A pupil is missing from a register

A teacher says a pupil is not on their register, but you can see the pupil in Xperios. This is how to find out why in about two minutes, and what to do about each cause.

Step 1 of 7

Start with the pupil, not the register

It is tempting to open the register and look for the gap, but the register only shows what the diary holds - so it cannot tell you why somebody is absent from it. The pupil's own record can. Open the pupil and go to their activities.

Everything in this walkthrough happens on the pupil's record and one query. You will not need the teacher's portal at all.

Use the arrow keys to move between steps.

1. Start with the pupil, not the register

   It is tempting to open the register and look for the gap, but the register only shows what the diary holds - so it cannot tell you why somebody is absent from it. The pupil's own record can. Open the pupil and go to their activities.

   Everything in this walkthrough happens on the pupil's record and one query. You will not need the teacher's portal at all.

2. Take the year filter off

   The list opens on the current year, which hides the most common answer. Clear the year tick and look at every year. If the only tuition you can see belongs to last year, the pupil was never carried into this one - and that is a progression question, which step six covers.

   A pupil can also be sitting in an activity that was given an end date last August, along with everybody else in it. Watch for two activities with the same name, one closed and one new.

3. Read the status before anything else

   A pupil only reaches a register once they are in the activity. Waiting List, Offered, Teacher Accepted - none of those put anybody on a register, and that is deliberate. If the status is Offered, you are waiting on the family, and where the parent is paying, accepting means making the first payment.

   The coloured dot says the same thing at a glance: amber wants attention, blue has been offered, purple came through progression, green is live.

4. Look for a finish date

   An active record with a finish date drops off the register from that date. This is what catches people after a pupil stops and starts again - restoring last year's lessons does not clear a finish date left on this year's record. If the record is not in the list at all, filter the list to include cancelled applications so the hidden one shows.

   Reinstating somebody does not re-charge them either. If the lessons are being taught again, post a debit adjustment for them.

5. Now open the register and read the empty cell

   If the pupil is active, this year, with no finish date, go to the activity's Schedule and open its Register tab. A cell with a dot in it is a lesson nobody has marked. A cell with nothing in it at all means there is no lesson for that pupil in that session - and that, not the marking, is what the teacher is reporting.

   A make-up appears as its own column for that pupil, flagged with a star, and the original session shows M.

6. Ask progression why

   Run the progression query for the way this pupil is billed - Tuition Progression - Direct and Not Progressed where the parent pays, Indirect Not Progressed where the school does. It lists everybody who did not come across into this year. It names no reason, but New School Year beside Upper School Limit shows the commonest one at a glance. The commonest reason is a pupil who has outgrown their school's year range with no new school recorded - and in that case nobody is emailed either, so it is silent until you look.

   Record the new school on the pupil's Details tab and progression moves them, as long as it can find a matching activity at the new school.

7. When it is none of these, tell us

   An active pupil, in this year, with no finish date and no diary entries at all is a fault rather than a setting. The nightly tidy-up counts pupils with missing diary entries, but it does not create the missing lessons, so it will not come right on its own. Raise it and we will put the entries back.

   Worth saying in the ticket: the pupil, the activity, and that you have checked the status, the finish date and the year. It saves a round trip.

Why this one is worth knowing

"Pupil not showing on the register" is the single most common thing customers ask us about — more than registers, marking and attendance put together. Almost every one of them turns out to be one of the five causes above, and four of them you can fix yourself in a couple of minutes.

The order matters. Each step rules out more pupils than the next, so working down it in order is faster than going straight to the register.

The same ground, as reference

• Registers and attendance — the register itself, the two kinds of mark, and the chasing
• Progression — why a pupil never reached this year
• Finishing and withdrawing — finish dates, and restoring somebody