Building a consistent attendance warning process for overseas students
How Academywise calculates attendance from class rolls, issues staged warning letters and tracks appeals, so every student is treated the same way.
Attendance monitoring for overseas students only works if it’s consistent. Every student has to be measured the same way, warned at the same points and given the same chance to respond. When warnings are drafted by hand from a spreadsheet, that consistency is hard to prove.
This guide describes Academywise’s attendance warning workflow. Your thresholds and letter wording must reflect your own published attendance policy and your obligations under the National Code.
Attendance comes straight from the roll
Trainers mark each session as present, absent, late, excused or not required. Academywise calculates a student’s attendance percentage as:
(present + late) ÷ all marks, excluding sessions marked not required
Because the calculation uses the same rolls trainers already mark, there’s no separate attendance spreadsheet to reconcile.
A staged ladder
Academywise’s default ladder has three stages:
| Stage | Default trigger | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| First warning | Attendance below 85% | A warning letter is prepared from attendance data |
| Second warning | Attendance below 80% | A second letter, with an intervention strategy recorded |
| Notice of intention to report | Still below 80% after the second warning | A notice with an appeal deadline 20 working days away |
The appeal deadline counts Monday-to-Friday working days. Withdrawn letters are ignored when working out the next stage.
Letters that are previewed, sent and logged
When a staff member issues a warning, they preview the letter first. They can email it to the student, which records it in the student’s communication log, and print a formatted copy. Letter wording ships as a draft for your compliance team to review.
What happens after a notice
For a notice of intention to report, staff can choose:
- Report in PRISMS: creates an attendance breach variation in the PRISMS register, with its 14-day due date, linked to the warning; or
- Appeal upheld: closes the warning with that outcome.
A register for the whole cohort
The ESOS attendance risk register lists every current international student, sorted by lowest attendance, with the letters already issued and the next action due. A Monday automated report emails the same view to the people responsible.
Questions to settle with your compliance team
- Do the default thresholds match your published attendance policy?
- Who approves intervention strategies at the second stage?
- Who decides appeals, and how is the outcome communicated?
- Who receives the weekly ESOS risk report?
This guide describes how Academywise works and is general information only. It isn't legal or compliance advice. Always confirm your obligations with the official sources linked above.