Part 3. Modules

3.2 Enrolment

Version 1.0 ·Updated 2026-10-07

Next reviewed by 2027-04-07.

Written for a school's staff learning how Kestrel works, the trainers who teach them, and the families using the portal.

The board, enquiries and tours, intakes and waitlists, applications, offers, continuations, Confirmations of Enrolment for international students, and the funnel.

Written forRegistrarFront officePrincipal and executive

What it is for

Enrolment follows a child from the first enquiry to a place at the school, and then each year after that to the family's answer about continuing. It keeps the application, each thing that has happened to it, the offers made and the places a child has had.

An application is a series of dated events: waitlisted, offered, accepted, started, withdrawn and so on. The rung an application has reached is worked out from those events and the school's own ladder each time you open it, so an offer that expired overnight reads as expired in the morning without anyone editing it. A wrong event is voided, and the void stays on the timeline.

Who uses it

Who	What they do here	Capability
Registrar	Runs the whole pipeline: enquiries, applications, offers, continuations and Confirmations of Enrolment. Records a nursery child's funded early education in England. Runs the nurture journeys. Asks referees and specialists for their part of an application. Changes the enrolment settings.	enrolment.application.write, enrolment.enquiry.write, enrolment.coe.write, enrolment.funding.write, enrolment.journey.write, enrolment.reference.write and enrolment.settings.write
Front office	Records enquiries and tours, and moves applications on. Does not see the Offers and Continuations screens' settings or the Confirmations of Enrolment.	enrolment.application.write and enrolment.enquiry.write
Principal and executive	Reads the board, enquiries and funnel.	enrolment.application.read and enrolment.enquiry.read

Key ideas

Enquiry: A family's first contact about a child, from the website, the counter, the phone, an event or an agent. The child is on the record from that moment, and the enquiry is the first rung before an application.
Application: One child applying for one intake. A child who applied twice has two applications. Scholarship applications run on their own ladder.
Ladder: The rungs the school moves an application along, such as waitlisted, offered and started. A rung can send the registrar a notice or email the family when an application reaches it, and a rung flags an application that has sat too long.
Intake: A year level in an entry year, at one campus if the school has several, with its start day and the number of places.
Waitlist: The applications waiting for a place on an intake, ranked by the school's own criteria. The ranking is worked out when you read it and is never stored.
Offer: A place offered on an application, with terms, a day it lapses and an optional deposit. Waiting, answered or lapsed is worked out from the offer's own dates and the answers recorded.
Continuation: A current student's family saying whether the child is coming back next year. The rollover moves the children who are continuing up a year level.
Confirmation of Enrolment: For an international student on a visa, the record of the course, its study periods, any variation and the welfare arrangement. Kestrel keeps the worklist of what must be lodged in PRISMS and does not submit anything there itself.

Screens

Board
/app/enrolment
Each application with the rung it has reached and the days it has sat there, with the count at each rung as a filter and the overnight findings above the rows.
Needs enrolment.application.read
Enquiries
/app/enrolment/enquiries
The families who have enquired, newest first, with how many enquired, toured and applied, and how long each has been waiting.
Needs enrolment.enquiry.read
Open the application
/app/enrolment/applications/[id]
One application: its stage track, timeline, offers, documents and fees, signatures, agents, notes and first-day readiness.
Needs enrolment.application.read
Intakes
/app/enrolment/intakes
The year levels the school has opened for an entry year, with places, application fee and the number of applications.
Needs enrolment.application.read
The waitlist
/app/enrolment/intakes/[id]/waitlist
An intake's waitlist, ranked by the school's rules with the reasons beside each child, and a button to make an offer.
Needs enrolment.application.read
Funnel
/app/enrolment/funnel
How many applications reached each rung of the ladder and what share went on, as at a day you choose.
Needs enrolment.application.read
Offers
/app/enrolment/offers
Each offer made, what each family answered, the deposit and the offer letter.
Needs enrolment.application.write
Continuations
/app/enrolment/continuations
Each current student with their family's answer about next year and what the rollover will do with them.
Needs enrolment.application.write
Confirmations of Enrolment
/app/enrolment/coes
The worklist of what must be lodged in PRISMS, and the register of each Confirmation of Enrolment with its study periods and welfare arrangement. It opens from an overnight finding about welfare arrangements.
Needs enrolment.coe.write

The board

The board opens with a count for each rung of the school's ladder. Choose a count to show only the applications at that rung, and choose the last rung to list the children who have started. Below the counts are the findings from the overnight read, for example applications that have waited too long. Choose "Show these" on a finding to narrow the board to the applications it names, and "Copy list" to copy their names. "Show the whole board" clears the filter.

The toolbar filters by "Intake" and "Year level", and a segment switches between "Enrolment" and "Scholarships", which have separate ladders. Each row shows the applicant, a progress track and the days at the rung, and the days turn to a warning once the rung's limit has passed. The filters are in the page address, so a link to a view is a link you can send. The board loads 500 rows at a time, and "Show more" reads the next.

Move an application on. Move an application on
Ask for a document and record a payment. Ask for a document and record a payment

On the board, choose a row and press "Open the application".
Read the "Timeline", newest event first, and "First-day readiness", which lists what is still outstanding for the first day and who it is with.
Press "Record an event" and choose the event. A start asks for the year level and says where the child is placed.
If an event was recorded in error, press "Void" beside it and write "Why it was wrong". The event stays on the timeline marked "Voided".

Under "Documents and fees", "Ask for a document" requests one from the family, "Mark arrived" records it and "Waive" excuses it. "Signatures" says where each guardian's signature stands and lets the registrar accept one signature with a reason. "Agents" records an education agent on the application, with the dates their part ran, and "Notes" has the office's own notes.

Enquiries and tours

Open "Enquiries" and press "Record an enquiry".
Fill "The child": "Given names", "Family name", "Date of birth", "Year level" and "Entry year". Fill who is asking, with their "Relationship to the child", "Email" and "Phone".
Choose "Came in by", then add "Heard of us through", "Campaign" and "What they said" if you have them.
Press "Record it". The child is on the record from now on, and the enquiry shows in the list.
Open the row. Under "What happened next", press "Record a tour" once the family has been, or book them onto a tour with "Book the family in". Press "Record an application" when they apply, or "Close the enquiry" with a reason when they do not.

The three figures at the top are how many families enquired, how many toured and how many applied. The "Waiting" column counts the days an enquiry has had no response, because the families no-one has rung are the ones to chase. Choose a stage in the toolbar, "Open", "Toured", "Applied" or "Closed", and the list narrows. An enquiry that a parent sends from the school's website arrives here too.

Record an enquiry. Record an enquiry
Record an enquiry from a family. Record an enquiry from a family

Intakes and waitlists

An intake appears on "Intakes" only because the office opened it. Press "Open an intake", choose the "Entry year", "Year level" and "Campus" (leave the campus empty for a one-campus school), and add "Starts", "Places" and an "Application fee" if the school has decided them. Press "Open it". The "Applications" column then counts the applications on the intake, and an intake with more applications than places is the one whose waitlist matters.

Press "The waitlist" on an intake. The page shows the intake's places, how many are accepted, on offer and still to offer, then the applications in order. Beside each child, "Why" lists the criteria that put them there, such as a sibling enrolled here, a parent who was a student here, a parent on the staff, or the day the application arrived. The order is a proposal. Press "Make an offer" beside a child to make the offer, whether or not it follows the ranking, and a withdrawal moves each child behind it up the next time you read the list. Printing the waitlist gives a sheet with the school, the day and the page number.

Offers

An offer is made on an application, from "Make an offer" on the application or on the "Offers" screen. Under "The terms", set "Lapses on", "Starts on", the year level and any deposit, and press "Make it". Press "Make the letter" to produce the offer letter, which is saved to the child's record, and "Open the letter" to read it. The letter uses the school's own offer letter from the enrolment settings.

The "Offers" screen lists each offer with when it was made and when it lapses, the family's answer and the deposit. Choose "Waiting" or "Answered" in the toolbar, filter by "Intake" or search by family or given name. When a family answers, press "Record the answer" and choose "The family accepted", "The family declined" or "The family asked for another year". The last one asks which intake they want. Record a deposit with "Record the deposit as paid", with "Paid on" and the "Gateway reference". A row that the window has closed on reads "Lapsed, not yet recorded" until you record what happened.

Make an offer and record the answer. Make an offer and record the answer

4.4 Applications and offers

Continuations

Continuations shows each current student, what year level they are in now, where they go next year and their family's answer. The counts at the top show how many students there are, how many have not answered, and how many are confirmed, leaving or repeating. The families who have not answered are the first choice in the toolbar, because the silence is what the registrar acts on.

Open "Continuations". The button at the head reads "Ask each family about" followed by the coming year. Press it. Kestrel asks each family that has not been asked, once, so pressing it again asks no-one twice.
Choose "Not answered" to see who is still to reply.
For a reply that came another way, press "Record the answer" on the row.
Choose "Confirmed" or "Leaving". A family leaving also gives the "Last day" and "Why". Press "Save".

The "Next year" column says "Moves up a year level", "Stays at" a year level for a repeating child, or "Leaves before the rollover". The rollover itself runs on the day the school sets in the enrolment settings.

Ask families whether their children continue. Ask families whether their children continue

Confirmations of Enrolment

For international students the registrar keeps the Confirmation of Enrolment worklist. Kestrel does not lodge anything in PRISMS, because the portal has no public interface. It puts each deadline in front of the registrar before it passes and records what was done there. Each line shows the student, the kind of variation (a deferral, suspension, cancellation or extension), when it took effect, when it is due and its status. Choose a status in the toolbar to narrow the list.

On the worklist, find the variation and do what is needed in PRISMS.
Press "Record lodgement". Under "Record what PRISMS gave back", enter the "PRISMS reference" and press "Record it".
To record a new variation, press "Record variation", choose the kind and give the date and the reason. It joins the worklist to be lodged. A variation recorded wrongly is corrected with "Edit", which records a second variation naming the first.
Under "The register", press "Study periods" to set the periods a course runs in, and "Welfare arrangement" to open a new arrangement for a student under 18. The earlier arrangement stays on the list with the days it covered.

The funnel

The funnel counts how many applications reached each rung and what share went on, as at the day you choose. The figures come first, then a column chart of the ladder, then a table of counts. "Cut by" splits the counts by "Source", "Campaign", "Intake" or "Year level". Choose a count to list the applications behind it, and choose it again to put it down. The day and the cut are in the page address, so a funnel from a past day is a link you can send. Printing it gives a sheet that states the school, the day and the page, and you can copy or download the table.

Nothing on the funnel is stored. The counts are worked out from the applications' events against the school's ladder, so a report about last year's intake reads the same in March as it did in September.

Journeys

Enrolment is the middle of the journey from enquiry to a place, and the start of the first day. Continuations are part of the journey that ends when a student leaves.

Settings

Settings, "Enrolment" has the school's waitlist rules, the admissions ladder, the offer letter, the rollover day and the tour reminder window. One "Save" at the foot of the page saves each group that changed. A registrar can change them, and anyone else who can open the page reads them without a save bar. "Year levels" and "Fields" in Settings shape the intake and the enquiry form.

Change the admissions ladder. Change the admissions ladder

5.5 Module settings

Training notes

The registrar needs this whole chapter. The front office needs the enquiries and the board. Allow 45 minutes and use it with the "From enquiry to start" session, which has the registrar open the board, filter it by each rung and read the timeline of three applications.