Guide for the hostel officer

Who this guide is for

You run the school's boarding. Hostel, under ACADEMIC, is your desk: the boarding houses and their rooms and beds, which boarder sleeps where, exeats, the night roll call and the boarding reports. By default your role can also view the student list and each student's record, so you can check a boarder's class and guardians. Your school's administrator can give your role more permissions on the Roles & Permissions page.

Before you start

Your school's administrator creates your sign-in account and gives you a temporary password.

1. Open your school's portal and go to the sign-in page. It shows your school's name.

2. Enter your Email Address and Password, then select Sign In. You arrive on the Dashboard, which points you to the menu.

If you would rather not use a password, select Sign in with an email code. If you have forgotten your password, select Forgot password?.

Find your way around

1. On a computer the menu is down the left side, in groups: Students under OVERVIEW, Hostel under ACADEMIC. Select a group's name to fold it away.

2. On a phone, use the bar along the bottom of the screen, and select More for every other page, such as Hostel.

3. At the top, EN and FR switch between English and French, and the sun or moon button switches between light and dark.

4. To sign out, select your picture at the top right and then Sign out. On a phone, Sign out is at the bottom of More.

See the boarding at a glance

1. Open Hostel. The figures at the top count the Boarders, the Beds, the Free beds, who is On exeat and how many are overdue back.

2. The Session list at the top right picks the school year. Beds are given out per session; the current one is marked (current).

3. Houses lists each house with who boards there (boys, girls, or boys and girls), how many of its beds are taken, its house parents and its captain.

Set up a house, its rooms and beds

1. On Houses, select Add a house. Enter the House name, a Short code and Who boards here, choose its House parents and, once it has boarders, its House captain.

2. Open the house and select Add a room. Enter the Room name, the Floor and the Number of beds.

3. Add a bed adds one more bed to a room. Take out of use stops a room or bed being given out, for example while it is repaired; Bring back into use returns it.

4. Close house takes a house off the list. Its history is kept.

Give out beds

1. Open a house. Every bed shows who sleeps in it, Free, On exeat or Out of use.

2. On a free bed, select Give a bed and choose the Student. The student is recorded as a boarder.

3. To fill a house from a class at once, select Fill from a class, choose the Class and select Give out beds. Every boarder in the class without a bed gets a free bed; anyone left out is listed with the reason.

4. At the start of a new session, Copy last session's beds gives each boarder still at the school the same bed again.

5. Move moves a boarder to another bed or house. Take off this bed frees the bed, and asks whether the student is now a day student.

If the student's invoice for the term has no boarding fee yet, the page says so. Adding it needs permission to edit fees, so ask the bursar if you cannot.

Sign a boarder out and back in

1. Open Exeats. The Sign a student out form is on the same page.

2. Choose the Student, enter the Reason, who Collected by and when they are Due back, and select Sign out. The student's guardians are emailed when they leave and when they are back, and again if they are late.

3. When the boarder returns, find them under Out now and select Sign in.

4. The Show list switches between Out now, Overdue, Back and All.

Take the night roll call

1. Open Roll call and choose the House and the Night of.

2. Everyone starts as Present. Mark anyone Absent, and add a note saying where they were. Boarders out on exeat are marked Exeat already.

3. Select Save roll call. Saving again for the same night replaces it.

Download boarding reports

1. Open Reports and choose the Report: Occupancy (beds and free beds in each house), Boarders (every student with a bed, with a guardian to call), To check (students whose boarding record and bed don't agree), Fees owing, Exeats or Absences (students marked absent at the night roll call).

2. Narrow it by House and, where it applies, From and To dates.

3. Select Download CSV to open it in a spreadsheet.

Look up a student

1. Open Students. Every student is listed with their admission number, class and guardian.

2. Type in the search box, or narrow the list with the filters.

3. Select a student to open their page. Profile shows every guardian's name, phone and email.

Tips and common questions

• The Dashboard has no figures. Its school-wide figures need a reporting permission your role does not hold by default.

• A boarder cannot be given a bed in a house. The house is for the other sex, or the student already has a bed this session; move them instead.

• A menu item is missing. The menu shows only what your role's permissions allow. Ask your school's administrator.

Getting help

Open a support ticket

1. Open My Support (under More on a phone) and select Open Ticket.

2. Enter a subject, describe your issue and select Open Ticket.

3. Replies from the support team appear in the ticket.

Ask the AI Chat

1. Select the support button at the bottom of any page. On a phone it sits above the tab bar.

2. Ask the AI Chat assistant a question about using the portal.