For the attention of staff responsible for updating pupils’ attendance in SIMS 

Dear Colleagues 

Subject: Polling Station - attendance code required for pupils unable to attend school due to closure for Polling Stations

If your school is used as a polling station you will need to enter attendance codes in SIMS to explain pupil absence.

Because this polling day was unexpected, and schools could not plan to include it as one of the inset days,

then enter attendance code Y for exceptional circumstances. 

To do this in SIMS:

Select Focus | Attendance/Lesson Monitor | Exceptional Circumstances
Click on Search to check if it has been added already, if not click New and enter date in both From and To boxes
Group Type - will default to the whole school but for partial closure, you can select from the dropdown list e.g year group
Click Search and select  (if partial closure and year is selected use Ctrl key to highlight more than one year)
Code –  select Y   Unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances
The description is Polling Day
Click Apply and then OK to the message that the marks have been applied. 

This has the effect of adding Y codes to the selected pupils within your school

Please contact the Attendance Team if you have any queries.