You must have an electronic register
All schools, except for boarding-only schools, are required to have an attendance register. You must include all pupils, regardless of their age, on this register.
In a boarding school, if you have any day-pupils, you must keep an attendance register for them. However, there's no requirement to do so for your boarding pupils.
The statutory requirements for the register are set out in the guidance on working together to improve attendance and legislation, which we refer to throughout this article.
Use an electronic management information system (MIS) to keep your attendance register
This expectation is set out in paragraph 35 of the attendance guidance.
Give the DfE access to your MIS, to help you fulfil the requirement to share your daily attendance data (see paragraph 51 of the guidance, linked above).
You must take the attendance register at the start of the morning session
