The pupil registration regulations govern the admissions and attendance registers that all schools must keep. They also regulate the power of special schools and maintained schools to grant leave of absence.

By law, schools are required to record in the attendance register - once at the beginning of the morning session and once in the afternoon - whether the pupil is present, absent, engaged in an approved, supervised educational activity off-site, or unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances as defined in regulation 6(5).

If a compulsory school-age pupil is absent, the register must show whether the absence is authorised or unauthorised. It must also record the nature of any approved, supervised educational activities.

The current regulations, The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006, came into force on 1 September 2006.

Amendments to the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006

The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2011

This amendment adds a new ground for deletion which will require maintained and academy boarding schools to delete, from the admissions register, the names of pupils of compulsory school age from the school register where their boarding fees are due to be paid by the parent and these remain outstanding by the end of the term to which the fees applied. This amendment came into force on 1 September 2011.

The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2010

This amendment adds a new exceptional circumstance in which a pupil may be marked as unable to attend on the school attendance register. The amendment is intended to capture circumstances where a local or national emergency has resulted in widespread disruption to travel that has prevented the pupil from attending school. This amendment came into force on 1 September 2010.

Amendments to the National Absence and Attendance Codes

An amendment has been made to how attendance codes D, Y and # should be used from September 2011 onwards.

The data collection system has been amended so that the national attendance code D (Dual Registered) is not counted in the School Census as an attendance. Each school will only record the attendance and absence for the sessions the pupil is required to attend at their school; each school will use code D to record all of the sessions that the pupil is due to attend at the other school.

The data collection system has been amended so that the national attendance code Y (Unable to Attend due to Exceptional Circumstances) will be collected in the School Census for statistical purposes. Schools will use code Y to record the sessions where a pupil is unable to attend because:

  • the school site, or part of it, is closed due to an unavoidable cause;
  • the transport provided by the school or a local authority is not available, and their home is not within walking distance; or
  • a local or national emergency has resulted in widespread disruption to travel which has prevented the pupil from attending school.

A request for change has been submitted so that the national attendance code # (Planned closure) can be applied to partial school closure (currently it can only be applied to whole school closure).

This amendment will allow schools to use code # to record different term dates for different pupils, for example, staggered starts or induction days and any other planned partial closure.  However, until this change can be implemented by their software supplier, schools should continue to use code Y to record planned partial closure.

New guidance to reflect these changes will be published later in September 2011.