Schools must take the register at the start of each morning session and once in each afternoon session, at the same time for all pupils, and enter a code for every pupil on roll (attendance guidance, paragraphs 290 and 291). The codes come from regulation 10 of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 and are summarised in chapter 8 of the guidance (paragraph 294).
They fall into groups:
- Present: / and \ for morning and afternoon, and L for late before the register closed.
- Attending somewhere else: for example B (approved educational activity), P (sport), V (educational visit) and W (work experience).
- Authorised absence: for example I (illness), M (medical appointment), C (exceptional circumstances), C2 (part-time timetable), E (suspended or excluded), R (religious observance) and T (parent travelling for work).
- Unable to attend: the Y codes and Q, which count as not a possible attendance.
- Unauthorised absence: G, N, O and U.
- Administrative: for example D (dual registered elsewhere), X (not of compulsory school age) and Z (prospective pupil).
Where more than one code could apply, the school records the primary reason (paragraph 296). The July 2026 edition of the guidance clarified when codes Q, D, Y6 and U should be used (paragraph 5).
For a DSL, codes are evidence. A run of N or O marks, frequent C2 or patterns of U are worth reading alongside the child protection file.