When an absent pupil receives remote education in England, keep two records. The attendance register still records absence using the most appropriate reason code. A separate school record describes learning access, participation, feedback and support. Logging in, joining a call or returning work doesn't turn an absent session into attendance.
This Q&A is for attendance leads, headteachers, pastoral and family-support staff, and SENCos working with pupils of compulsory school age. The two-record rule is an editorial way to organise the work. It does not create a statutory form. It keeps an accurate absence record alongside a more informative account of what the school offered and what the pupil could access.
Can completed work change an absence mark?
No. Paragraph 293 of Working together to improve school attendance says pupils receiving remote education remain absent and their engagement is not formally tracked in the attendance register. The school records the most appropriate absence code. The 2024 pupil registration regulations, including regulation 10 and its table, govern the register.
Choose the code from the actual circumstances and applicable guidance. A platform activity report cannot choose it. Don't create a local “remote present” mark or substitute an approved educational activity code simply because work was completed at home. If the reason is unclear, the responsible staff member follows the school's clarification and correction process, retaining the relevant evidence.
The register accuracy check covers a wider audit. Here the task is narrower: preserve the absence mark while making educational support visible elsewhere.
When should the remote arrangement be considered?
The DfE remote education guidance treats remote education as a last resort after absence has been established, where the pupil can continue learning. Individual arrangements are short term and considered case by case. They should support reintegration, with a review and time limit. Leaving an arrangement unexamined risks turning it into a substitute for attending school.
Discuss the arrangement with the pupil and family, involving relevant professionals and the local authority where appropriate. Check accessibility, SEND provision, devices, connectivity and adult support. Keep working on barriers to attendance. Remote provision doesn't suspend reasonable adjustments or SEND duties, authorise an unofficial exclusion or justify sending a pupil home.
Record who agreed what, the educational purpose, the responsible school lead and when the arrangement will be reviewed. Explain how the family can raise a problem or correct the record. Route a request for paper materials promptly to someone who can arrange them.
What belongs in the separate learning record?
Use the school's approved recording system. The following prompts are a suggested operational checklist. They do not create a statutory dataset. Keep entries proportionate and dated, with a source and an owner for the next action.
- Offer: What teaching, materials and contact were offered, for which dates and subjects? Separate planned provision from provision actually sent or delivered. An assignment appearing on a teacher's screen doesn't confirm it reached the pupil.
- Access: Could the pupil use the device, connection, format and instructions? Record confirmed barriers, the pupil's and family's accounts, any disagreement and what remains unknown. Check whether an adjustment was available when needed.
- Participation: What was observed or reported? “Joined the first ten minutes of the call” is more informative than “engaged”. Attribute a parent's account and distinguish it from a teacher's observation or a platform event.
- Feedback: What did the teacher check, explain or return? Keep the question or work sample needed to understand that judgement. A submission count alone says little about understanding or the help needed.
- Support: What help was actually delivered, by whom and when? Include failed delivery and the recovery action. Agree a manageable contact route and account for communication needs, language and family circumstances.
- Gaps and next check: What was not observed, not received or not yet confirmed? Name the person who will clarify it and the review date. Preserve unknowns. Do not translate every blank into zero participation.
Let the pupil contribute through an accessible route, including a trusted adult where appropriate. Ask what was possible, difficult or helpful. Keep their account distinguishable from the adult interpretation. Explain a disputed entry and retain corrections through the approved process.
Restrict access to those who need the information for their role. A general learning log need not reproduce medical correspondence or safeguarding narratives. Keep sensitive detail in its authorised record, sharing only what the receiving colleague needs to deliver support.
What does a missing login or returned task mean?
It means that particular evidence is missing. First check the source: was the task issued, did the account work, and does the platform capture the activity being discussed? Offline reading, paper work or an adult-supported conversation may leave no login trail. Conversely, an open page doesn't show who used it or what they understood.
Ask about barriers without starting from blame. Shared devices, data costs, inaccessible instructions, fatigue, pain, distress, privacy and competing caring demands may matter. Explore these possibilities with the family. Do not assign them as explanations. Record the response, any practical adjustment and whether it was received.
Remote participation does not prove attendance, learning, safety, effort, the cause of absence or readiness to return. Neither participation nor its absence justifies an automatic referral, sanction, penalty or legal action. Any such decision needs its own authorised human process and applicable requirements.
How can the two records change a review?
Sam's example is invented for this guide. Every person, event and record is constructed; no real pupil, family, school or customer is described. Sam is absent while recovering from an operation. The school has agreed a short remote arrangement with the family and a review later that week.
The learning platform shows no completed tasks on Tuesday. The teacher records that observation, with its source and time. Sam's parent then reports that the borrowed laptop could not open a document and Sam completed a printed reading activity with help. Sam says the long screen session was tiring. The teacher hasn't yet discussed the reading with Sam, so understanding remains unassessed.
The attendance lead retains the most appropriate absence code based on the established reason. The teacher adds the attributed accounts to the separate learning record, arranges a usable format and checks that it arrives. The pastoral lead confirms the next contact. None of these entries supports labelling Sam unwilling to learn.
At review, staff can ask whether the revised materials were accessible, what feedback Sam received and what support is needed for return. If the delivery check is blank, they record it as unknown and follow it up. A tidier completion chart would have hidden the problem they needed to solve.
What should the return review decide?
Bring the absence record and learning record together for inspection without merging their meanings. Review barriers, reasonable adjustments and the wider plan for return with the pupil and family. Record the next support action, owner, timescale and earlier review trigger. Completing remote work cannot settle whether the pupil can attend safely or with the required support.
For health-related absence, use the statutory guidance on education for children with health needs and work with the local authority and relevant professionals. A continuing remote arrangement must not obscure whether suitable education needs to be arranged through that route. The mental health attendance guidance also supports school responses where mental health affects attendance; platform activity cannot diagnose a condition.
Agree ordinary contact and welfare arrangements alongside educational contact. A returned worksheet is not a welfare check. Urgent safeguarding concerns follow the school's DSL or deputy, local safeguarding and emergency procedures without delay. Don't wait for a scheduled learning review or treat a login as evidence that a child is safe.
Where can Student Radar help?
Where enabled and authorised, Student Radar's Attendance Analytics keeps the recorded absence pattern visible through marks, trends, cohorts and the pupils behind figures. Check dates, coverage and missingness, then inspect source records. Class Overview can provide class support, health and routines context within the viewer's access.
These views don't store the complete remote-learning record described here. Keep that evidence in the school's approved record. Student Radar cannot choose the attendance code, infer engagement or learning, prove barriers, or decide reintegration, safeguarding or legal outcomes.
For one live arrangement, ask two questions today: does the register accurately describe the absence, and can an authorised colleague find what was offered, accessed, supported and still unknown? Assign the next unresolved check. A Student Radar demonstration can show the attendance and class context available for that human review.
Sources and further reading
Primary sources checked on 30 October 2026. The guidance and registration rules cited here apply to England.
- Department for Education, Providing remote education: guidance for schools, non-statutory guidance, updated 19 August 2024; prioritising attendance, individual arrangements, access and SEND.
- Department for Education, Working together to improve school attendance, July 2026 statutory guidance; paragraph 293, remote education and the attendance register. The publication page was updated 9 July 2026.
- School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024, in force 19 August 2024; regulation 10 and the attendance-code table.
- Department for Education, Education for children with health needs who cannot attend school, statutory guidance, published 17 May 2013, updated 14 December 2023.
- Department for Education, Mental health issues affecting a pupil's attendance: guidance for schools, published 7 February 2023.