If you teach pupils on behalf of schools or local authorities, they often need to know whether those pupils turned up. Bobbin's Studybugs integration shares that information for you. It sends the pupils you teach and their attendance from your completed Lessons to Studybugs, so you don't have to fill in attendance spreadsheets or send separate reports.

This article explains what Studybugs is, what Bobbin sends to it and why, and how to set it up.

Studybugs is an attendance and safeguarding platform used across the UK by schools, alternative provisions and local authorities. Schools use it to track attendance and hear from parents about absences. Local authorities use it to see live attendance for the children they're responsible for, including children who are taught somewhere other than their main school.

In Studybugs, a tutoring company is set up as its own "school", with its own school ID. Within Studybugs, you then choose which school or local authority each pupil's attendance is shared with. That part is set up in Studybugs, not in Bobbin.

Many tutoring companies provide tuition or alternative provision that a school or local authority has arranged, for example for a pupil who has been excluded, is too unwell to attend school, or needs extra support away from their usual classroom. The school or local authority is still responsible for that child, so it needs to know whether they're attending.

Without the integration, you'd have to collect attendance from your Lessons and send it on yourself. With it, Bobbin uses the attendance it already records for every Lesson, online or in person, and passes it to Studybugs automatically. The school or local authority sees it alongside the rest of the child's attendance.

If the schools and local authorities you work with don't use Studybugs, or haven't asked you to share attendance through it, you don't need to set this up.

When a Student is sent to Studybugs, Bobbin shares two things about them: their entry on your pupil list, and their attendance.

The pupil list tells Studybugs who your pupils are. For each Student, Bobbin sends:

Bobbin sends your whole pupil list every time. Studybugs treats each list as your complete roll, so any pupil who isn't on the latest list is removed from your Studybugs account. If a pupil has finished with you but you want their record to stay in Studybugs, keep them on the list, turn off On roll, and add their leaving date.

Studybugs records attendance the way schools do, in a morning session and an afternoon session for each day. Bobbin places each completed Lesson in the morning session if it starts before midday (in your company's timezone) and in the afternoon session if it starts at midday or later. Then, for each Student:

Only completed Lessons count. Upcoming and canceled Lessons are never sent.

Bobbin doesn't send Lesson recordings, transcripts, Lesson Reports, Progress Reports, Course details or any information about your Clients. Studybugs only receives the pupil list and attendance as described above.

You'll need a school ID and a session token from Studybugs. Email [email protected] to get them.

The page then shows when your pupil list and attendance were last sent.

Studybugs only receives Students who have a surname and a joined date. Any Student without both is left off the pupil list, along with their attendance.

If any Students are missing a joined date, they're listed under Students not sent on the Studybugs settings page, and Administrators get an email listing them after each sync. Click View on students list to see them all together.

On the Students page you can filter by Missing joined date or by whether Students are sent to Studybugs, and click Download roll to export the roll.

The Students sent to Studybugs table on the Studybugs settings page lists every Student. To stop sending a Student, untick the Send box next to their name. Use the All students, Switched on and Switched off filters to check who's included.

Switching a Student off removes them from the next pupil list, which means Studybugs removes them from your account. If you switch them back on later, they keep the same Studybugs ID they had before.

A few things to keep in mind:

To pause sending, click Edit connection and untick Send the roll and attendance to Studybugs. To stop for good, click Disconnect. Either way, Studybugs keeps the last pupil list and attendance it received. To reconnect after disconnecting, you'll need a session token from Studybugs support.

Why does Studybugs say my token was rejected?
Studybugs no longer accepts the session token Bobbin is using, so Bobbin stops sending until it's replaced. Email [email protected] for a new token, then go to Workspace > Settings > Studybugs, click Edit connection, and enter it in the New session token field.

What does "The last sync failed" mean?
Bobbin couldn't send your information to Studybugs. The message on the Studybugs settings page explains why, for example that none of your Students have a surname and joined date yet. Once you've fixed the problem, click Test connection to try again straight away, or wait for the next sync.

Why isn't one of my Students showing in Studybugs?
Studybugs only receives Students who have a surname and a joined date. Check the Student's School roll card for a joined date, then make sure their Send box is ticked in the Students sent to Studybugs table on the Studybugs settings page.

Why isn't a Lesson's attendance showing in Studybugs?
Bobbin only sends attendance for completed Lessons. Check the Lesson has been marked complete. Once it has, its attendance is sent shortly afterwards.