Choose homeroom or class attendance in Settings > Attendance & Calendar, assign homeroom advisors in Year Groups > Members, and give substitutes and the Attendance Manager the access they need.
Set up homeroom attendance, assign homeroom advisors one at a time or in bulk, and choose who else can record attendance.
| I want to | Go to |
|---|---|
| Choose homeroom or class attendance | Settings > Attendance & Calendar > Settings |
| Assign homeroom advisors | Year Groups > Members > Homeroom Advisor |
| Assign advisors in bulk | Year Groups > Members > Details > Bulk Assign Students |
| Record homeroom attendance | My Workspace > Homeroom > Attendance |
| Let any PYP class teacher record attendance | Settings > Attendance & Calendar > Programme-Level |
| Give Attendance Manager access | Profile > Access & Permissions, or Settings > Security & Permissions |
Video
In this video: Assign Homeroom Advisors, Configure Substitute & Attendance Manager Permissions
A demo of configuring attendance settings, assigning advisors for homeroom attendance and importing timetables for class attendance. The screens in the video may look different from today's ManageBac+.
Homeroom vs class attendance
ManageBac+ has two forms of attendance: homeroom attendance and class attendance. Choose which your school uses in Settings > Attendance & Calendar > Settings, under Available for: Homeroom only, Classes or Both. If you take attendance once a day, choose Homeroom only.
Each programme can also have its own setting under Settings > Attendance & Calendar > Programme-Level.
Homeroom attendance
Assigning students to a homeroom advisor lets the advisor:
- Record homeroom attendance
- Leave advisory comments
- Review term grades
- Record and review behaviour notes, if permitted
How homeroom attendance works
- Recorded in My Workspace > Homeroom > Attendance.
- Does not need timetables or periods.
- Updated by the student's assigned homeroom advisor.
- Turn on Enable Substitute Recording so every teacher in a PYP class can record it.
- Give selected users Attendance Manager access to update attendance across all year levels.
- Advisors are assigned in the year group's Members tab, one year group at a time, or in bulk with a CSV file.
Class attendance
- Recorded in Classes > your class > Attendance. Your class might be called "Homeroom", but recording there saves class attendance.
- Usually only used if you take attendance more than once a day, or in specialist classes.
- Needs an attendance rotation (weekdays or a rotation cycle), periods and class timetables.
See how to record homeroom or class attendance.
See a student's homeroom advisor
Search for the student with the search bar at the top and open their profile. Select the Members icon on the right to see their Homeroom Advisor and Additional Homeroom Advisors.
To change a student's advisor, use their year group's Members tab, below.
Assign homeroom advisors in a year group
From the Members tab
- Open the year groupGo to Year Groups, choose the year group and open Members > Homeroom Advisor.
- Choose advisorsFor each student, choose a Homeroom Advisor and any Additional Homeroom Advisors. All admins and teachers or advisors are listed. Select Save Changes when you have finished.
- Copy to everyoneSelect the down arrow beside the first row to give every student below the same advisor, then select Save Changes.
Assign additional homeroom advisors
From the Members tab
Additional homeroom advisors are in the same Members > Homeroom Advisor tab, in the Additional Homeroom Advisors column. Use its down arrow to copy the first row's choice to every student.
Bulk assign homeroom advisors
For larger schools, assign advisors with a CSV file. Go to Year Groups, choose a year group, open Members and select Bulk Assign Students in the Details panel on the right.
- Download the templateSelect Download CSV Template.
- Fill it inList each student's ID or email with their advisor emails (Homeroom Advisor, CAS or SA Advisor, Extended Essay, Personal Project, Theory of Knowledge). Do not change the column names in the top row, and leave columns you do not need blank.
- Save as CSVSave the spreadsheet as a CSV file.
- UploadChoose the file under CSV File and select Next.
Record homeroom attendance
Advisors go to My Workspace > Homeroom > Attendance and choose the Programme. Their students are listed under My Homeroom Students. Changes save automatically.
"Homeroom" can be renamed in your school's terminology settings, so you may see Advisory, Section or another term.
- Mark studentsSelect a category for each student, such as A (Absent), P (Present) or L (Late), or use Mark All Students As and then change the exceptions.
- Add commentsAdd a comment for a student in the Comment column if needed.
- ConfirmSelect Confirm Attendance once every student is marked.
Use the date arrows or the calendar to move between days, and Show Attendance to see a student's record. The Details panel shows Missing Confirmations, the Daily Homeroom Summary and when attendance was last updated. Select Export to Excel to download attendance logs.
Homeroom attendance tips
- Students marked Absent in homeroom attendance show as absent in their classes that day, to give class teachers context.
- If Substitute Recording is turned on, advisors also see any student in a class they teach, not only students assigned to them.
- Attendance not recorded is marked as Present automatically at midnight, so you can focus on students who were not present.
- If a student is missing from your list, check that you are their homeroom advisor in the year group's Members tab. See Assigning Homeroom Advisors.
Enable substitute recording
Each student has one homeroom advisor. If more than one teacher in a PYP homeroom class needs to record homeroom attendance, turn on substitute recording.
Go to Settings > Attendance & Calendar > Programme-Level > IB Primary Years and tick Enable Substitute Recording (allows recording of homeroom attendance by any teacher in a PYP class).
PYP advisors then see:
- Students they are assigned to as homeroom advisor, and
- All other students in the IB Primary Years classes they teach.
This applies to every teacher in IB Primary Years once it is turned on.
Grant Attendance Manager permission
The Attendance Manager lets admins, and teachers with permission, record daily attendance without opening each class or homeroom.
For one teacher
Open the teacher's profile, select Edit Profile, then the Access & Permissions tab. Tick Attendance (provides access to the Attendance Manager) and save.
For several teachers
Go to Settings > Security & Permissions > Teachers & Advisors > Individual Permissions, tick Attendance beside each teacher's name and save.
This gives the user full access to view and update attendance records for all students across all programmes and grade levels, past and present.
Learn more about recording attendance in the Attendance Manager.
Reports
If your school uses the Reports module, you can show the Homeroom Advisor on term reports. Open the report template's Cover Sheet tab and tick Homeroom Advisor.
Class attendance
Read more on configuring class timetables.