We've put together all our tips and frequently asked questions on how to prepare for the next academic year.
1. Things to plan before the summer break
Changing MIS
If you are changing MIS providers please get in touch at least one week prior to the changeover so we can take the relevant steps at our end to avoid disruption as much as possible. In order to preserve account history, Satchel One users must be re-linked to their new identities.
Migrating servers
If you have moved your MIS server, you will need to reinstall the Groupcall Xporter utility and your XoD jobs on the new machine. Follow these instructions.
If you're on Wonde, please reach out to the Wonde team directly so they can further assist here at support@wonde.com
Exporting data you wish to keep
Once the new academic year starts, the existing classes and gradebooks will be archived. Teachers who wish to keep a copy of their marks for 2024 will need to do so before the end of the academic year:
Go to My classes, pick one group at a time and click on Export Gradebook.
Alternatively, use the Students submissions report to export all your marks in one go.
The homework tasks and attachments will continue to be available via the teacher's calendar or their My resources section with the option to Reuse them.
2. Things to know about the academic year rollover
When will the new classes and timetables appear?
Some schools set up temporary summer timetables which will be imported automatically according to your MIS data. These lessons and groups will be part of the current 2024 academic year.
Once the new academic year has been promoted to 2024 in your MIS and synced to XoD/Wonde, we should begin receiving the new data automatically.
💡 Classes are imported once they become active, i.e. on their start date. The exact date differs for each region but, for most schools, new classes for 2024 will appear on our platform on the first day of lessons in September.
Kindly note, this is defined by the school's MIS. We are unable to get access to class groups prior to their start date.
If your school uses our Timetables app, any dates for school holidays within your MIS will also be reflected on Satchel One. Students will not be able to see the timetables for the new groups until the groups have been imported.
All class data viewable in Satchel One is based only on what we receive from your MIS. Please ensure all data is correct before the new start date.
For more information on how our Bolt-on Apps will update after the new academic year rollover, please see this article.
When will new student and teacher accounts be created?
New Staff accounts will be imported from XoD/Wonde as soon as they become active. For full-time employees, they become active on their contract start date and for temporary or agency staff, as soon as they are linked to an active class.
Year 7 students and new starters will be added to Satchel One on their official start date; you can find this date in your MIS. If you are using Pre-Admission groups, students added to the pre-admission group on your MIS will be imported right away, during the next daily data import.
As a reminder, we do not import parent accounts from your MIS system. Parents and Guardians sign up directly on our platform when they receive their parent codes.
Do email addresses for new users get imported automatically?
Yes, we will automatically import email addresses for new users and those who don't already have an email address on their Satchel One accounts. Please note that the information comes from the Work Email field in XoD/Wonde, so please ensure that this is populated where possible.
Alternatively, you can update emails using a CSV file. Go to Admin > Manage users, click on Update emails and follow the instructions on the screen.
How can we make changes to our Single sign-on settings?
You can enable, disable, view or change your single sign-on settings by going to Admin > Settings > Single sign-on
On your school homepage, users will only see the login options relevant to them which makes logging in much simpler.
Can students view old homework tasks when the academic year rolls over?
Yes, students are always able to access their tasks and historic information. The homework will always be present on their to-do lists and calendar, as well as their Gradebooks. Please keep in mind that teachers will not be able to assess and grade tasks belonging to the previous academic year after the rollover.
Can admins remove old items from the students' To-do list?
No, admins cannot archive to-do items on behalf of the students. However, when a teacher marks homework as "Submitted" or "Submitted late", the to-do item is automatically marked as "Completed" for the student and removed from their list.
Can teachers create homework for their new year now?
Sure. Create your task and, instead of publishing it, click Save as a draft.
💡 But be careful: Make sure to not yet select a class. Only assign your homework to a class once the new timetables have started to ensure the correct students are notified.
Alternatively, you could save precious time not having to rewrite homework by reusing your existing resources next academic year.
3. Things to do on your first week back
Data checks
Check your Groupcall Manage portal to ensure there are no connectivity issues between your MIS and Xporter on Demand. If you notice any errors, please get in touch with our Support team and we will raise a case with Groupcall on your behalf.
Remove leavers
Leavers are automatically removed from Satchel One after 28 days of inactivity. To ensure GDPR compliance, please remove users who have left by going to Admin > Manage users.
Follow these steps for Students, Teachers, and Staff members:
Check the Show only leavers option
Click on the checkbox on the top left corner to select all users on this page.
Select the matching results from all pages which makes removing large groups of users a breeze by clicking 'Select all' in the yellow banner.
Now click Actions > Delete to remove their accounts.
💡 Please take extra care when deleting accounts as this action is irreversible.
Update existing or add missing emails
Imports will be automatically imported for new users as long as the work email address field is populated in XoD/Wonde. However, if you need to update existing emails, i.e. you have changed email providers, you can do so with a CSV upload.
Go to Admin > Manage users, click on Update emails and follow the instructions on the screen.
Distribute login details to new and existing users
Whether you want to invite new users or help existing users with their forgotten passwords, you have many options for doing so remotely. Have a look at our extensive guide here.
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