Kestrel

Part 1. Getting started

1.6 Staff who are also parents

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.

How a member of staff whose children attend the school moves between the console and the family portal with one account.

Written forRegistrarFront officeTeacherHead of house or yearWellbeingCounsellorLearning supportChild safety officerCase managerDeputy case managerNursePrincipal and executiveBusiness managerITFamilies

What this is for

Some of your colleagues also have a child at the school. Kestrel gives them one account with two ways of looking: the staff console for their work, and the family portal for their child. The two never mix. In the console you see what your role allows. In the portal you see only your own children, and what the school has shared with you as their parent.

Who is offered the switch

The switch appears only when the school has given the one account both staff access and family access. Someone with staff access alone is offered no portal, and a parent with family access alone is offered no console, because the other side would turn them away. Each side checks access again on its own, so the switch is a convenience and not a way around a role.

Move to the family portal

  1. Sign in as usual. You land in the console.
  2. Open the account menu at the top right of the band and choose "Family portal".
  3. The portal opens on your children. To come back, open the account menu in the portal and choose "Staff console".

  • Family portal

    /portal

    The family portal's home, for a signed-in account that has family access.

Keeping the two apart

  • Your role gives you no extra view of your own child in the portal. The portal shows what any parent of that child would see.
  • Staff access does not grant standing over your own child. If your role lets you read a student's record, it is the console that shows it, and the audit trail records that you read it.
  • Messages and forms the school sends to your child's parents arrive in the portal, not in the console.

Journeys

Settings

The school gives family access on the child's record, which is covered in the Students and households chapter. Which parts of the portal families see is set on the "Portal" page of Settings.

Training notes

Cover this in a few minutes, for staff who are also parents. Show the account menu in the console, move to the portal, and move back.