What are attendance codes?

Every school must take an attendance register at the start of each morning and afternoon session. Codes make the register consistent, so attendance can be compared between schools and collected for national statistics.

In England, the codes are set by the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 and explained in the Department for Education’s guidance, Working together to improve school attendance. Some common codes are:

• / and \ present in the morning and afternoon
• L late, but before the register closed
• K attending education provision arranged by the local authority
• B attending another approved educational activity, such as unregistered alternative provision arranged by the school
• I illness, and M medical or dental appointment (authorised)
• G, O and U holiday not granted, other unauthorised absence and late after the register closed (unauthorised)
• N reason not yet established

Registers are legal records. In England, every entry must be kept for six years, and any change must show the original entry, the new entry, the reason, the date and who made it.

England and Wales

England updated its codes from August 2024. Wales uses its own set of codes under Welsh regulations and guidance, so the same situation may be recorded differently in each nation.

Why it matters for your setting

• If you provide alternative provision, the pupil’s school records your sessions using its own codes, so it relies on you to tell it promptly whether the pupil attended.
• Accurate, timely information protects pupils: an unexplained absence can be a safeguarding concern.

How PupilDB helps

PupilDB registers use absence reasons from your own list, with notes and whole-day marking, so you can match the reasons your commissioning schools ask for. Statutory attendance codes are on our roadmap but are not in PupilDB yet.