Creating a Chronicle Template
Overview
The Chronicle module allows staff to record entries regarding student behaviour, wellbeing, attendance and anything else you like, in order to maintain a collaborative student record across the school. Chronicle is highly customisable to make it work for your school's needs. These entries are created from Templates.
Your school can have as many Templates as required to cater for the different Chronicle entry types being made.
Paper forms you are using to record student behaviour (ie Yard Duty Incident Reports etc) can be set-up as a Template within Compass to allow staff to easily record the information digitally and have it retained ongoing for the associated student. This allows a more centralised recording system and removes the administrative burden of paper forms.
Permissions
| ChronicleUser (ChronicleL1) | Allows user to create Chronicle entries from templates allocated to Level 1 and view any entries for students set at Level 1 access. User will also be able to edit their own entries. |
| ChroniclePower (ChronicleL2) | Allows user to create Chronicle entries from templates allocated to Level 1 or 2 and view any entries for students set at Level 1 or 2 access. User will also be able to edit their own entries. |
| ChronicleAdmin (ChronicleL3) | Allows users to create/edit/delete entries of any Level. |
| ChronicleConfigure | Allows user to access the Chronicle Administration tab where Templates are managed. They can add/edit/delete Chronicle Templates. |
Please Note: Templates set up for use in creating entries of a sensitive nature may be structured to allow Level 1 users access to use the Template but entries created from this Template will be set at Level 3 for visibility. In cases where a user creates an entry that is set to be visible only to staff with a higher level of access than their own, they will still be able to view their entry.An example may be where a significant wellbeing issue may have been observed by a staff member with Level 1 Chronicle access. They are required to make an entry on the applicable student's profile. The entry type is set to be visible only to staff with Level 3 access. The staff member who created the entry will still be able to see it, even though it is at a higher visibility access than they have because they created it.
Chronicle entries also have the ability to be set as accessible to specified users or specified role groups regardless of the person's specific designated Chronicle permission level.
In situations where an entry's security settings have multiple inclusions for a single staff member of varying access, the higher access will be observed i.e. An entry is set as not accessible for ChronicleL1 users but set as accessible for users in the Wellbeing Role group, for any staff who are in both ChronicleL1 and Wellbeing, they would have access to the entry.
Creating a New Template
To create a new Template, go to the Organisation menu (grid icon) and choose 'Chronicle'. This will take you to the Chronicle page in Compass.
Click to the 'Administration' tab and then to the 'Templates' sub-tab.
Click the 'Create Template' button.
A pop-up will open with a series of tabs to work through to create your new Chronicle Template.
Details Tab
The 'Details' tab requires staff to set up the basic details for the template.
Here you can define:
| Template Name | The name given to define the template. This will appear in the dropdown list for staff to select when creating a chronicle observation. |
| School Category | Determines which category the template sits within at your school and also, when applicable, the category the points for the template will contribute to. |
| Master Category | Determines which overall CEnet category the template sits within. |
| Description of Template | Definition of the information the template should be used to record. This will appear as a paragraph of text for staff to read when they are creating a Chronicle entry using the template. |
| Default Parent/Student Visibility | Determines whether or not parents and/or students can view the entry on the Student Profile when logged in to the Compass portal. This can be changed by staff depending on their permission level for the Chronicle module and the defined Template Security settings. |
| Default Pin Options | Determines whether or not the post is pinned to the top of the student's profile by default. If selected, you can also define the amount of time for which the entry is pinned by default. Pinned Chronicle entries are also visible to staff from the Roll screen. For further information, please refer to the Knowledge Base article titled "Roll". |
| Default Points | A default number of points can be allocated to a template and these points contribute to Triggers within the Chronicle Category. Points allocated to the entry by default can be changed by staff depending on their permission level for the Chronicle module and the defined Template Security settings. |
| Default Rating | Determines the colour for every entry created using the template. Changes to the rating can be made by staff depending on their permission level for the Chronicle module and the defined Template Security settings. The rating options are Green, Amber, Red, and Grey. These ratings do not have specific definitions, they are simply colours. Your school should define what each rating means within your school. |
| Default Sharing | Choose the applicable default Sharing option for entries of this nature. Selecting 'Our School Only' will mean entries created from this template will only be visible within your school portal. Selecting 'Whole Ancestry' will mean entries created from this template will be visible to other schools within ancestry that the student is associated with (i.e. the student has a recorded milestone). |
| Associated Group Activity | Group Activities can be associated with a template which will allow the student(s) to whom the Chronicle entry applies to be enrolled in a session of that Group Activity. Students can be automatically enrolled in the next available session of the Group Activity or, if the checkbox is left unticked, staff creating the Chronicle entry can manually add the student(s) into a session as required. Further information on how to create and manage Group Activities can be found in the Knowledge Base article titled "Group Activities". |
| Set Template as a Chronicle Tag on roll | When enabled, this template will display under the Chronicle Tag section on rolls. Any additional fields added to this template will automatically be removed it this setting is enabled. Please note, only 7 Templates can be configured as Chronicle Tags. This template is unable to be saved as a tag if this limit has been reached. Please refer to the 'Chronicle Tags' article for further details. |
| Raise Attendance Note | If you require an attendance note to be generated for these types of entries, you can tick this box. Additional fields will then show for you to complete. You will need to choose the applicable Attendance Reason to be used for entries of this kind. You will also need to ensure your template includes start and finish 'Date' fields that you can select as the bounds for the Attendance note. |
Security
You can manage the security settings for the template on the 'Security, Approvals & Notifications' tab.
As mentioned in the Permissions section at the start of this article, there are four permissions associated with Chronicle - 'ChronicleConfigure', 'ChronicleAdmin', 'ChroniclePower' and 'ChronicleUser'.
These permissions allow you to control which members of the staff can see the posts, as well as which can use templates at all.
Chronicle entries also have the ability to be set as accessible to specified users or specified role groups regardless of the person's specific designated Chronicle permission level.
In situations where an entry's security settings have multiple inclusions for a single staff member of varying access, the higher access will be observed i.e. An entry is set as not accessible for ChronicleL1 users but set as accessible for users in the Wellbeing Role group, for any staff who are in both ChronicleL1 and Wellbeing, they would have access to the entry.
When creating your new template, you will need to add the user groups that need to be able to use this template (and any individual users where applicable).
To do so, use the options in the 'Group' drop-down. You can add multiple groups.
Each group will be added as a row.
If you need to add an individual user, use the 'Add Staff Member' field.
If you want the designated Faculty/KLA Manager to be able to view entries created from this template and be notified of them, tick the box.
Faculty Managers can be set/updated on the Faculty Manager page (under the Tools icon, select 'Administration Tools' and select 'Faculty Manager from the menu).
If enabled for your school, you will also see an option 'Include student's teachers' which you can tick if you want the student's current teachers to automatically be notified if an entry is raised for them from this template.
When you have added the applicable groups/users, put the required settings in place for each one.
| Enabled (green tick icon) | Disabled (grey cross icon) | |
| Can Use Template | Staff in this group, or the individual user will be able to access this template to create entries. | Staff in this group, or the individual user will not be able to access this template to create entries. |
| Can View Entries | Any entries made from this template will be viewable to this user/group. | Any entries made from this template will not be viewable to this user/group (other than any that the individual made themselves; you will always see any entries you created). |
| Can Edit Entries | Any entries made from this template will be editable by this user/group. | Any entries made from this template will not be editable by this user/group. |
| Can Change Sharing | This user/group can change the Sharing setting for entries created from this Template i.e. Our School Only or Whole Ancestry. | This user/group cannot change the Sharing setting for entries created from this Template i.e. Our School Only or Whole Ancestry. |
| Can Change Rating | This user/group can change the rating type for entries created from this Template. | This user/group cannot change the rating type for entries created from this Template. |
| Can Change Points | This user/group can change the points allocated for entries created from this Template. | This user/group cannot change the points allocated for entries created from this Template. |
| Can Change Visibility | This user/group can change the parent/student visibility setting for entries created from this Template. | This user/group cannot change the parent/student visibility setting for entries created from this Template. |
If you need to remove a group or user, select the applicable one/ones and then click 'Bulk Actions' and select 'Remove Staff/Group'.
Notification/Approval Chain
Notification/Approval Chains are used to advise various staff members that the template has been used to create an entry for a student, and to approve the sending of the associated Communication(s) to the parents and/or student.
Please keep in mind the Approval Chain only relates to the sending of Communications and to any related entry points being included in the applicable trigger tally for the student. When a staff member creates a post it is created and live on Compass - the approval chain can notify staff that the post was created, or require them to approve the communications, but this does not give the users in the approval chain the ability to keep the post from being created.
Approvals and Notifications are managed on the 'Security, Approvals & Notifications' tab of the Template.
If you do not want to add any Notifications or Approval Chains to this Template, leave the field set as 'None' for each listed group/user and proceed to the 'Template Fields' tab.
For any listed groups or users who need to only be notified when an entry of this kind is created, set their Notify/Approve column to 'Notify Only'.
For any groups that need to be notified and approve any related communications resulting from the entry, set their Notify and Approve column to 'Notify + Approve'.
Please note that for all groups set to 'Notify + Approve', all staff within all groups will be notified; once one staff member from within any of those groups responds to the approval request and approves the entry, the associated communication for the entry will be issued (i.e. not all staff members from all groups need to approve each entry).
When the school has the Chronicle setting 'Chronicle Approval Chain Groups' enabled, you will see the 'Approval Group' field for each group/staff listed on this tab of the Template (please refer to the 'Chronicle Administration' article from our Knowledge Base for further details on Settings).
Putting the added groups/staff into numbered groups means that when the Notification Chain is triggered for the entry created from this Template, any staff in Approval Group 1, who are set to 'Notify +Approve' will have the option to approve; once one of them does, the others in that Approval Group will no longer be required to approve and the entry will move down the chain into the next Group. When it reaches the last Approval Group, and a staff member in that Approval Group approves the entry, the associated Communications for the entry will be issued.
Staff who are listed in the chain as 'Notify Only' will not be requested to approve but will be notified of the entry once the entry arrives at their Approval Group level in the chain process.
When you have completed adding all applicable users/groups and putting their required settings in place on the 'Security, Approvals & Notifications' tab, click to the 'Fields' tab.
Fields Tab
The 'Fields' tab within the Chronicle Template screen allows you to select the data fields included in this template into which staff will add the information pertaining to the entry they are creating i.e. if the entry type created from this Template needs to note a Location, you would have a Location field in the Template.
These fields can be customised and come from the bank of Fields maintained by your school.
Fields can be added to the template by clicking and dragging them from the 'Available Fields' list on the left of the window, into the 'Included Fields' list on the right-hand side. You can use the filter option for the Available Fields to quickly access the Fields you are looking for.
Once added to the 'Included Fields' list, fields can also be reordered using the drag and drop function.
Once the field(s) have been included in the template, there are a number of settings which can be customised to determine whether the field is required, visible in the student feed or set as the primary field for the template.
| Required | Determines whether or not the field is compulsory for staff to complete before they are allowed to save the Chronicle entry. |
| Show In Feed | Determines whether or not this field is displayed in the Chronicle feed on the student's profile page for when viewed by user type (staff, parent, student) |
| Primary Field | Highlights the primary field for the template. This will be displayed at the top of the observation summary on the student's profile and also within Chronicle Reports within Compass. |
Click the grey cross icon to turn the setting on for that field. It will show as a green tick when enabled. To turn it off, click the green tick icon and it will update back to the grey cross.
When all your fields are in place, click to the 'Communications' tab.
Communications Tab
Chronicle templates can include a number of types of communications that will be sent automatically (SMS/Email) once an observation has been fully approved (or if there is no approval chain, once the entry is saved).
If the entry has a Letter communication, it will not be available for downloading until the entry is fully approved (or saved in the case of the entry having no approval chain).
Multiple communications can be configured for each Chronicle template if required or none at all where applicable.
| Letter | Allows for the creation of a PDF letter which can be mailed home to the student's family. |
| Can be sent to the student's parents or to the student. | |
| SMS/Push Notifications | Can be sent to the registered mobile number of the student's parents or to the student's mobile (where this is recorded in Compass). |
| Thermal Printing | Allows for slips to be printed from this entry type (note this tab will only display if your school has a thermal printer registered in Compass). |
| Placeholders | Standard information about a student and their family. These include things such as the student's name, year level and ID code, the parent's names and addresses and placeholders based on the student's gender such as {him/her}. |
| Field Input | Inserts placeholders for information added by a staff member when making an observation. This can be used to include information about the observation in the letter (such as a summary of the incident or the date it occurred). |
| Printing Template | Determines the layout of the PDF letter generated. Please refer to the Knowledge Base article titled 'Printing Templates' for further details. |
| Lock Template checkbox | When ticked, staff members cannot edit the communication content when creating the entry using that template. |
| Generate For/Send Mode: | Select from the drop-down list who the recipient/s will be in relation to parents and households. |
You can click 'Generate Sample Letter' to view how it will be.
Under the 'Send Mode' you can choose from a range of options.
You can choose SMS and/or Push notification under the 'Send Option' field.
Completing your New Template
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