Extra Curricular Management Webinar 2024 Q&A

How do you set up the template emails?

Email Templates can be set up in TASS.web System Admin > Utilities > Email Settings. Select "Extra Curricular Activity" as the Category when creating the email template.

Does the roadmap for EC include increasing the code limit for each type - and/or the ability to link multiple Activities/types against each other?
We were pretty keen on adding in all of our awards but found the limitation of characters a showstopper since there are a lot of awards.  Also we wanted to link multiple awards against the different activities but it would only allow it to link once. 

Thanks for the suggestion and explanation of your situation. We appreciate your input and will definitely keep it in mind as we plan future enhancements.

Can a custom roll be updated as the roll is being marked, or do you need to go back to the activity set-up and add a new student to the activity for them to appear on the roll?

If you need to add a student as a one-off, you can do this directly in a Custom Roll without returning to the activity setup. However, please note that they won’t appear in future rolls for that activity. To make a student a permanent member of the activity, you'll need to add them to the Group through the Extra Curricular Groups setup.

On the email template, does that mean that the words are taken out of TASS??

Yes, keywords are available in email templates, including options specific to students, parents, and extracurricular activities. Wherever you place a keyword, relevant information for the student, parent or activity is automatically inserted.

If a parent has already flagged that their student will be absent for the day, will this be reflected on the custom roll for an activity?

The ‘Default Students To’ configuration option for Custom Rolls allows you to set custom rolls to default to school attendance. This option can be found in Staff Kiosk Rollcall > Custom Roll Parameters (Setup). Additionally, parents can indicate a student’s absence from extra curricular activities when submitting an absence notification in Parent Lounge or Parent Orbit.

Is it possible to see weekly custom rolls for an activity in one place so that we can see who has missed more than 1 rehearsal in a row?Is it possible to see weekly custom rolls for an activity in one place so that we can see who has missed more than 1 rehearsal in a row?

We understand the need for this enhancement, and it’s on our roadmap for future development.

Do the custom rolls overlay the attendance rolls?  Do we only reference them in the Extra Curricular Activity?

This is showcased in the ‘how school attendance appears on the custom roll’ part of the Staff Orbit demo.

We work in Summer and Winter groupings rather than Semester and Term.  Assuming this is not possible within TASS?We found some issues where students for the next year are not in the Summer sports since they are not in TASS when the Sem&Term was created.  We preferred not to create them in terms and have multiple lines per activity.  

Extra Curricular activities are locked to term/semester (based on your setup); however, you can use the unit field to make this more granular. You can clone activities with students between terms/semesters/units. We recommend reaching out to our Customer Care team to discuss specific scenarios and assist with options.

Is there a way to allow sign-up for a specific or bespoke group of students only?  

We understand the need for this enhancement, and it’s on our roadmap for future development.

Do you plan to add a sign up time. At the moment it just allows you to enter date the sign up opens.  Time would be useful as we have parents waiting to get into events so we need to advise of open time.

Yes, we understand the need for this enhancement, and it’s on our roadmap for future development.

DO the sessions roll into the school calendar?

Yes, they roll into the eDiary as a Calendar Feed for students, parents and staff.

Activity group set up question: we run some activities across two days e.g. art club on a Monday and Wednesday, do you suggest creating two activity groups for each day to ensure sign-ups occur for the correct day or to use the UD fields? My understanding is that the UD fields option may create issues as you cannot limit the number of spots available to the specific days.

While you could use UD fields, separating the groups into 2 activities would be easier to manage.

Would you mind clarifying the use of Extra Curricular compared to Events?

Typically, Events are for once-off, Extra Curricular for ongoing activities. Each has different functionality regarding signups and how they display for their intended purpose.

Are you able to upload from an excel spreadsheet to an activity as bulk action?  

This is not currently available, however, we understand the need for this enhancement, and it’s on our roadmap for future development.

Can you expand on the UD fields? What does each option do and how is it viewed by the parent/student?

These are user-defined and can be used in a number of different ways, such as preferred position in a team or attachment fields to complete forms. You can then nominate UD fields to be mandatory requirements upon signup.

Does the response to the medical verification request feed back into TASS?  If so, where?

Verification of medical details won't give any notification for staff to action. The last verification date will appear on the student's TASS.web medical record on the 'Parent Lounge Updates' tab.  Once you have Parents who have verified their children’s Medical Details, you can run a report for this in Staff Kiosk Listings > Student Medical (Lists/Emails) using the ‘Parent Lounge Verification Selection Criteria’. This report can also bring through parents who have not verified a Student’s medical details.

Activity sign-up question: on occasion students may be removed from an activity for a term etc. which would then result in spaces becoming available.The plan is to open sign-ups again for these available spaces on a termly basis. However, there’s an issue with students that has been removed from an activity being unable to sign-up again if the activity sign-up is re-opened. Can you please advise on how we correct this issue?

Students will need to be manually assigned to the Activity in this scenario.

We have an issue with students signing up and parents not approving is there any way to get the data of the students who still need parent approval? 

Currently, no method is available to generate a list of students requiring parental approval. 

We understand the need for this enhancement, and it’s on our roadmap for future development.

Can an event in Events/Payments be automatically added to the report like an extra curricular activity?

An Event cannot be added to Academic Reports.

Is it possible to send an email to more than one group at the same time?

Currently, it’s not possible to include more than one group, but we understand the need for this feature and are planning to implement it in the future.

Can you personalise the Student EC Certificate - or is this a set template. We give to our year 12 students at graduation.

You cannot customise Extra Curricular Certificate, however, you can customise Academic Reports and include Extra Curricular information. 

Will there be the functionality to bulk import sessions (e.g. via CSV or API) if they're ad-hoc rather than on a set recurring basis?

Yes, we understand the need for this enhancement, and it’s a high priority on our roadmap.

If you change a student to another extra curricular group in hub – does it change in teacher kiosk?

Yes, it does.

Can you only update the custom roll via the mobile app? Or can this also be done from a laptop?

The Custom Rolls and Extra Curricular modules are available in both Staff Orbit (mobile app) and Staff Kiosk (web app - any browser).

Do parents get notified in real time about an absence? 

Custom Rolls can be configured to be SMS-enabled in Staff Kiosk Rollcall > Custom Roll Parameters (Setup).  Once this feature is enabled, if a Custom Roll is marked and saved, an SMS will be sent to the parents of any students who are marked absent. Orbit also supports this functionality.

If you call a family with the app does it show a private number or your personal number?

You are able to toggle this in your phone settings, and the app will use this phone setting.

How are explained and unexplained absences defined? Does it tie into acceptable absences in attendance?

Absence explanations for custom rolls are entered when marking the roll or are automatically populated if a parent has reported the absence in advance through Parent Lounge or Parent Orbit. These absences are separate from school attendance records and are not directly linked to acceptable absences in the main attendance system.

We have staff who are required to collect JP students for their after school activities, we can't use the custom rolls function as the roll group is not shown.  Is this a possible addition?

Thanks for the suggestion and explanation of your situation. We appreciate your input and will definitely keep it in mind as we plan future enhancements.

In the meantime, you can generate a list of students along with their Form Class and PC/Tutor Group details by navigating to the Staff Kiosk Extra Curricular > Extra Curricular Groups. Click on the ‘hamburger menu’ in the Action column, select ‘View’, and then click the ‘hamburger menu’ in the top right corner. From there, choose ‘Print’.

Can Parent / Guardian first names please be made visible in the Staff Orbit app for student profiles + Contact 1 and Contact 2 details - it only has Mr and Mrs Surname at the top of the section?

Staff Orbit will show the parent name from the address blocks.

Is it possible for a timesheet to be automatically created for casual staff to complete, when a schedule is created?

We find that there can sometimes be staff error when entering the start/end time on a timesheet. It also means our coordinators are having to cross-check timesheets with the schedule. It can be quite time consuming for staff. 

Timesheets are currently not automatically created from Extra Curricular.

Currently our private music lessons are under the Appointment Log area of Teacher Kiosk. For the transition to parent/staff orbit, will this need to be re-configured to now be in the EC Groups area and create custom rolls for each individual private lesson?

It would be recommended to do this.

Can you give an ETA when the update your talking of will arrive in November?

v59.11 was released this week on 11/11/2024.

Is it possible to have an upload facility in the Extra Curricular module to add students, similar to Calendar and Equipment upload? (At the moment it is buried in the Data Upload Facility. In my school that requires a higher level access than I have.)

Yes, we understand the need for this enhancement, and it’s a high priority on our roadmap.

Our activity groups are set up, as suggested by TASS.  We run multiple sessions of activities on different days, how do we set the enrolment limit at sign-up, for each session, without having to create new activity groups for each day the club runs?

Separate activities for each day would be required.

With the app, if you mark a student absent at the start of a sports event, but that student was at school, is the parent notified? 

If SMS is enabled in the Custom Rolls Parameters (Setup), notifications can be sent to parents with the save and send option.

Please can we have an update on the EC Enhancement Roadmap.

A summary of the Extra Curricular Roadmap was shared at TASS On Tour. Based on the recent feedback we’ve received, we’ll be reviewing and refining it, with an updated specific Extra Curricular Roadmap to be published in the near future.

When setting up a schedule (mainly matches/games), is it possible to upload these details from an excel spreadsheet? Or do they need to be entered in individually?

For example, we have over 100 different teams for one sport. We receive the draw for those teams in a spreadsheet. Can we use this date and upload it, or do we need to enter each team's draw individually?

Yes, we understand the need for this enhancement, and it’s a high priority on our roadmap.

Is it possible to send an email to more than one group at the same time?

Currently, it’s not possible to include more than one group, but we understand the need for this feature and are planning to implement it in the future.

Hi! If I take the string ensemble and I'd like to view Bruce's attendance at rehearsals over a term, can I view that easily on TASS? At the moment I'm looking at each week's custom roll and collating the attendence records on paper.

We understand the need for this enhancement, and it’s on our roadmap for future development.

Is there a way of managing the formatting of how EC groups appears on a students report? At the moment our school's Sport groups look good but the music groups look a bit weird

Yes, there are CSS elements to be modified for the academic report. Please contact Customer Care for further information.

Is there ayway of making a large table that has all that medical information in a more contained form (rather than a PDF for each student)?

Yes, in Staff Kiosk Listings > Student Medical (Lists/Emails). Use the Extra Curricular search mode and Excel export option.

Your reps have indicated to us in the past that there are schools that use TASS for private instrumental lessons. Could you please share their details as this seems significantly more onerous to use for this purpose than, say, Clipboard. We'd love to get in touch with a school that actually uses this for this purpose. 

The best way to connect with other schools is via the TASS Community Forum. 

Is there an option to 'Print on Academic Reports' in Events as there is in Extra Curricular?

Not at this time.

How would external coaches mark the custom roll?

A Staff Kiosk login is required to mark a Custom Roll, and an employee record is required for a Staff Kiosk/Orbit login.

I love that you can track results! Can you track attendence?!

Attendance is tracked through Custom Rolls; however, it does not interact with the standard Attendance module. Orbit is planning to introduce reports to make this more manageable.

We would like to be able to add/remove particular students to co-curricular sign-ups. Example invite all current year 8 students to an activity for year 9 next year but remove someone who is leaving or add a new student who will join in year 9. Is anything like this planned?

Yes, we understand the need for this enhancement, and it’s a high priority on our roadmap.

Is there a way to run a report with time/day stamp of when parents signed up for a extra curricular activity?

Not at this time.

If we attach a group to an event (say a choir to a concert) and the choir roll changes in the meantime, we need the event roll to update accordingly. Can it update accordingly? I don't think the event updates does it? We can make a dynamic custom roll but not a dynamic event?!

Yes, the roll can update dynamically based on the students attached to the event.  Select the 'Dynamic List' option when creating the Custom Roll. 

What's the best way to input the bulk of music sessions for individual students at various times?

We understand the need for this enhancement, and it’s a high priority on our roadmap.

Is there a way to set up an extra curricular activity in 2024 for 2025 and the years roll over on the 1st January? eg in 2024 they are in Years 3, 4 & 5, but in 2025 they are in Years 4, 5 & 6.

Yes. The 'Clone' button is useful for bulk setting up future periods.

What would be the best way to pull the data at the end of the year or sport season to show percentage of attendance for sport etc.

Staff Orbit will provide a dashboard and listings to provide this information, while the Staff Kiosk cannot currently do this.

Many schools have to rotate private music lessons every fortnight (which are managed by the tutors) so they are not missing the same classes each week. This means we can not set up set private music tuition times for a term. How would this work in TASS - also there needs to be flexibility for tutors to move lessons last minute due to assessment tasks or illness etc. 

Currently, there's no easy way to achieve this; however, we understand the need for this enhancement, and it’s a high priority on our roadmap.

We bill music lessons in arrears at end of term based on attendance - what do parents see in the app for what to pay for their lessons?

It will be added to the Parent Account.

Is there a way to flag a student if they have missed a certain number of activities?

Not at this time.

Does the cost of the activity show on a parents Financial account?  Or is this a one off payment through extra curricular?

The cost of an extracurricular activity will not appear on the parents' statement unless the school has manually entered a charge for it in TASS.web.

When signing up for an extracurricular activity through Parent Lounge, the receipt is a sundry payment and is not linked to the parent's financial account.

Can we take payment in instalments for a camp or event?

Yes, you can set up different stages for collecting payments in the Events & Payment module.

This can be done using the 'Options' feature. You can either create an event with an initial deposit amount and include options for each instalment or create an event with a zero amount due and use the options for all instalments.

Parents can then access the event in the Parent Lounge and select the appropriate option each time a payment instalment is due.

Please contact Customer Care for further information.