SIMS 7 - Attendance (Northern Ireland) changes to codes

We are finalising changes for Northern Ireland who require schools to report on COVID-19 related absences. In this case the following codes will be added.

Based on Draft Advice - This work has yet to be completed and may change.

NI ATTENDANCE CODES JANUARY 2021

Reg Code	Description	Statistical Meaning	Physical Meaning
(	Covid-19 Illness Confirmed	Authorised Absence	Out for whole session
)	Covid-19 Illness Suspected / Unconfirmed	Authorised Absence	Out for whole session
{	Covid-19 Self-Isolating – Vulnerable Pupil or Household member	Unauthorised Absence	Out for whole session
}	Covid-19 Self-Isolating - No evidence of learning from home	Unauthorised Absence	Out for whole session
[	Covid-19 Self-Isolating & Learning from Home	Approved Activity	Out for whole session
]	Covid-19 Learning from Home - Social Distancing	Approved Activity	Out for whole session

Impacted Areas

Take register / Edit Marks will allow the new codes to be used to record session and lesson marks. Other areas that use attendance will also support the additional mark set.
NI CTF exports will output the summary attendance information – using the statistical meanings of the new codes eg Authorised Absence, Unauthorised Absence, Approved Educational Activity - NI CTFS are not transferred to England or Wales
NI government obtains daily attendance information directly from schools and they will use the new codes

How might this impact on partners

This is viewed as a non breaking change because there are simply additional codes added to the list. We have yet to confirm if the new attendance API which links to statutory return codes needs to be modified but it is unlikely because the codes are returned 'as is' by the APIs.

Clearly any partner offering analysis that assumed the long standing code set may need to modify their applications but this must be considered by each TI individually.