Attendance Notifications Advanced Mode
Overview
Compass can issue attendance alerts to notify parents when their child is not in attendance or late for class. You can choose to issue alerts as an SMS, and email or both.
These alerts also integrate with Chronicle with an entry automatically recorded against a student's record that an attendance notification was issued. This allows you to then export report content on the frequencey of students receiving these alerts if required.
In Advanced mode, Compass offers four types of automatic attendance SMS and/or email alerts - Student Late to one or more Classes, Student Not Present in one or more Classes, Student Unaccounted For, and Student Not Present in one or more Classes (Irrespective or Unmarked Rolls).
For each type, there is then the ability to have up to 15 triggers pre-set which allows you to use the notifications for different cohort settings at different times within the same day.
Attendance Notification Types
Here you will see each type listed, an indication if it is enabled, the time it is issued when enabled, and the last time it was issued.
Student Late to one or more Classes:
On weekdays, at the time defined by the school, Compass automatically evaluates the attendance for all students. For a given student, an SMS and/or email message will be sent if all of the following conditions are satisfied:
- The student is marked 'Late' in any one or more of the sessions they possibly could have attended which start after 6am and prior to the time the SMS/email is due to be sent (including normal classes, custom classes, support classes and events), AND
- Compass has deemed these 'Late' entries Unexplained, AND
- There are no attendance notes/approvals for the student for this period of time, AND
- There are no school activities for the student for this period of time, AND
- There are no unmarked rolls for the sessions the student could possibly have attended
Student Not Present in one or more Classes:
Notifying a student's primary family that the student is not present for any one or more sessions (and there is no known reason why).
On weekdays, at the time defined by the School, Compass automatically evaluates the attendance for all students. For a given student, an SMS and/or email message will be sent if all of the following conditions are satisfied:
- The student is marked 'Not Present' in any one or more of the sessions they possibly could have attended which start after 6am and prior to the time the SMS/email is due to be sent (including normal classes, custom classes, support classes and events), AND
- Compass has deemed these 'Not Present' entries Unexplained, AND
- There are no attendance notes/approvals for the student for this period of time, AND
- There are no school activities for the student for this period of time, AND
- There are no unmarked rolls for the sessions the student could possibly have attended
Student Unaccounted For:
This profile is recommended for schools who use the 'Sessional' Primary Attendance Perspective setting in Compass (for example, VIC Public Schools, QLD Schools).
Notifying a student's primary family that the student has not arrived at school (and there is no known reason why).
On Teaching Days at the time defined by the school, Compass automatically evaluates the attendance for all students. For a given student, a Chronicle Entry (with potential SMS and/or email message) will be added if all of the following conditions are satisfied:
- The student is marked 'Not Present' in all of the sessions they possibly could have attended which start after 6am and prior to the time the evaluation is performed (including normal classes, custom classes, support classes and events), AND
- Compass has deemed all of these 'Not Present' entries Unexplained, AND
- There are no Attendance Notes for the student for this period of time, AND
- There are no School Activities for the student for this period of time, AND
- There are no Arrivals for the student for this period of time, AND
- There are no unmarked rolls for the sessions the student could possibly have attended
Student Not Present in one or more Classes (Irrespective of Unmarked Rolls):
On weekdays, at the time defined by the school, Compass automatically evaluates the attendance for all students. For a given student, an SMS and/or email message will be sent if all of the following conditions are satisfied:
- The student is marked 'Not Present' in any of the sessions they possibly could have attended which start after 6am and prior to the time the SMS/email is due to be sent (including normal classes, custom classes, support classes and events), AND
- Compass has deemed these Not Present entries Unexplained, AND
- There are no attendance notes/approvals for the student for this period of time,AND
- There are no school activities for the student for this period of time
Note: NSW schools have an additional option.Student Unaccounted For (Segment Analysis):
This notification is recommended for schools who use the 'Whole/Partial' Primary Attendance Perspective setting in Compass (NSW Schools).
On Teaching Days at the time defined by the school, Compass automatically evaluates the attendance for all students.
For a given student, a Chronicle Entry will be added where, between 1) the beginning of their Teaching Time for the day and 2) the calculation time of the profile:
- There is some Not Present: Unexplained time, AND
- There is no Present time, AND
- There is no Non-counted Absence time, AND
- There are no Arrivals for the student for this period of time
Creating Attendance Alert Triggers
Within each type of alert, you can have it triggered for up to fifteen different instance types depending on the needs at your school. To add a trigger, click 'Add Trigger'.
In the pop-up, complete the information to define the alert you want to set up for issue.
| Attendance Template | Select the applicable template for this trigger type. |
| Trigger Name | Name the trigger to clearly identify it's purpose. |
| Notification Enabled | When ticked, this trigger will be enabled causing the attendance notification to be issued each day at the designated time. Unticking will retain the trigger information but not cause the notification to be issued. You can changed this setting at any time. |
| Notification Time | The time each day that this notification alert is to occur. |
| Send summary of students to this email address. | Enter the email address that is to receive a daily list of the students who met the criteria of this attendance notification. |
Please note, leaving those fields blank will mean all students are included in the notification.
To edit an existing trigger, click the applicable edit pencil icon.
Editing the SMS/Email notification content
To edit/view the SMS/email wording, click the option 'Edit Template'.
This will open the Chronicle template for that notification type.
Reviewing the SMS content
To review the SMS content, click on the 'Communications' tab and then the 'Parent SMS' sub-tab.
Here you will see the current wording issued in the text. You can edit as needed. Please note there is a limit to the number of characters you can have for the message, refer to the running total at the bottom of the screen for your status.
There are a range of placeholders you can use (listed in the right hand section of the screen). Please note for each Attendance SMS type, there is a specific placeholder called {calculationtime} that we recommend you include to provide key information to the parent.
There is also the option to include the placeholder for the 'One Time Attendance Note' feature. For details on this, please refer to the 'Attendance Notifications One Time Link' article from our Knowledge Base.
Choose your preferred 'Send Mode' from the available options in the drop-down.
Please Note: If you only want to issue emails for this notification type, you will need to set the 'Send Mode' for Parent SMS to 'Disabled'.Reviewing the Email Content
To review the Email content, you will need to go to 'Chronicle' under the Organisation menu (grid icon).
Click to the 'Administration' tab and then to the 'Templates' tab.
Locate the applicable Attendance Notification template in the list and click the edit pencil icon to open.
Click to the 'Communications' tab and then the 'Parent Email' tab.
You can edit/review the email wording. There is a range of placeholders available also, to use, click the cursor to the position in the email that you want to insert the placeholder then click the applicable placeholder from the list on the right-hand and it will insert.
Please Note: To include a list of the missed sessions in the email, include the 'Missed Sessions' placeholder in your email content.Set the applicable 'Send Mode' you require for the email from the drop-down list.
Please Note: If you only want to issue SMS' for this notification type, you will need to set the Send Mode to 'Disabled' for Parent Emails.When you have finished editing/reviewing, click 'Save Template and Close' to update your changes.
Student Chronicle Entry
When an Attendance SMS/email is issued for a student, a Chronicle entry will be added to their profile.
SMS Report
When an Attendance SMS notification is issued it will display in the SMS Outbound Report.
To view this report, go to the Administration Tools page (under the cog menu icon) and click the 'SMS Outbound Report' option.
Disclaimer: We are unable to guarantee delivery of any SMS messages sent through Compass.
We do use Australian SMS providers as we have found these to be more reliable than internationally routed messages.
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