Roll Calls
ADAM allows for roll calls to be taken at school events. Roll calls can be scheduled either from the timetable, from a scheduler (for other non-academic purposes), or on an ad-hoc basis (e.g. sports practices).
Please note that the Roll Call module is intended to replace the Attendance Registers feature in ADAM. The Attendance Registers functionality will be removed during the course of 2026.
Taking a Roll Call
To take a roll call, there are two routes to the roll call screen.
Firstly, as a class’s teacher or eacher assistant, a roll-call option will appear next to the class in the Your Classes widget that appears on your ADAM home page. Simply click on the Roll call button to be taken to a roll call screen. If there are multiple roll calls open, a list of roll calls will be displayed for you to choose which one you want to take. If there is only one, ADAM will immediately skip to the page where you can record the attendance for that roll call.
The second method is via the menu: navigate to any one of the Pupils, Staff, or Classes tab, and, under the Roll Call heading, click on Take a roll call.
A list of all available roll calls will be listed for the logged in teacher. Click on the button next to the appropriate one to take the roll call.
Planned Absences
Adding a new Planned Absence
Where you are aware that a pupi is leaving the school for a period of time, a Panned Absence can be added to pre-populate the roll call.
To add a planned absence, navigate to Pupils → Roll Call → Record planned absences. ADAM will show you a list of current planned absences. This list includes and absences that will end at some point today, any current and ongoing absences, and any future dated absences.
Functionality to view a complete list of absences will be added in a future iteration.
Click on Add new planned absence at the top of the screen to add a new planned absence, and search for the pupil’s name in order to continue.
- Reason: This is the reason that will automatically be recorded in any roll calls that happen during the pupil’s absence.
- Starting and Ending: these indicate the time that the pupil will leave the school and the time that they will return. In the case of a day scholar leaving school, often a return time is not specifically relevant. ADAM will automatically select 23:59 on the same day to mean “the rest of the day”.
- Certainty: allows you to define whether teachers can override this particular absence in their roll calls or not. If you choose Definite, then ADAM will not allow the teacher to change this record when capturing their roll call.
- Notes allows you to put additional comments to explain this absence. Please be aware that these notes will be seen by the teacher taking the roll call and so should not contain overly sensitive information.
Click on Save to add this planned absence. The planned absence should now appear in the list of absences:
Editing a Planned Absence
Click on the edit icon next to the planned absence that you wish to edit.
Make the changes that you need and click on the Save button to record the changes.
Please note well:
- If you edit the times so that the planned absence is no longer “recent” (e.g. by selecting an Ending date that is long past), then the planned absence will no longer appear in the list of planned absences. Adding a new planned absence can replace the recently edited absence.
- Changing a planned absence has no bearing on any roll calls that have already been taken. For example, if we edit a planned absence at 1pm to change the return time from 2 pm to 12 noon, any roll calls that opened between 12 noon and 1 pm, when the change was made, will not be impacted. This does imply that prompt alteration to planned absences will be necessary.
Future Development
In future versions of ADAM, we will also allow planned absences to be added to the roll calls from the Leaves and Medical modules (off-sport, specifically, in respect to the medical module). We anticipate that Leaves will be active in January 2026, and off sport by the end of the first term of 2026).
Until then, however, planned absences will need to be added separately to record a pupil leaving the campus.
Configuring Roll Calls
In the Site Settings, The Cron Settings tab has a section with Roll Call settings.
Email Staff Reminders
The Send Reminders and Reminder Time settings allow ADAM to send your teachers reminders if their roll calls are not recorded before the time, specified in Reminder Time, has elapsed after the close of the roll call session.
The email that is sent to staff can be customised (as can most automated emails sent by ADAM) be editing the Roll Call Email Message Template.
Opening and Closing Roll Calls
ADAM will allow roll calls to be taken from a specific time before the roll call is due to start (defined by the Open Roll Call setting) and will allow the roll call to be completed up until the time specified in Close Roll Call. Please make sure that the Close Roll Call time is sufficiently greater than the Send Reminders time, otherwise your teachers may either be asked to complete a roll call that is going to close imminently, or may already be closed.
If the roll call is closed, no reminder will be sent. This means, for example, if your Close Roll Call time is set to 1 hour, but your Send Reminders time is set to 2 hours, no reminders will be sent since the roll calls will already when the reminders are due to be sent.
Adding Roll Calls
Each morning at 5am, ADAM scheduled the roll calls that are due to happen each day. At this time, ADAM can optionally look at the timetable module in order to schedule a roll call for each lesson that is scheduled to take place that day. The “start” and “end” of the roll call are based on the start and end times of the lesson, as configured in the daily schedule.
When set to Yes, lessons are added. If set to No ADAM does not use the timetable and will not create lesson roll calls.
Scheduling Roll Calls
Each morning at 5am, ADAM will look to see what roll calls need to be taken for the day and schedule them. Ideally, any changes that need to be made (such as schedules or special arrangements) will be done the day prior so that roll calls are created accurately.
Note that because this scheduling is done at 5am each day, if you make any changes to ADAM, the first time you’ll see those changes is tomorrow, after the scheduler has run!
Roll Calls can be created from three sources:
On-Demand Roll Calls
If a roll call needs to be taken but has not been scheduled, it is possible for a teacher to add an “on-demand” roll call. To do this, click on the option to “take a roll call”, as normal, and, at the top, choose the option to “Add an on-demand roll call”:
Now choose the Class and the Start and End times for the roll call:
Click on the Add roll call button when finished.
If the roll call is able to be taken, according to the times set for opening and closing roll calls, ADAM will immediately display the roll call. If the roll call is not current, then the list of roll calls will be displayed again.
Timetabled Lessons
ADAM can automatically add all timetabled lessons as roll calls. This must be enabled in the site settings. Any lessons that are scheduled for the day will have roll calls added. This means that if classes go away on tours, for example, that their lessons be removed from the timetable calendar. If there are schedule changes, these should also be adjusted in the timetable.
Scheduled Roll Calls
ADAM has a basic Roll Call scheduler that allows you to schedule roll calls for specific days in the week for either a single class (e.g. “Marimba Band”), or all classes within a subject (e.g. “Registration Class”).
To add a Scheduled Roll Call, navigate to Administration → Roll Call → Manage scheduled roll calls. Click on the New roll call schedule to add a new roll-call.
- A Schedule Name allows you to refer back to this schedule more easily in the future.
- The Type specifies whether you want to choose a single class or a subject. If you choose a subject, all classes within that subject will have a roll-call scheduled.
- The Repeat From and Repeat Until dates specify when ADAM will start processing this schedule and when it will end. Note that the last roll call will be on the “until” date specified.
- Add in a Roll Call Start Time and a Roll Call End Time. These times will determine when teachers can take their roll calls, and so should match up with the expected time frames of the activity or registration session.
- Finally, specify which Week days this roll call is limited to.
Example:
A school has a morning roll call that is taken at 07h30 on Monday, Tuesday and Thurday, and at 08h00 on Wednesday and Friday morningsa, two schedules would need to be added: one for each set times:
- Schedule 1:
- Name: Mon, Tue, Thu Registration
- Type: Subject
- Subject: Registration class
- Repeat From: 15 Jan
- Repeat Until: 30 Mar
- Roll Call Start Time: 07h30
- Roll Call Finish Time: 07h40
- Week days: Mon, Tue, Thu
- Schedule 2:
- Name: Wed & Fri Registration
- Type: Subject
- Subject: RegistReject Application will remove the application from the pileration class
- Repeat From: 15 Jan
- Repeat Until: 30 Mar
- Roll Call Start Time: 08h00
- Roll Call Finish Time: 18h10
- Week days: Wed, Fri
Note that the ability to create exceptions (e.g. public and other school holidays) will come in time.
