the “Comment” section of the roll.  

LATE ARRIVALS AND EARLY DEPARTURES

Late arrivals and early departures are marked differently in the attendance roll. To mark a student as

late arrival or early departure, select the “Present” attendance type and the related reason type. Once

done, you will then need to click on the clock icon.

Under the first option, input the time and then the reason again and save.

You will then see the icon turn green. This option will allow you to also sign a student out if they leave early and can also sign them back in.

ROLL LOGS

Once a roll has been marked, you will have access to the roll logs. This will show all changes that have

been made to a student’s attendance record. To access the logs, click the middle purple icon next to the

alarm clock.

FUTURE ATTENDANCE

Marking a student’s future attendance can be done by clicking the “Future Attendance” option. Fill in all

the options and then “submit”. The record will then be displayed in the window below. All future and

recurring absences for the year will be displayed in that window.

If any records need to be edited, you can simply update the records via the drop downs.

UNEXPLAINED ABSENCES

The unexplained absences page will allow admins to view which rolls have not been marked and which

students have been marked as absent and unexplained. It will also allow admins to send reminder

emails to teachers who have not marked their respective rolls.

To view the students marked as unexplained absent, click on the red AM buttons. The students will then

appear there.

SETTING UP UNEXPLAINED ABSENCES and SMS SCHEDULE

There are two setup options that school admins can edit. Schools will be able to setup their SMS message that is sent to parents. The unexplained SMS messages will also be automatically sent based off of the time the school allocates. To set these up, go into “Apps” > “School” > “School Details”. There click on “Edit School” and scroll to the bottom. There, you can set what the SMS message will be and at what time.