Attendance Notes
Overview
Attendance Notes are created when a parent provides written or verbal consent to the school for their student to be absent from class. Most commonly this occurs when the parent sends a note to the school office. A staff member will then be required to record this in Compass.
Attendance Notes can be added from within a roll, on a student's profile page and through the Attendance administration section of Compass which can be accessed from the Organisation menu (Organisation> Attendance).
Permission
There are two permissions in relation to Attendance, AttendanceBase and AttendanceAdmin. Depending on their role within the school, staff who are adding attendance notes and/or managing attendance data will require one of these permissions.
AttendanceBase - Required to access the base level functionality in the Attendance module, including the Attendance dashboard, Attendance tabs on any profiles in Compass, and the ability to mark the roll.
AttendanceAdmin - Allows user to administer all markings of class rolls, add/edit/delete Notes/Approvals outside of a class roll, and add/edit/delete School Activities.
For information on assigning permissions in Compass, please refer to the 'Permissions' article from our Knowledge Base.
Adding an Attendance Note from within a Roll
This method is generally used by teaching staff to add a note/approval. Go into your class roll, locate the student within the list, hover over the student's name and then in the section that will display hover over 'Add' and click 'Attendance Note'.
This will open the Attendance Note screen and you can then add the approval details that were provided from the parent (reason, comment, date range). Upload any related documents in the 'Attachment' section and click 'Save'. The Attendance Note will then be added to the student's record and their attendance data will update accordingly.
Adding an Attendance Note via the App
Please refer to the 'Adding an Attendance Note via the App' article from our Knowledge Base for details.
Adding an Attendance Note from a Student Profile Page
To add an Attendance Note for a student via their profile page, search for the student in the main Compass search bar at the top of the screen.
Click their name to go their page.
When on the student's page, hover over the 'Add' option and click 'Attendance Note'.
In the Attendance Note screen, choose the reason, add any comments and choose the applicable date range.
Click 'Save' and the Attendance Note will be added to the student's record and their attendance data will update accordingly.
Adding an Attendance Note via the Attendance Page
This method is generally used by the school Attendance Officer as the Attendance page is an area they use to manage aspects of Attendance data across the school.
Go to the Organisation menu (grid icon) and click on 'Attendance'. Begin to type the name of the student in the 'Add Attendance Note' field. Click on the applicable student from the list that displays.
This will open the Attendance Note screen preset with today's date. Select the reason, add a comment if applicable, set the date to be the date/dates applicable to the Attendance Note and click 'Save'. You can also upload an attachment if required (i.e medical certificate etc).
The Attendance Note will be added to the student's record and their attendance data will update accordingly.
Attendance Note Fields
Reason | Select the reason. Compass includes a number of reasons which are all mapped to attendance codes defined by your local department of education. |
Details/Comment | A section for comments to be recorded. These comments may include further details provided by the students' parents, or an internal note for schools records. For NSW schools, this field is mandatory for parents. |
Department Approved | The Department Approved/VCE Compliant tick box is used for approvals which comply with the requirements for VCE students to have an approved absence. This is taken into account for some attendance reports within Compass, for example the VCE% on Year Level and Form Group summary reports. |
Start and Finish | Sets the start and finish date of the approval. The default within Compass are 08:00 AM and 05:00 PM on the date the approval has been entered as this covers a whole school day. These can be changed as appropriate to cover the time that the student is being approved for. Note/Approvals can be entered for any time period up to 28 days long and can be entered ahead of time or retrospectively. |
| Repeat | This section of the attendance note allows staff (only staff can access this, not parents) to add a repeating note for specific circumstances i.e. a regular medical appointment. The repeat option is not available for any absences that span more than one day. |
Affected Sessions | This table automatically populates with a list of the activities (Normal Classes, Music/Support Classes and Excursions etc.) which will be covered or approved by this approval, based on the date range entered in the start/finish fields. |
| Add Attachments | Click this option if you want to upload any documents provided by the student in relation to the absence i.e. medical certificates. Parents also have the ability to include attachments when adding a note via their parent portal or when responding to the One Time Link in an SMS notification. File size must be less than 5MB and can be PNG, JPG, PDF, DOC or DOCX files. |
Indication on Rolls that an Attendance Note has been Added
Attendance Notes will appear on an affected session's roll stating the reason. If the roll has not yet been marked then the default on the roll will be pre-selected as Not Present.
If there is an asterix icon next to the Attendance Note information within the roll, it indicates that the note has not yet been authorised.
Reviewing Attendance Notes
Attendance Notes added by parents can be set to require review.
Please Note: For Northern Territory schools, any parent-added attendance notes that are not authorised, are NOT included in the automated attendance export.
Click the link and you will be taken to the Attendance page. Click to the 'Notes' tab and you will see the section 'Attendance Notes - Awaiting Review'.
You are also able to view Attendance Notes filtered by groups by going to the Attendance Dashboard and selecting a Group.
Click the green arrow for the note you need to review.
The note details screen will open. Review the content added by the parent, add any required information in the 'Reviewer Comment' field and then click 'Mark as Reviewed' to complete the process.
The note will then show who was the reviewing staff member.
Editing or Deleting an Attendance Note
Attendance Notes can be amended at any time (by staff with the applicable permission level) through the Attendance dashboard within Compass (or from a student's profile).
To edit an Attendance Note locate the record under the relevant tab and click on the pencil or "Edit" button located in the right hand column of the grid. This will re-open the Note/Approval Editor screen. Update the details as required and then click "Save" to apply these changes.
The 'Audit' button within an Attendance Note can be clicked to view any changes that have been made to the Attendance Note.
Attendance Notes can also be deleted from Compass by clicking on the red cross next to the approvals in the grid in Compass.
Related Articles
Attendance Administration Guide
Introductions Compass provides a detailed and accurate approach to reporting of Student Attendance by allowing schools to be very specific in their rolls’ context. Compass not only works on a Period by Period basis, but also allows time based ...Adding an Attendance Note via the App
Overview Staff are able to add Attendance Notes for students via the Compass School Manager App. They can do this from within a roll or by searching the student and viewing their profile. Adding an Attendance Note via the Roll From the class page, ...QLD - Queensland Attendance Calculation
Overview Attendance Calculation is the process of ascertaining Roll Markings, Attendance Notes and Arrivals/Departures to generate attendance data for each student at the school. This data is then stored in the database so it can be quickly be ...NT - Exporting Attendance Data
Exporting Attendance Data from Compass Compass attendance data can be manually exported any time throughout the year. This can be done annually, quarterly, monthly, fortnightly, weekly, daily or on an ad-hoc basis. Exporting attendance data from ...WA - Exporting Attendance Data
Overview Compass attendance data can be manually exported any time throughout the year. This can be done annually, quarterly, monthly, fortnightly, weekly, daily or on an ad-hoc basis. Exporting attendance data from Compass and importing it into your ...