Semester Reports

Semester Reports

Overview

Reporting cycles are set up by the staff who coordinate the Reporting process at your school.

Reports can contain data from Learning Tasks completed throughout the assessment period by students, results, comments, work habits, previous results and attendance data. 

Teachers will have access to enter data for the classes they teach.

Viewing Student Reports

To access existing student reports, go to the student's profile page and click to the 'Reports' tab.
     

Click the title of a report to download a copy to your device.

Writing Reports

To write your reports, navigate to the Teaching and Learning menu (pencil icon) and click 'Semester Reports'. This will open the Reporting Cycles page.

     

All previous reporting cycles that the school has published through Compass will be displayed here. This include cycles where the reports were written in a third-party program and hosted on Compass. 

Next to each report cycle, you will see some icons. To enter results for a report, you will need to click on the three dots on the right side of the table, as highlighted below. A menu will show, click 'Enter Results'.  
     


In the window that opens, use the drop-down menu to select the class for which you want to write the report.
     


All of the classes that you teach should be available from the list. If you do not see a class that you teach you will need to speak to the Reporting Coordinator or your Faculty Manager.

Once you have chosen a class from the drop-down list, you will see all the students in the class in the left hand column. In the column headers running across the page, you'll see all of the grading elements that have been included by the Reporting Coordinator or Faculty Manager.



You will enter all of your reporting results on this page. To enter results, double-click on the box in which you want to enter the results, and a drop-down menu with grading options will appear. You can choose the appropriate grade for the student either by using your mouse and clicking the option from the drop-down or by typing directly into the box.



If you choose to type directly into the box, what you type must correlate to an option available from the drop-down, or nothing will appear in the box. You can use the Tab key on your keyboard to navigate to the next square in the row, or the Enter key on your keyboard to navigate to the next square down in the column. You can fill out results for every report item in this way except for Comments.

You can also use the 'Fill' buttons at the top right if you have a grade that is the same for all students in the class. Once you have used the 'Fill Up' or 'Fill Down' option, you can also then edit the individual results of particular students. For example, if most of your students have "Satisfactory" results, but two do not, you can fill the column with "Satisfactory", then edit the results of the two students to reflect "Not Satisfactory". The 'Fill Left' and 'Fill Right' buttons can only be used for the "(Excluded)" result, to allow you to quickly exclude from all report elements any student who should not get a report for this class. They can also be used to empty cells of information if the selected cell you are filling left or right from is a blank cell.

There is also the 'Find and Replace' option in the top right.
 
Replace AllWhen this is ticked all instances of the text will be replaced. When "Replace All" is unticked only the first instance in each cell will be replaced.
Whole WordWhen this is ticked, the search query will only match on 'whole words', a 'whole word' is defined by a group of letters and/or numbers surrounded by non-word characters on both sides (e.g. white-space, $,",',(,), etc)
Ignore CaseWhen this is ticked the case of the letters will not be taken into account. For example, when ticked "Student" or "STUDENT" will be included when "student" is typed in the "Find what:" field and will also be replaced with the text in the "Replace with:" field.
This Student OnlyWhen this field is ticked the find and replace function will only be conducted on the student whose cell was selected prior to pushing the button.You can also import results to this page, using the 'Import' button in the top right corner.
 

Import 



This will allow you to import results from Learning Tasks and attendance data. More information on this functionality is provided below. You can also copy and paste results from spreadsheets such as Excel by copying a column of results and pasting these into the Results Entry page. Please note that to ensure these results fill down, click once on the cell in which you wish to start pasting the results.

Import AusVELS/Victorian Curriculum/Australian Curriculum from Learning Tasks

When you import results from Learning Tasks you will import the highest score for the dimension that the student achieved for any task within the class whose report you are writing. If you have already entered any dimension results on the Enter Results screen, importing data will overwrite the result you had previously manually entered.

Import Attendance Data

Compass allows some attendance data to be imported into the Semester Reports. If your Reporting Co-ordinator or Faculty Manager has set the attendance field as a reporting element on the report, depending on the type of attendance data they have specified, this information may be able to be imported from Compass. This saves the need for teachers to re-enter the data manually. However, there are some attendance results that cannot be imported and these will have to be entered manually if the Reporting Coordinator has included them.

When you import attendance data, it pulls the information that is currently accurate. If you are writing your reports a number of weeks before the end of the semester, it is recommended that you import the attendance data immediately prior to the reports being published. This ensures that the attendance data on your reports is as up to date as possible.

Schools also have the option to bulk import some attendance data types.  Please refer to the directive given from your school Reporting Administrator as to what you are required to do regarding any Attandance data fields in your report entry screen.

Saving Entered Results

There is no 'Save' button on the Enter Results page as it will automatically update. You will see the time that changes were last saved at the bottom left-hand corner of the screen.



Viewing reports for the class

If Staff access to view reports is enabled for this cycle (please speak with your school's Reporting Administrator for further details), you will see an option in the Results Entry screen to download the reports for this class.
     
     

Entering Comments

Entering comments in reports is a little bit different to entering a grade or numerical result. To enter comments, double-click on the result box for the comment field, and a pop-up box will appear, like in the image below.



Once in this window, you have the option of using prepared comments from the Comment Bank, or writing your own comments (if you are using Open Comments). You can navigate between comment groups and lists by expanding them from the left-hand column. Double-clicking a single comment bank option (or single clicking the green plus symbol) will add it into the Comment box below. For more information on closed and open comments, please see the Knowledge Base article titled "Comment Banks".


Student Grade Overview

Within the comment pop-up box in the far right column, you will see all the other results you have already given the student for this reporting cycle. This section is editable, so you can also add or edit any of these grades. The arrows above this section marked 'Previous' and 'Next' allow you to navigate between students in the class.


Excluding Results

If you do not want a comment to be displayed on the report, either right click the cell and select 'Exclude' or simply type "(Excluded)" in the comment box. If you choose '(Excluded)' for all grading options for a class (including typing the word '(Excluded)' in the comment box), then this subject's report will not be included in the pdf report for the student.

Please note that '(Excluded)' must be typed exactly this way in order for the result to not show, as shown below. E.g. if '(excluded)' or 'Excluded' is typed then that is what will appear in the report and the result will not be excluded.


Saving

Once you begin entering comments on this screen you will see the 'Save and Close' button at the bottom become accessible. There is also a notification in the bottom left of the window that tells you whether you have any unsaved changes on the screen. You must click 'Save' for the information to be saved to the system.



Once you've clicked Save, the button will no longer be clickable and the notification at the bottom left will say "All changes applied."



If you try to navigate to a different student by clicking 'Previous' or 'Next' prior to clicking 'Save' you will see a popup warning that recommends that you save your changes before moving to a new page.

If you close the window or navigate to a different student without clicking 'Save', this information will not be saved and cannot be retrieved.

Reviewing Results

Within Compass you can review results that have been entered, leave comments for the teacher about the reports for a class, and mark these reports as reviewed. To access the Reviewer, return to the main Semester Reports page which is available under the Teaching and Learning menu (pencil icon), and click the 'Launch Reviewer' icon from the 3 dots in the row with the appropriate reporting cycle.


     
You have the option of viewing results sorted either by staff, student or subject.

Reviewing by students will display them broken down by Year Level, and then within each year by Form/Home Group. Within the Form/Home Group list they are sorted alphabetically by surname.

Reviewing by staff lists all staff members in alphabetical order by code. The classes for which each staff member writes reports are then available by clicking the triangle next to the folder icon by their name.

You can add an overall comment for the class in the section located at the bottom of the screen. You can also add a comment for a specific student.

You can write comments or notes on the teacher's current reports, but you do not have the ability to alter the reports in any way from the Reviewer screen. All other staff members will also be able to see these comments.
     

When a comment is added for a student it will show the date/time it was added and the staff member who made it.  There can be multiple comments per student from multiple staff.
     

Once you have completed your review, click the 'Mark as reviewed and save comments' button at the bottom right. You must click this button for your comment to be saved to the system.  If comments were added for this class, a flag icon will show in the left hand section for the class to indicate that the class teacher has comments to review.
     

When results have not been reviewed they will be displayed with the page icon in the left-hand section. If the results have been reviewed by another teacher and no comments were added, they will display with a green tick to the left of the class code.

     


When comments are added for review, when saved, it will trigger a dashboard notification alert for the class teacher to advise that they have comment content to review.

     

When class teachers click the notification it will take them into the applicable cycle reviewer screen.  The 'Staff' tab will be loaded in the left hand section.  They will then need to click their name from the list to expand their classes and any listed with the flag icon will have comments for their review. can then review the comments added. 

If they need to adjust the results entered for a student they will need to do this via the 'Results Entry' screen.


     
To complete the report review process, the class teacher will need to resolve any comments that other staff have added to their class.  They can resolve a comment by clicking the speech bubble icon for that comment.
     

If they had multiple comments to resolve, they can click the 'Bulk resolve comments' option at the top.
     


When all comments have been resolved for the class, it will show with the green tick to indicate a completed review.
     


Icon Legend:
Not yet touched (no comments, proof reading not marked as done etc).
Unresolved comments and not all proof reading complete.
Proof reading complete but not all comments resolved/actioned by teacher.
Proof reading complete and all comments resolved by teacher.

Please Note: Staff with the permission ReportsAdmin using the Launch Reviewer screen will have the additional option to edit results when viewing By Student. Details on this are contained in the Semester Reports Admin Guide Knowledge Base article.

Frequently Asked Questions

I share a class with another teacher - how do we write the reports in Compass?

If you have both been timetabled as the teacher of the class during the bounds of this reporting cycle then you will both have the class appear from the drop-down menu on the 'Enter Results' screen. It's important to keep in mind that you are both writing the same report - if one of you enters results these will show up for the other teacher as well on their 'Enter Results' screen for that class. The most recent changes will be the ones that are included in the report pdf file as the auto-save function will overwrite previous results entered.


A class that I expected to write a report for is not showing up in my list, or there is a class is in my list that I don't think I should write a report for, what do I do?

If you are a timetabled teacher for a class you will see it from your list of available subjects, but if it is not available please speak with your Reporting Coordinator who can resolve this for you. If you see a class on your list for which you believe you should not write a report, you can usually leave it for the lead teacher to complete. You are seeing the class because you were timetabled to teach the class during the bounds that your Reporting Coordinator has set for this reporting cycle.


A student that is in my class isn't showing up to have a report written, or a student is showing up who left my class weeks ago, what should I do?

Your school should have a policy about the length of time a student needs to be in the class to have a report written for that class. If you are unsure speak with your Reporting Coordinator. Similarly, if you are missing any students from your list please speak with the Reporting Coordinator so they can resolve this for you.


What if I lose connection to the internet while writing my reports - will I lose my work?

Compass Semester Reports save automatically as you fill them in, but you must be connected to the internet to do so. If you lose connection while writing your reports an error message will pop up:


This message appears to make you aware of the connectivity issue and to keep you from writing reports that may not be saved. After this message appears you will need to connect to the internet again before you can return to writing your reports.

How can I hide a grading element from displaying on a student's report?

You may have some students in a class who require their own grading criteria that is different from a majority of the students, or who do not need a report for the class at all. If you do not want a grading element to be displayed on the report, simply choose "(Excluded)", which is available with any grading criteria you choose. If you choose '(Excluded)' for all grading options for a class (including typing the word '(Excluded)' in the comment box), then this subject's report will not be included in the pdf report for the student.

If a reporting element is not relevant to a large number of students in your class, you may want to select '(Excluded)' for one student and then use the 'Fill Down' or 'Fill Up' function to apply this to other students. If the students for whom you would like to exclude the element for are all in one year level, you can sort by year level by clicking the 'Year Level' column header which is next to the student's name.


How can I print the reports for the purposes of reviewing?

For staff members who prefer to review the reports on paper you can print out results from the Results Reviewer, simply use the 'Print' button at the top of the page for the class you're reviewing. This will allow you to print the results in the most paper-efficient way possible.


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