Newsletter Summer 2018/2019
Welcome to the 2018/2019
Welcome
Firstly, may we wish a warm welcome to the many new schools that have joined us over the past few months. Our Newsletters are sent out each term and contain many useful reminders as well as details of the new features we have added to SOLAR and some additional information that you may find useful.
IEPs Polite Reminder
Please do not delete IEP statuses unless they have never been used or you are moving IEPs to an alternative status as this will then cause many problems when you are trying to view previous IEPs.
Level Steps Error Message
If you have made changes to an assessment framework. Fox example adding or removing subjects or statements and then go to set targets SOLAR will display the following error message with a click here message at the bottom. This is due to SOLAR needing to be refreshed to recognise the changes that you have made. Please follow the instruction and click the word ‘here’ and this will refresh SOLAR for you.
New Form – Mealtime Plan
We wish to thank Victoria School Birmingham for funding a fantastic new form on SOLAR and being kind enough to share this with other schools. The new Mealtime Plan is now live for all schools to use if they wish to and can be customised by adding custom fields.
New Custom Field – Text Area
We have added a new custom field called ‘Text Area’. Unlike a Text Box a Text Area can hold multiple lines of text so there is no limit to the amount of information that you can provide within it. Don’t forget you can drag and drop or cut and paste into SOLAR
The Fundamentals of SOLAR.
SOLAR works on the fundamental basis that
Classes are attached to Teachers
Assessment Frameworks are attached to Classes.
What is the difference between Classes, Tutor Groups and Teaching Groups?
Within the pupil record you have their class name; this is their tutor group. If you wish to change the class/tutor group you change this in the pupil record.
PLEASE NOTE: Pupils can only be in 1 tutor group, but they can be in many classes.
If you need to make an afterschool Maths Class, you would create the class in Admin>Lists>Classes>Add Class.
You would give the class a name and select ‘Teaching Group’. You would then add the pupils by typing the first 3 letters of their name.
Once you have added all of your pupils to the class you can then allocate a whole assessment framework or a subject within a framework by typing the first 3 letters and selecting.
Don’t forget to Save
The class would then need to be allocated to a teacher.
To do this go to Admin>Users>Click Edit User (next to the teacher that you wish to assign to the class>
Select the class from the list and tick the box.
Testimonials
“A huge thank you! I would have waited forever with the company we used prior to SOLAR. I have another headteacher coming next week to look at SOLAR and this is yet another piece of evidence to show them why they should go with you. Thank you for helping without fuss and being so efficient, as always.”
“I have always found the support email service really helpful and timely in responding, and I’m also a big advocate for SOLAR when talking to other schools about assessment systems.”
New Feature: Sort By Header
Under the admin section we have added the ability to interact with the Pupils (Admin>Pupils) and Users (Admin>User) tables.
In these tables you can now use the following functions:
Searching (you can search for pupils by name and class.)
Sorting (you can sort by clicking on any of the headings)
Pagination (you can show up to 100 pupils on a single page or navigate to a different page if there are more than 100 pupils.
Important End Of Year Actions
Term Dates
We highlighted in a previous newsletter that schools should set their terms dates for the next academic year and beyond. This ensures that users can log into SOLAR when they return from the summer break. It also allows any KS targets to be saved for following years
You must ADD your term dates for the new academic year. If you do not do this Users will not be able to login to SOLAR until this has been done.
Go to: Admin>List>Term Dates>Add Term and Add your new terms.
Don’t forget to select the correct academic year from the drop-down list
click SAVE.
Note: You can do this at any time and we recommend that you do this before you break up for the summer.
Pupil Records
SOLAR updates the Year Group and Key Stage automatically on 1st September.
The only change to existing pupils is to change their class.
To do this go to: -
Admin>Pupils, select the pupil and change their class from the drop-down list.
If you need to add a new class (tutor group), go to
Admin>Lists>Classes>Add Class.
The new class will then appear in the drop-down list in the pupil record.
If you need to re-name a class, go to
Admin>Lists>Classes. Click Edit next to the class name and amend the class name.
Don’t forget to click “Save”.
Any new pupils can be added in one of 2 ways
1. If you only have a few new pupils starting you can manually add them by going to Admin>Pupils>Add Pupil
2. You can run a Pupil Report. Go to
- Reporting>Pupil Information Reports>Pupil Report.
- Select the Excel output.
- Add your new pupils
- Update existing pupils’ classes and
- Send to support@solarforschools.org.uk
We will check the data and then upload to your SOLAR for you.
There is no charge for this service
-------------------PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE LAYOUT, DATA TYPE OR FORMAT-------------------
Dates need to be in the format dd/mm/yyyy e.g. 01/09/2018
Please use a 1 for yes and a 0 (zero) for No
Note: If you download the pupil report BEFORE the automatic update of Year Group and Key Stage takes place on 1st September you MUST send the file to us by 25th Augustat the latest.
Pupils who have left the school should be archived by going to Admin>Pupils and clicking the spot next to edit. You can also “Archive” a pupil by going into Edit and clicking on the Archive option at the bottom of the page.
Help Desk
Our Help Desk is open Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 16:30 pm.
You can contact the Help Desk by email or phone. We prefer email, as this creates a written record of your request and ensures that information can be passed efficiently between team members. It also helps us manage our work flow and prioritise our response more effectively.
support@solarforschools.org.uk
Sometimes we need specific information to diagnose a problem. If you see an error message, please tell us what it says. If it’s relevant, we may also need to know the assessment framework, subject, pupil, level and even the statement and star.
You can take a snapshot of your screen by using the Windows snipping tool or Apple’s screenshot facility and attach the image to your email. You can also show us a SOLAR screen by copying and pasting the URL into your email.
It would also be helpful for you to include your school name in the request as some e-mail addresses do not indicate which school you are in 😊
End Of Year Reports
Please note that all reports must be pulled prior to the new academic year beginning.
Please take a look and follow our newly created SOLAR for Schools business page on LinkedIn. We would greatly appreciate it if anyone would like to share stories, photos or testimonials about SOLAR on our page.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/solar-for-schools/?viewAsMember=true
