Overview

This article explains how to add an Attendance Pattern for one or more pupils within your school. Attendance Patterns define the regular or typical way a pupil attends school. They indicate how often and regularly a pupil is present or absent over time. For example, this could apply where pupils:

1. Don't attend nursery full-time because they are not yet of compulsory school age.
2. Are attending another school at which they are registered.
3. Are being taught away from the school for another educational activity such as supervised educational trips or work experience.

After adding an Attendance Pattern for one or more pupils, class registers will be automatically populated with the appropriate Attendance Codes between the specified dates, saving teachers the need to enter this information when registering pupils. This eliminates the need for teachers to enter B, D or X codes.

To update an Attendance Pattern, create a new one for the pupil and period required. This will overwrite the existing Attendance Pattern for the selected dates.

Teachers can override (if required) Attendance Codes applied using Attendance Patterns when registering pupils.

Instructions

Open the Office Register

From within the MIS, follow these steps to open the Office Register:

1. Select Manage.
2. Select Attendance.

3. Select Office Register to open Office Register Attendances:

   

Add an Attendance Pattern

Follow these steps in the MIS to add an Attendance Pattern from the Office Register:

1. Locate one or more pupils for whom you want to add an Attendance Pattern for, using the Filters as appropriate:
   
2. Select the pupil(s) for whom you want to create the Attendance Pattern. Pupils can be selected individually or by selecting the Select All check box next to the Full Name column header:
   
3. Select Add:
   
4. Select Attendance Pattern:
   
5. From Add Attendance Patterns, select a Start Date and End Date:
   
6. For the selected pupils, for the selected days of the week:
   
   1. Select the Attendance Code for each day where a pupil will not be present. 
   2. If you select B as the Attendance Code, when prompted, enter the Nature of Activity.
   3. Select the appropriate sessions (Full Day, AM or PM).
7. Select Save.
   

Outcome

You are returned to Office Register Attendances where a message is displayed confirming that your changes have been saved successfully. Review the register to check that the pupil attendance codes reflect those that you defined in the Attendance Pattern: 

The Attendance Registers are updated for the pupils that you selected for the specified period. The Attendance Codes used are based on those you specified in the Attendance Pattern:

• - (dash) - No attendance code.
• B - Attending a place for any other approved educational activity. Select the Attendance Code to view the Nature of Activity. 
• D - Attending another school at which they are a registered pupil.
• X - Absent with leave, not of compulsory school age and timetable does not require them to attend.

Any existing Attendance Patterns previously set up for pupils are overwritten.

Related information

• MIS: How do I take my class attendance register?
• MIS: What are the different attendance / absence codes?

Updated 23 February 2026 11:40