Overview
A leave application on paper gets signed, filed, and then someone still has to mark the register for each day. Here the application, the decision and the register are one step: when leave is approved, each working day is marked as leave on the staff attendance register or the daily register, and the person is told.
- Staff leave is decided by people with the Staff part of the dashboard set to Change.
- Students' leave is decided by people with the Attendance part set to Change, usually class teachers.
Either part opens the page; each person sees only the kinds of leave their access covers. See Team access.
Leave types
Staff leave comes in types, each with a yearly allowance. On the Leave types tab, Add the usual types gives you a starting point to change to your school's rules:
| Type | Starts with |
|---|---|
| Casual leave (CL) | 12 days a year, half days allowed |
| Sick leave (SL) | 10 days a year, a certificate after 3 days |
| Earned leave (EL) | 15 days a year, carried forward up to 30, can be encashed |
| Maternity leave (ML) | 182 days (26 weeks) |
| Leave without pay (LWP) | No limit kept; unpaid |
For each type you set the days a year (or no limit), whether it is paid, how much carries forward into the next year, whether it can be encashed, whether half days are allowed, and after how many days a certificate is needed. A type that has been used can be switched off but not deleted, so past leave keeps its name.
Students' leave has no types: a parent says why (unwell, a family function, travel or other).
How days are counted
Leave counts working days only. Sundays and the school's holidays are never counted, and under Leave rules you choose whether Saturdays are working days, every Saturday is off, or the second and fourth Saturdays are off. A half day counts as half.
The leave year starts in the month you choose (April by default, or January or June). Someone who joins during the year gets the months left of each allowance, rounded down to a half day.
Holidays
On the Holidays tab, add each holiday as one day or as a vacation from its first to its last day. With several schools, a holiday can be for every school or just one. Holidays are left out of every leave, shown on Who's away and on staff members' My work, and the daily register says when a day is a holiday.
Staff asking for leave
A staff member whose email is on your staff list sees My work in their menu once they sign in with that email. There they see what is left of each kind of leave this year, and can ask for leave: pick the type, the days (or a half day), write why, and send. Whoever decides staff leave is told.
They see each request's status, can withdraw one that hasn't been decided, and are told when it is decided. My work also shows the coming holidays and links to their payslips.
Parents asking for a child's leave
On the Parent Dashboard's Campus tab, under Leave from school, a parent picks why, the days (or a morning or afternoon only) and adds a note for the class teacher. Students with their own account can ask from their Campus page too. The class teacher (if they have a login) and the people who decide students' leave are told.
A family can ask up to a month back, so a note for a day already missed can come in afterwards; the office can record anything older.
Deciding
The Requests tab lists what is waiting, oldest first, with the days it counts. Staff leave shows how many days the person will have left afterwards, and a reminder to ask for a certificate when a type needs one. Press Approve, or Turn down with a note they will see.
Approving:
- marks each working day as leave (half day for a half day) on the register, changing only a day marked absent or not marked at all. A day someone was marked present stays present. Leave without pay, and any other unpaid type, is marked absent instead, so the salary's loss-of-pay counts it;
- for a teacher with a login, adds their leave to the timetable so cover can be arranged;
- tells the staff member, or the student and their parents.
Approved leave can be cancelled later. Cancelling takes it off the register again, putting back what was there, and leaves alone any day someone has changed since.
Recording leave at the office
Record leave enters leave on someone's behalf: a teacher who phoned in sick, a parent's handwritten note. Pick the person, the type or reason and the days. It is approved at once and marked on the register, and can go back further than a family's own request.
Balances, encashment and year end
The Staff balances tab shows each person's days left of each type with a yearly allowance. Tap a person to:
- set an opening balance (days carried from a paper register) or make a correction;
- encash days of a type that allows it. Encashed days are paid with the next salary run;
- see every change made to their balance this year.
When a leave year has ended, switch to Last leave year and press Close this year. Each balance either carries into the new year, up to the type's limit, or lapses. Running it twice changes nothing.
Who's away
The Who's away tab shows a month: each person on leave as a row, each day as a column, approved leave solid and waiting leave faded, with the month's holidays listed above.
Questions
A teacher doesn't see My work. Their staff record needs the same email address they sign in with. Check it on the Staff page.
Someone took more leave than their balance. You can still approve it; the balance goes below zero and shows in red. Record the extra as leave without pay instead if that is your rule.
A student was absent and the leave note came the next day. When the request is approved, that day's absence becomes leave on the register.