Using SIMS Attendance with the Whiteboard

Cypad SIMS Attendance is a module that allows schools to take an AM and PM register via the Classroom Selection Whiteboard website. The teacher can select student meal choices and take the attendance register from the same, easy-to-access, website.

  This article will teach you...

How to use the whiteboard attendance register.

Using SIMS Attendance

IMPORTANT

Refer to the following article for guidance on setting up the whiteboard attendance feature.

  1. Login to the Whiteboard and select a Class [1].
  2. Press on the Lower Menu Button [2].
  3. Select the Attendance Option [3].

Marking Attendance

Students who make a meal selection from the current day’s lunch menu are automatically marked as Present on the attendance register.

Students with a Parent pre-selection will not have a ‘present’ mark automatically added to the attendance register unless the meal selection is confirmed in the classroom

  1. When taking the morning register use the AM Column [1] and for the afternoon register use the PM Column [2] to record the attendance of each student.

  2. Students marked as Present will be highlighted in Green.
  3. Students marked as Not present will be highlighted in Red.

  4. Students marked as Late will be highlighted in Red. Click ‘+’ to add minutes late and the reason.

Whiteboard Register and Codes Explained

The SIMS attendance register updates automatically every 10 minutes

The Morning SIMS attendance register taken by the teacher must be submitted by 11:00. If the teacher need's to change a submitted attendance code, make the change on the whiteboard before 11:00 and the modified attendance will be recorded and updated to SIMS. 

The school admin can make changes, if required, to the SIMS attendance register between 11:00 and 12:00, this must be done before the SIMS morning register run is completed at 12:00.

The Afternoon SIMS attendance register starts after 13:00 and follows the same process as the morning register. The attendance register taken on the whiteboard will override any SIMS attendance records taken during the 10 minute update cycle.

Refer to the table below to find the SIMS code required for entry into the register:

Code Description
/ Present (AM)
\ Present (PM)
B Educated off site (not Dual reg.)
C Other authorised circumstances
D Dual registration
E Excluded
G Family Holiday (not agreed)
H Family Holiday (agreed)
I Illness
J Interview
L Late (before registers close)
M Medical/Dental appointments
N No reason yet provided for absence
O Unauthorised Abs
P Approved sporting activity
R Religious observance
S Study leave
T Traveler absence
U Late (after registers closed)
V Educational visit or trip
W Work experience
X Non-compulsory school age abs
Y Shielding, self-isolating, or EHCP-related absence
- All should attend / No mark recorded

How do attendance marks move between SIMS and Cypad?

Where a mark is added in Cypad at the same time as a different mark is added directly in SIMS, the following hierarchy rules are used to decide which mark to keep:

Attendance marks entered on the whiteboard are only written to SIMS if the existing mark is of an equal or lower place in the hierarchy of marks defined below.

Hierarchy

  1. Present marks: / \
  2. Explained absence marks: B C D E F H I J L M O P R S T U V W X
  3. Unexplained absence mark: N
  4. No mark recorded (hyphen): -
  5. A present mark / or \ overwrites everything.
  6. Explained absence marks overwrite unexplained absence marks and hyphen marks.
  7. Unexplained absence marks overwrite hyphen marks.
  8. The hyphen mark does not overwrite anything.
  NEW MARK NEW MARK NEW MARK NEW MARK
 EXISTING
 MARK
Present Explained
absence
Unexplained absence  No mark recorded (hyphen)
 Present N/A Leave as
present
Leave as
present
Leave as
present
 Explained
 absence
Overwrite to present Overwrite to
new explained
absence mark
Leave as
explained
absence
Leave as
explained
absence
 Unexplained
 absence
Overwrite to present Overwrite to explain the absence N/A Leave as
unexplained absence
 No mark recorded
 (hyphen)
Overwrite to present Overwrite to explain the absence Overwrite to unexplained absence N/A

Cypad writes data to SIMS following the schedule described below:

Time

Data written from

Cypad to SIMS

Data read from

SIMS to Cypad

00:00 – 11:00

Every 10-20 minutes

No

11:00 – 12:00

Every 10-20 minutes

Every 10-20 minutes

12:00 – 13:00

No

No

13:00 – 00:00

Every 10-20 minutes

No

  1. A new data read/write process is triggered every 10-20 minutes. The exact timing of each trigger can vary within a 10-minute window but will never be longer than 20 minutes from the previous trigger. For example, data may be written at 9:00 am, 9:11 am, 9:22 am, 9:34 am, or 9:41 am.
  2. Each attendance mark entered in Cypad will only be written to SIMS once. For example, a ‘present’ mark entered on the whiteboard at 9:03 am will be picked up and written to SIMS in the next update cycle (e.g. 9:10 am). Later update cycles will not try to write the mark again.
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