One minute guide: Registration B Code – off-site educational activity

Why is this important?

Schools have a duty to safeguard all children on their roll, while sometimes this education is off-site, it still needs to be supervised to ensure you carry out your duty.

Section 175 of the Education Act 2002 gives maintained schools a statutory duty to promote and safeguard the welfare of children, and have due regard to guidance issued by the Secretary of State.

Definition of a B code

DfE guidance School attendance guidance (publishing.service.gov.uk).

This code should be used when pupils are present at an off-site educational activity that has been approved by the school. Ultimately schools are responsible for the safeguarding and welfare of pupils educated off-site. (See Legislation).

Therefore by using code B, schools are certifying that the education is supervised and measures have been taken to safeguard pupils.

This code should not be used for any unsupervised educational activity or where a pupil is at home doing school work.

Schools should ensure that they have arrangements in place to ensure the provider of the alternative education notifies the school of any absences by individual pupils.

The school should record the pupil’s absence using the relevant absence code.

Legislation

The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006

Section 6 (4) An approved educational activity is either—

(a) an activity which takes place outside the school premises and which is—

(i) approved by a person authorised in that behalf by the proprietor of the school;

(ii) of an educational nature, including work experience under section 560 of the Education Act 1996(1) and a sporting activity; and

(iii) supervised by a person authorised in that behalf by the proprietor or the head teacher of the school; or

(b) attendance at another school at which the pupil is a registered pupil.

Examples of when this code would be used:

• attending taster days at other schools;
• pupils attending another school as ‘guest pupils’ (note a pupil who attends another school as part of a regular pattern must be dual registered – see Code D);
• pupils attending vocational courses at college;
• pupils attending alternative provision arranged and or agreed by the school; and
• pupils undertaking work experience as part of an alternative curriculum or alternative provision (pupils undertaking work experience under section 560 of the Education Act 1996 should be recorded under Code W).

You must not use a B code

You must not use this code for any sessions that were unsupervised, regardless of how many hours of work the pupil has completed at home.

• Schools should not use this code if a pupil has an agreed part-time timetable as part of reintegration or transition. The school are authorising the absence for the sessions that the pupil is not required to be in school and the pupil should be recorded as Code C for those sessions. While part-time timetables are a useful technique to help pupils adapt or re-adapt to the school setting, they have the effect of reducing the sessions on offer to those pupils. Such timetables should be a short term measure.
• Schools should not use this code to record study leave. Study leave is unsupervised time away from school for pupils to prepare for their public examinations and many pupils treat such time as extra holidays and do no study. As a result, study leave does not meet the legal definition of approved educational activity.
• This code should not be used for any unsupervised educational activity or where a pupil is at home doing school work.
• Schools should not use this code to record pupil review days if pupils are simply sent home with homework and private study. Like study leave it is unsupervised and usually treated as an extra holiday by pupils. It therefore would not meet the legal definition of approved educational activity.(See above).
• This code must not be used when pupils are attending alternative provision on the school’s premises.

The school is responsible for the safeguarding of a pupil when using this code.