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NOTE: The government had stated its intention to put new legislation before parliament, but this was dropped in December 2022 and it seems that this will now become recommended guidance rather than a statutory requirement.
The full name of these regulations is 'The Education (Pupil Registration)(England) Regulations 2006. They are the legal requirements in all schools in England in relation to attendance and, as such, are a very important piece of information. (Note that the requirements are a little different if it is a boarding school.) Not surprisingly they are quite difficult to read in their original format (but if you want to try there is a link at the bottom of this page). In addition, there have been four amendments to the original regulations (in 2010, 2011 (relates to boarders), 2013 (relates to granting holiday leave) and 2016), although these are relatively minor. So here is a simple guide on the law below:
All schools must have an an admission register and an attendance register.
All schools must complete the attendance register am and pm and record reasons for absence if a pupil is not attending (as long as you use the agreed attendance codes you will meet the requirements).
If a pupil is on the admission register then they must be on the attendance register.
Leave of absence of a pupil can only be granted by an authorised person (for DRET this would be the principal) and only to allow a pupil to take part in a performance or to go on a leave of absence with a parent when there are exceptional circumstances. Leave cannot be more than 10 days unless very exceptional circumstances. Leave must be requested in advance of the absence.
Information on circumstances when a pupil can be removed from the school roll (see this page for more details).
A pupil may be dual registered if they are of no fixed abode (usually applies to travellers) but the school considered to be their usual school is the one that they would attend when not travelling (usually the one that they have attended in the last 18 months). This school cannot delete such a pupil from their roll.
The attendance register of every school must be available for inspection during school hours by Ofsted. They can make extracts from the attendance register if they need to.
The school should make details of pupils who have unauthorised attendance available to their LA at agreed intervals and before deleting a pupil from the school register.
Records must be kept of any amendments to the school register and the school registers must be kept for a minimum of 3 years.
Computerised registers must be backed up at least monthly and the backups kept for a minimum of 3 years.
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