Marking the roll is the day-to-day operational task at every co-curricular session. The roll page is designed for use on a tablet or phone at the venue, in the field, in the rehearsal room — wherever the session runs.
Opening today’s roll
Coaches see today’s sessions on the Coach Overview page:
- Every session they’re assigned to today.
- Status of the roll (not started, in progress, completed).
- Quick links to roll-mark, view team and contact parents.
Tap a session to open its roll.
The roll page
The roll shows every student on the team for this session. For each student you can mark:
- Present — student is here.
- Absent (unexplained) — student is not here and hasn’t notified anyone.
- Absent (explained) — student is not here and the absence was recorded ahead of time (see Creating known absences).
- Late — student arrived after the session started.
Default is not yet marked. You need to take an action on every student before the roll can be closed.
Quick actions
The roll page supports rapid marking:
- Tap to cycle — single-tap a student to cycle through present → absent → late → not marked.
- Mark all present — bulk action for sessions where everyone’s there. Use as a starting point and adjust the exceptions.
- Mark remaining absent — at the end of the session, mark anyone unmarked as absent.
Notes per student
Add a note on any individual student — e.g. left early for medical appointment, arrived 15 min late, no apology. Notes are kept with the roll record and surface in attendance reports.
Recording incidents
If something happens that needs reporting (injury, behaviour issue), tap Add incident on the roll page. This opens the incident form configured for the activity group — typically a short structured form. The incident is saved against the session and the student.
Closing the roll
When the session ends:
- Make sure every student is marked.
- Choose Close roll.
Closed rolls feed into attendance reports. Open rolls show as incomplete and skew the numbers.
A coach can reopen a closed roll if a correction is needed — the original and corrected entries are both in the audit log.
Automatic SMS for unexplained absences
If your school has the auto-SMS template configured (see Setting up automatic SMS for unexplained absences), parents of students marked absent without explanation get an SMS automatically — after the configured delay.
The delay gives families a chance to update PortalHQ with the absence reason before the message goes out, reducing unnecessary contacts.
Attendance reports
Go to Co-Curricular → Reports → Attendance for cross-session views:
- Per-student — full attendance history for a student across the term.
- Per-team — attendance rate per team.
- Per-session — session-by-session totals.
- Unexplained absence patterns — students with repeated unexplained absences.
Export to CSV for follow-up calls or for report-card purposes.
Tips
- Mark the roll on the day. Late marking blurs the picture and undermines the SMS workflow.
- Use notes for nuance. Left early for school commitment is more useful than just absent.
- Close the roll before you leave. Open rolls clutter reports and miss the auto-SMS trigger.
- Catch patterns early. A student with three unexplained absences in a row is worth a personal phone call.