Documentation
Training
How the training runs
The training for Kestrel is this page and the guides by role. Both are published in full, free to read and with no account, so a school trains its own staff with them and anyone can read them before the school signs.
Each role has a short course of sessions. Each member of staff starts with the first session, then takes the course for their role. A session names the tasks it covers, what to practise, and how the trainee and whoever runs the session know it is learned. Somebody who already does the job runs it best.
Practice happens on the school's own record, and nothing is invented for it. A student made up to rehearse a merit would reach the roll, the census and the audit trail. So reading is practised on real records straight away, and a change is made for the next real case that arrives, with the guide open and a colleague who has done it before beside you.
Finding your way, for each member of staff
20 minutes
- Practise
- Sign in on the device you use at work and add a passkey. Find three students you know by name, one of them by a former or preferred name, and read each record's tabs. Read your own day and a colleague's.
- You have it when
- You sign in without an emailed code, and you open a named student's record from the band in under ten seconds.
Registrar
125 minutes, counting the first session. Read the Registrar guide.
Keeping the record right
30 minutes
- Open a record for a new person
- Correct or add a name
- Record who may collect a student and who hears from the school
- Merge two records for one person
- Practise
- Read "Who acts for this student" on five students you know and check it against what the family told you. Do each of these for the next real case that arrives, with the guide open and a colleague who has done it before beside you.
- You have it when
- You can say, for any student, who may collect them and who receives reports, and you have approved or declined a proposed merge with its reason written.
From enquiry to start
45 minutes
- Record an enquiry
- Move an application on
- Ask for a document and record a payment
- Make an offer and record the answer
- Ask families whether their children continue
- Practise
- Open the board, filter it by each rung of the ladder, and open three applications to read their timeline and what is still owed. Do each of these for the next real case that arrives, with the guide open and a colleague who has done it before beside you.
- You have it when
- You have moved a real application one rung, recorded a document arriving, and can say which offers lapse this week.
Health statements, messages and settings
30 minutes
- Record an immunisation statement
- Send a message to families
- Publish a message template
- Change the admissions ladder
- Practise
- Read the immunisation list for one year level, and read "Messages" to see where the last message sent got to. Do each of these for the next real case that arrives, with the guide open and a colleague who has done it before beside you.
- You have it when
- You can explain what each rung of the school's ladder does when an application reaches it, and why a row under a message reads "Not sent".
Front office
90 minutes, counting the first session. Read the Front office guide.
The counter in the morning
30 minutes
- Record a late arrival or an early departure
- Approve the replies to unexplained absences
- Approve or withdraw an absence
- Practise
- Read today's "Unexplained absences" and last week's "Absences", and match three replies to the students they explain. Do each of these for the next real case that arrives, with the guide open and a colleague who has done it before beside you.
- You have it when
- You have recorded a real late arrival, approved the morning's replies under the right code, and withdrawn nothing you did not mean to.
Families, staff and the timetable
40 minutes
- Give a parent access to the family portal
- Record a relief or a room change
- Run parent-teacher interviews
- Record a working with children check
- Send a message to families
- Record an enquiry from a family
- Practise
- Read today's "Variations" and the "Staff" register, and name each person whose required check is missing or has run out. Do each of these for the next real case that arrives, with the guide open and a colleague who has done it before beside you.
- You have it when
- You have recorded a relief the roll then shows, and you can check a parent's standing on a child before giving them family access.
Teacher
80 minutes, counting the first session. Read the Teacher guide.
The roll and the markbook
30 minutes
- Practise
- Mark your next class's roll from the console, then open one of your classes in "Assessment" and read its tasks. Set your next real task and enter its marks as they come in.
- You have it when
- Your rolls are submitted within the lesson, and a colleague reading your markbook sees each task's weight and who is missing a mark.
Wellbeing and health in class
20 minutes
- Practise
- Open the action plan of each student in your classes who has one. Do each of these for the next real case that arrives, with the guide open and a colleague who has done it before beside you.
- You have it when
- You know which of your students have an action plan and where it is kept, and you can say when to tick "Restricted" on an entry.
Rooms and resources
10 minutes
- Practise
- Open "Rooms" under "Timetable", read the week of a room you teach in, and book it for your next real meeting or activity.
- You have it when
- You can book a room or a resource at a time no lesson is in it, and cancel a booking of your own.
Head of house or year
60 minutes, counting the first session. Read the Head of house or year guide.
Oversight of a cohort
40 minutes
- Record a pastoral entry
- Set a pastoral alert
- Issue a detention or a suspension
- Open and run a case
- Act on a step waiting on you
- Practise
- Read the "Wellbeing" section of five students in your house, including their alerts and any open case. Do each of these for the next real case that arrives, with the guide open and a colleague who has done it before beside you.
- You have it when
- You have written an alert whose notice a relief teacher could act on without reading why, and you can close a case you lead.
Wellbeing
60 minutes, counting the first session. Read the Wellbeing guide.
The pastoral record
40 minutes
- Practise
- Read the cases your team is running and the sittings already scheduled. Do each of these for the next real case that arrives, with the guide open and a colleague who has done it before beside you.
- You have it when
- You can say who reads a restricted entry and who reads only that it exists, and next week's sittings have places for the detentions issued.
Learning support
50 minutes, counting the first session. Read the Learning support guide.
The NCCD register
30 minutes
- Practise
- Read the register for the students you support. Do each of these for the next real case that arrives, with the guide open and a colleague who has done it before beside you.
- You have it when
- You can say which students have an open adjustment, and each one you are following has its evidence recorded.
Child safety officer
50 minutes, counting the first session. Read the Child safety officer guide.
Concerns and the statutory clock
30 minutes
- Practise
- Read "Open concerns across the school" and each concern's "Due by". Do each of these for the next real case that arrives, with the guide open and a colleague who has done it before beside you.
- You have it when
- You can say how many business days the school's state allows, and no concern you hold reads "Overdue".
Nurse
100 minutes, counting the first session. Read the Nurse guide.
The medical record
40 minutes
- Practise
- Read the health centre register by kind, and "Action plans" in "Medical" for the plans needed and due. Do each of these for the next real case that arrives, with the guide open and a colleague who has done it before beside you.
- You have it when
- Each notice you write is one line a teacher can act on, and you can name the plans that fall due this term.
Medication and sick bay
40 minutes
- Give and correct a dose
- Record a visit to sick bay
- Follow an injury or illness as a case
- Approve the medical details a family confirmed
- Practise
- Read today's "Medications" and "Sick bay". Do each of these for the next real case that arrives, with the guide open and a colleague who has done it before beside you.
- You have it when
- You have given and logged a real dose with its witness, recorded a visit's departure, and approved or declined a family's confirmation.
Principal and executive
60 minutes, counting the first session. Read the Principal and executive guide.
What the principal answers for
40 minutes
- Record a court order
- Protect where a family lives
- Read the audit trail
- Record and answer a privacy request
- Read and record child-safety concerns
- Read the health centre register
- Practise
- Read the audit trail for one student's record over the last week, and read the privacy register. Record the next real court order or privacy request with the guide open.
- You have it when
- You can say who read a given record and when, and each privacy request is inside the dates the Privacy Policy publishes.
Business manager
90 minutes, counting the first session. Read the Business manager guide.
Fees and the staff register
40 minutes
- Practise
- Read "Fees" on three students with separated families. Run an HRIS import with "Show me what it would do" first, which writes nothing, before running it.
- You have it when
- Each fee split sums to the whole, and each row an import could not decide is settled.
The school's configuration
30 minutes
- Practise
- Read the calendar for this year and the follow-up time for each campus, and check both against the school's own calendar.
- You have it when
- Each term's days are marked with their bells, and follow-ups go out at the time the school expects.
IT
100 minutes, counting the first session. Read the IT guide.
Access and sign-in
40 minutes
- Give somebody a role
- Compose a role of the school's own
- Connect the school's directory
- Issue an API token
- Practise
- Read Settings, Staff accounts and check each staff member has the roles their job needs and nothing more. Connect the directory and sign in through it on a second browser before offering it on the sign-in screen.
- You have it when
- Each person's roles match their job, and no token is issued with a scope its integration does not use.
Devices, integrations and forms
40 minutes
- Pair a kiosk
- Connect the timetabling engine over LISS
- Set the bells and rooms
- Design and publish a form
- Practise
- Pair the front desk kiosk, connect the timetabling engine, and design a form, checking its "Preview" before publishing.
- You have it when
- The kiosk signs a real student in late, the engine's timetable reaches the roll, and the form is offered to the audience it is meant for.
Families
10 minutes. Read the Families guide.
The family portal
10 minutes
- Practise
- Sign in, open the portal and read each of your children's pages. The office can sit with a family at the counter while they do.
- You have it when
- The family reaches each child's page without asking the office for help.