5.1 Settings and setup

Where the school's own choices live, who may open them, how the settings index is arranged and the setup list that gets a new school ready.

Written forITBusiness managerPrincipal and executive

What Settings is for

Settings is where the school tells Kestrel how it works: its name and calendar, who may sign in and what they can do, what it records about each child, and which other systems it talks to. Nothing here is about one student or one family. A change in Settings applies to the whole school, and most changes are recorded in the audit trail under your name.

Staff reach Settings from the console's navigation. The index at the top is a map of everything that can be set, drawn in ten groups. Each group has areas, and each area opens its own screen.

Who uses it

Settings opens for a member of staff who has administrator standing. The person who set the school up is the first administrator and has the IT role, which can read and change settings, manage connections and read the audit trail. Others, such as the business manager, have a role that can change some settings and are made administrators when the school wants them to.

A staff member without administrator standing who opens a Settings address is sent back to the console home. Reading a setting needs a role that can read settings, and changing one needs a role that can write them. Several roles can read, and fewer can write, so a screen can open and still have its fields locked.

Key ideas

Administrator

A member of staff with standing to configure the school. The school always has at least one, and the last one cannot be demoted or removed.

Group

One of the ten headings the settings index is drawn under, such as "The school" or "Accountability".

Area

One settings screen. An area is a list, a rule, a connection or a single setting, and the index shows which.

Setup step

A task a module registers that must be done before staff and families use Kestrel. A step is done or left.

Save bar

The bar at the foot of a settings screen with the save and discard buttons. It appears when something has changed.

Screens

• Settings

  /app/settings

  The index. It shows the school's facts at the top (School, Reference, Address, Default language, Reports in and Status), a find box, and each area under its group.

• Setting up

  /app/settings/setup

  The list of steps left before staff and families use Kestrel, each opening the screen where it is done.

Reading the settings index

The facts at the top tell you which school you are in. Below them, type in the box labelled "Find a setting" to narrow the areas to those that match your words. Clear the box to see them all again.

• "The school": who the school is and when it runs.
• "Staff and access": who signs in and what they can do.
• "The student record": what the school records about each child.
• "Attendance": rolls, absences and who is told.
• "Learning": reporting, results and courses.
• "Wellbeing": entries, escalation and plans.
• "Enrolment and fees": applications, offers and charges.
• "Activities": co-curricular activities and their rosters.
• "Forms and connections": forms, messages and the other systems Kestrel talks to.
• "Accountability": what the school can show when somebody asks it to account for something.

Each area has one of four shapes. A list is a set of things the school adds to and retires. A rule is one policy with a few choices. A connection links Kestrel to another system. A single setting is one choice. Settings screens do not use status colours: a word says where things stand.

The setup list

While steps remain, the index shows a "Setting up" group at the top. It opens the setup list, which says how many steps are left before staff and families use Kestrel. When all are done it says there is nothing left to do. A step you cannot finish with your roles is not shown to you.

Tasks

• Work through the setup list on a new school, step by step.
• Set the school's bells. Set the bells and rooms
• Add the school's calendar. Set the terms and school days
• Find a setting you have not used before with the find box.

1. Open Settings and look for the "Setting up" group.
2. Choose the first step that is left.
3. Make the change on its screen and save it.
4. Return to the setup list. The step now shows as done.

Journeys that use this chapter

• 2.1 Setting up the school
• 2.3 The first day

Settings

The setup list has nothing to set of its own. Its steps are registered by the modules the school uses, so a school with fewer modules has a shorter list. Chapters 5.2 to 5.9 describe each group's screens in turn.

Training notes

• Walk a new administrator through the index before any screen, so they know the ten groups.
• Show that a field which is locked means the role can read the setting and not change it.
• Remind them that a change is kept only when they save it from the save bar.