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Blog Attendance, Innovation, Product roadmaps 3 min read

Attendance management made easy

A faster, smarter way to take control of attendance – all in one place

If you’re responsible for attendance in school, you know how complex it can be. One task in one part of the MIS, another somewhere else. Add in chasing absences, logging reasons, preparing for Census – and it can easily eat up hours of your week.

That’s why we’ve built Attendance Management in SIMS Next Gen – a new, all-in-one module designed to make attendance simpler, quicker, and far less stressful.

What’s new?

The Attendance Management module brings together all your key attendance tasks into one place, helping you work more efficiently and stay in control.

Group actions:

  • View and manage daily registers
  • Record late arrivals (including minutes late)
  • Log reasons for absence
  • Manually enter or amend attendance marks
  • Escalate unexplained absences for safeguarding follow-up
  • Process holiday requests and authorised absences

Pupil-level actions:

  • View, edit, or remove individual records
  • Access registration certificates

And there’s more on the way – including bulk attendance messages to parents, coming this October. You will be able to tailor the module to suit your school – set attendance rules, apply marks to sessions and lessons, and customise it around your timetable.

When’s it coming?

Attendance Management launches in September – just in time to explore it before your well-earned summer break.

We’ve released the core functionality early so you can get familiar with the module now — and return in the new school year knowing attendance admin will be faster, easier, and less stressful.

Why you’ll love it

  • Save hours every week – with faster searching, editing, and entry
  • Support safeguarding – with better visibility of persistent absences and escalations
  • Simplify returns – and reduce stress around Census and statutory reporting
  • Feel in control — with clear audit trails, automated rules, and smart defaults

It’s been incredibly rewarding to work on Attendance Management — we’ve built it hand-in-hand with schools to deliver real, day-to-day value. One of the top requests has been the ability to message parents directly from the module, and we absolutely recognise how important that is. 

While that feature will be coming in October, we didn’t want to delay giving schools access to the time-saving tools they need now. The response from our early adopter schools has been fantastic, and we’re excited to keep building on this foundation, with more to come over the months ahead.” 

Martina Spencer, Product Manager, SIMS Next Gen 

SIMS Next Gen

Want a closer look?

Join thousands of schools already using SIMS Next Gen to cut admin, simplify tasks, and drive better outcomes. Ready to see it in action? Book your guided demo today.

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