Newsletter Spring 2019/2020

 Welcome to our Spring Newsletter

We hope everyone had a fantastic break over the Christmas holidays.

New Feature - Changing the number of years in Key Stage 5 from 2 to 3

SOLAR uses the Department for Education recognised key stages. However, we are aware that some schools use key stage 5 for 3 years rather than the standard 2.

So that these schools can use the target/progression feature on SOLAR for 3 years rather than 2 we have added a setting in SOLAR which allow schools to make this change.

Firstly you need to switch on the feature in Admin>Settings>Assessment

Secondly, you need to move your Year 14 to Key Stage 5 in Admin>Lists>Year Groups

For details of how to use this new feature please click here

New Feature - Enhanced IEP Display

We have made changes to the IEP list display to give you the ability to sort IEPs as well as find the IEP you are looking for with ease.

  1. We have added a Tutor Group list to the table.
  2. We have added Year/Term term display to the table.
  3. We have added a new search function so as well as searching for a pupil you can now search by any value in any of the tables.

Delete Function Removed 

We often get issues from schools that have deleted Levels, Subjects or Statements that have assessment in them and subsequently have lots all evidence and assessment in them.

We have added a software enhancement to SOLAR that recognises when a level, subject or statement contains assessment and if so then removes the delete button.

If schools wish to delete a subject, statement or level that contains assessment then they can do so via the Help Desk at support@solarforschools.org.uk

Our Help Desk will explain the consequences fully and if schools still wish to go ahead this will then be done for them.

Baseline Additional Checks

We have found many instances where schools have baselined their pupils more than once which then causes the pupil's progression to be incorrect. 

To prevent instances of "double baselines" we have now created a software enhancement that checks if a pupil has already been baselined and if so the 'Baseline For Year' will be greyed out and cannot be selected.

If a school wishes to change a pupils baseline they can do so clicking 'Clear Level' to clear out the current baseline (if this is enabled on their SOLAR permissions) and they will then be able to re-baseline the pupil. If this feature in not in your SOLAR permissions then you need to contact your SOLAR Administrator to help you with this.

IEP Error Message

We have made some enhancements to SOLAR to improve the way the software works and complete additional data checks to highlight where schools may have missing, incomplete or incorrect data. On SOLAR each pupil must be in a tutor group and where this is not the case the IEP function will generate errors. Please see the item below for more information.

Pupil Record Only Displaying Tutor Groups

On SOLAR all pupils must to be in a Tutor Group and that is recorded in their pupil record. However, they can be in as many teaching/ad-hoc groups as you like where their names are added in Admin>Lists>Classes. 

In the pupil record, we have enhanced our software so only Tutor Groups will display and can be selected in the drop-down menu.

Software Enhancement - Numerical Output to excel.

We often get requests from school's who want their data to output into different sorts of graphs or charts.

We have added an enhancement to SOLAR where even when using a framework with P-levels you can tell SOLAR to output numerically by selecting 'Progress in Decimal'.  This works for the Achievement and Performance Reports.

Once the data has exported to excel numerically all you need to do is highlight your data and select which chart you would like.

In the example below I selected a cluster chart.

Enhanced Reports 

We have added an enhancement to the IEP and Group Attainment reports so you can now see which pupils are in each group in the report by simply hovering over the bars within the chart.

Thank you

k