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School

Run your school in one place: classes and students, scores from every teacher, report cards and broadsheets, the daily register, timetables and homework, notices and the calendar, fees and family pages, and admissions. Families open results from a private link or a PIN card.

Open SchoolAbout School

Set up

  1. 1Name the school and choose its country. It starts with that country's usual grading, terms, tests and report card; change any of it in Settings.
  2. 2In Settings, add the logo, the stamp and the head's signature, and choose the colour of the report cards.
  3. 3Add your classes. Each starts with every subject; tick and untick them under Subjects and teachers.
  4. 4Add students one by one, or Import the list you keep in Excel or CSV. Classes are made as they are found.

Scores

  1. 1Open a class, then Scores, then a subject. Type each mark: Enter moves down the column, and everything saves by itself.
  2. 2A mark above a test's maximum turns red and is not saved until it is fixed.
  3. 3Teachers without an account: under Subjects and teachers, press Send a link beside the subject and send it on WhatsApp. It opens only that subject in that class. Make a new link to stop the old one.
  4. 4Teachers on your team see only the classes they teach or look after.

The register

  1. 1Open a class: it opens on its Register. Everyone starts present; tap L for late, A for absent or E for absent with permission, add a reason if you know it, then Save the register.
  2. 2Use the arrows or the date to take or correct a day gone by. In Settings, Attendance, choose one register a day or a morning and an afternoon register.
  3. 3After saving, Tell the families lists each absent student with a WhatsApp message ready for their parent. On Pro, Email families emails every guardian with an address, once.
  4. 4Class teacher without an account? Register link makes a private link they open on their phone each morning.
  5. 5This term shows each student's days present, late and absent and their attendance. Anyone under 90% is in red. Register book downloads it all in Excel.
  6. 6Today, on the school's home, shows which registers are taken, how many are in and who is away.

ID cards and scanning

  1. 1ID cards prints a class's cards, ten to an A4 sheet at bank-card size, with each student's photo, class, admission number and a QR code. Add photos in each student's details.
  2. 2Scan cards at the gate (on Today) or in a class: hold each card up to the phone's camera. The student is marked present, or late after the time set in Settings, Attendance.
  3. 3A student marked absent who arrives later is changed to late, with the time their card was scanned.
  4. 4Someone who finds a lost card and scans it sees only your school's name and phone number, never the child's details.

Comments and ratings

  1. 1Under Comments, the class teacher writes a comment for each student; tap a suggestion to start from it. The head's comment is for an admin.
  2. 2Ratings marks conduct and skills from 1 to 5. Choose which ones in Settings.
  3. 3Days present on report cards come from the register. Type a number under Comments to use your own instead, or set the days open for the term in Settings.

Results and report cards

  1. 1Results shows every student's totals, grades, average and position, and each subject's class average.
  2. 2Report cards downloads one PDF page per student. On Pro, Broadsheet downloads the class's results in Excel.
  3. 3Publish to families gives each student a private link, to copy or send on WhatsApp. Publish changes updates them; Take down hides them.
  4. 4On Pro, Result PINs makes printable cards. Families enter the admission number and PIN on your school's result checker page.
  5. 5On the last term of the year, results and report cards also show each earlier term's total, the year's average and the year's position. Turn this off in Settings, Grading.

Families

  1. 1Brothers and sisters are grouped into a family by a parent's phone or email, when you add them or import them. See them under Families.
  2. 2Open a family to see the children, the parents' contacts and what they owe. Move a child to another family, or merge two families that are one household.
  3. 3On Pro, Make the family page gives the family one private link: every child's report cards, attendance this term, bills, receipts and how to pay you. Send it on WhatsApp, or tick families and email them their link.

Fees

  1. 1Under Fees, Settings, add your bank details and a note for every bill, choose the currency, and set a sibling discount if you give one. Families pay you straight; ToolkitDeck never holds their money.
  2. 2Under Fee items, list what you charge: every term (tuition, levies), once for new students (admission, uniform), or only for those who take it (the bus, lunch). Limit a fee to some classes or to one term.
  3. 3Under Bills, press Prepare bills. Each student gets a draft with their fees, the sibling discount for the second child onwards, and any discount set in their details. Check them, then Issue: each gets its number.
  4. 4Change an issued bill with Adjust, for an excursion or an agreed reduction, or cancel it. Anything paid towards a cancelled bill becomes credit.
  5. 5Under Payments, Record a payment: choose the family, the child it is for if it is for one, the amount, how and when. Payments settle the oldest bills first, and the receipt says the sum in words.
  6. 6Families can tell you they have paid from their page. Check your account, then confirm it on the Fees overview, and their receipt appears on their page; or decline it with a reason.
  7. 7Owing lists every family that owes, most first, with a WhatsApp reminder ready for each. On Pro, tick families to email them a reminder; nobody is emailed more than once every three days.
  8. 8The cash book shows money received by day and by how it came, to count against your bank. Every list downloads to Excel.
  9. 9Give your bursar fees without the rest of the school: invite them in Settings, Team, then tick them under Fees, Settings, Bursars. Teachers never see fees.
  10. 10If you hold report cards until fees are paid, turn it on in Fees, Settings. A child's results wait only while their own fees for that term or before are unpaid.

Notices and the calendar

  1. 1Under Notices, write a notice for every family, the families of some classes, or staff only. Choose a later time to keep it hidden until then, and a day to take it down.
  2. 2Each notice shows on the family page. Send it by email to its families on Pro, or share it on WhatsApp. If the day's email limit stops it part way, Email the rest the next day carries on without sending twice.
  3. 3Tick Show it on the school's website too to put a notice in your website's notices widget.
  4. 4Under Calendar, add holidays, exams, meetings and events. A holiday closes the register on those days. Term dates set in Settings appear by themselves.
  5. 5Families can add the school's calendar to their phones from their family page; it keeps itself up to date.

Timetables, homework and lesson notes

  1. 1Under Teaching, The school day, set the days the school opens and its periods and breaks.
  2. 2Open a class, then Timetable, and tap a period to fill it. The subject's teacher goes in by itself. A teacher or a room already busy then is refused, saying which class has them. Print it as a PDF.
  3. 3Teachers see their own week under Teaching, My week; an admin can see any teacher's.
  4. 4Under a class's Homework, its teachers set work with a due date. Families see it on their family page.
  5. 5Teachers write a lesson note for each subject and week under Teaching and send it to the head, who approves it or returns it with a comment.
  6. 6Today shows what is waiting: payments to check, new applications, lesson notes to review, this term's fees, and the week ahead.

Admissions

  1. 1On Business, open Admissions, The form. Tick Taking applications, write what families should know, choose the classes taking new students, set any application fee, and add questions of your own.
  2. 2Share the form's address on your website, flyers and WhatsApp. Families apply on their phones, pay any fee to your account and give the reference.
  3. 3Each applicant moves from New to an exam or interview (with the day, time and what to bring), to an offer with its letter, and the family is emailed at each step.
  4. 4The family accepts the place from their own link. Then press Enrol: the child becomes a student in the offered class, with any brothers or sisters already at the school.
  5. 5Add an applicant yourself for a family who came in person. Download every application to Excel.

Your school's website

  1. 1On Business, Settings, On your school's website gives the code for your website: one line of script, then a line for each widget.
  2. 2The widgets are the admissions form, your public notices, the calendar and the result checker. Each grows to fit its place on the page.

The end of the year

  1. 1In Settings, under the school year, press Close the year and move up.
  2. 2Each class is matched to the class above it, like JSS 1A to JSS 2A, and the top class finishes school. Change any of them.
  3. 3Students whose year average is under the promotion mark are suggested to repeat. Choose Move up, Repeat or Leaves for anyone.
  4. 4Starting the new year keeps last year's classes, results and report cards exactly as they were. Until the first scores of the new year are entered, you can undo it.
  5. 5Several schools or campuses? Add them in Settings, Your schools, and switch between them at the top.

Documents

  1. 1Every student has a Documents section in their details: each type the school asks for (birth certificate, passport photo, previous school's report and any you add) shows as received, missing, expired or expiring soon.
  2. 2Add a document from this device, from Drive or as a photo, or tick Paper copy seen. Replacing one keeps the earlier version, and every opening is recorded.
  3. 3The Documents tab shows what each class is still missing. Remind every family (or one class) by email with their family page link, at most every few days, or send a WhatsApp message to one family.
  4. 4Families send photos or PDFs from their family page, and applicants from their application page; these show as From the family until you mark them checked. When an applicant is enrolled, their documents move to the student.
  5. 5School documents (licence, policies, staff handbook) are read by everyone in the school. Staff documents are for admins only. Class teachers see their own class's documents.
  6. 6In Document types, add your own, and mark which are required at admission and which expire. Health and medical papers are not kept here.
  7. 7Uploading files needs a plan that keeps files, so nothing is ever cleared; on any plan you can tick Paper copy seen.

Good to know

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