Introduction
The aim of this document is to help you maximise your use of GO 4 Schools and make the transition to a new system as efficient and easy as possible for your staff. All the set-up steps in the pre-training guidance should be completed. This document is for use following your training session to act as a prompt and give you a guide of what you need to plan, a work order for the additional set-up steps and the delegation of responsibility for each of the key areas in GO 4 Schools.
We advise schools to consider their longer-term training plan and if you require any additional training sessions after you have gone through the initial set-up of each of the modules in your subscription. We will provide you with guidance on how to make the best use of the available time, so please do call us to discuss your needs after reading this document. It may also be useful to have this document with you during the training session.
The topics covered in this document are relevant to all schools using GO 4 Schools, but those with modules in addition to starter version should read this document in conjunction with ‘Sample Post–Training Implementation for Secondary schools, V2 Part 2, Additional Modules’.
Exemplar Management Structure
Central Control
This is an approach where a member of SLT and/or the data manager have complete control of the data in GO 4 Schools, this will include:
- Set up and uploading of ALL grades required
- Set up of all qualifications and QAN codes
- Central control and set up of markbooks; using the copy function and usually used for summative grade collection only, though this can include a prescriptive assessment policy to be applied across curriculum areas
- Behaviour module and seating plan data sets: SLT set up centrally *
- Additional modules will require setting up (further guidance in part 2) to support your preferred in-school processes for:
- Behaviour module * o Parental access * o Mobile app * o Homework *
- Progress reports *
- Seating plans - school data sets *
- And in liaison with our customer services team and technical support team:
- Attendance; all tiers *
* Additional modules
Delegated set up
This is an approach where schools allow some flexibility across the school and delegate partial responsibility to middle leaders:
- Set up and uploading of KEY grades (external targets, teacher targets) but including projected grades (editable by staff)
- Qualifications and QAN codes set up by middle leaders and verified by the exams officer
- Middle leader set up and control of markbooks, may include ‘Model 1’ assessment reference guides (including summative grade collection), but enables curriculum leaders to utilise the markbook assessment functionality to track assessments
- Behaviour module: heads of progress/year with SLT link setting up behaviour events and classifications • Seating plan data sets set up by curriculum leaders and heads of year specific to subject data requirements.
Depending on the school context it is important that you consider your plan for implementation, a model which is a combination of the above may also be suitable for your school. See pre-training guide for information on ‘Model 2 - Centrally Supported Implementation of markbooks’.
Exemplar implementation time plans
Pre six-week health check
It is useful to have a timeline for your implementation based on what you need to achieve by specific dates in your school. This is dependent on the time of year GO 4 Schools was purchased and the capacity of your staff and management teams. We recommend that you consider the training of all staff across the school alongside the setup of each core function of GO 4 Schools.
The six-week health-check can be done by phone call or a 90-minute visit by your education consultant. This tends to focus on:
- A question and answer session of any issues encountered following your initial training session
- An overview of next steps to move forward your implementation • A Health Check review of your set-up and data added to GO 4 Schools.
Pre six-month health check
We hope that after six months you have embedded key areas of GO 4 Schools with your staff across the school. The health check will pin-point any key areas of missing data and review your set-up. It is again an opportunity to discuss next steps with your educational consultant or trouble shoot any processes and learn more about the data outputs available.
Implementation set-up steps
The set-up steps below are recommended as advisory steps for all schools regardless of which version of GO 4 Schools you’re using. Following training you may wish to consider your timeline and allocating responsibility for specific steps to key personnel.
| Task | Instructions | Checklist | Action |
1 | Access control - staff | People > Staff access Check settings for all staff.
| Check with IT manager for staff on active directory if not visible Remove remote access for cover staff or teaching assistants Set manager access rights for each module available (this should be limited for each role) Give curriculum leader access for heads of department | Est. time: 30 mins Deadline: _____________ Completed by: |
2 | Feed rules | Curriculum > View feed rules Review curriculum offer and set up feed rules to create subjects not showing from your timetable, this will then enable the assignment of QAN codes to all subjects. Rename MIS subject names if applicable e.g. RS to Religious Education. NB: Feed rules run overnight and will place new subjects in the “Unknown” department the next day. | Common feed rules: Copy science groups into chemistry, physics, biology for KS4 single sciences Copy English to English literature for KS4 Rename subjects Consider additional non-timetabled subjects i.e. first language, intervention groups | Est. time: 30 mins (depending on timetable set up in MIS) Deadline: _____________ Completed by: |
3 | Grades set up
| Curriculum > Grade and residual settings See School Manager’s Guide for further details and descriptions of each grade type. Tracking and progress settings: • Select preferred target and progress grade types for each year group Set each grade type:
| Tracking and progress settings: Select preferred target grade per year group Select preferred progress tracking grade per year group No change to preferred scale at this stage Set residual output visibility Grade settings Target grades External target Teacher target Target grade Aspirational grade Additional grade Progress grades Current grade visible Projected grade Honest grade Actual grade Baseline grade | Est. time: 20 minutes Deadline: _____________ Completed by:
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4 | Move new subjects into departments | Curriculum > Departments Assign subjects to departments by typing in the department name – by default all subjects are assigned to the “Unknown” department. Following feed rules set-up add newly created subjects to departments. | All subjects showing under correct departments New subjects added to departments | Est. time: 30 mins Deadline: _____________ Completed by:
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5 | Statistics and analysis settings | Curriculum > Statistics and analysis settings Set up KS4 statistics settings. Visibility of statistics will enable you to customise the outputs displayed in GO 4 Schools, you may wish to revisit once data is present. | Set KS4 estimates Set visibility of statistics Set for B and N KS2 grades Set statistical outputs for KPI’s required Set visibility of subject auto-charts Set visibility of interactive ribbons | Est. time: 10 mins Deadline: _____________ Completed by: |
6 | Set up internal grading scheme | Curriculum > Internal grading schemes Set up a school-based assessment scheme for tracking at KS3.
| Set up scheme with grade names Add values as required (numeric/score) Set key statistic grades Set fine grading (if applicable) Tick show grading scheme to be visible in the mark book | Est. time: 30 mins Deadline: _____________ Completed by:
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Central Management of markbooks and assessments. If you want the same approach across the curriculum for your markbook set up i.e. collection of three termly progress grades and to collect report attributes (effort or attitude to learning), you will need to set up a template markbook that can be copied across to all subjects You will need a separate template for each of the following:
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7a | If markbook module available: Set up a template markbook | From any subject page use the ‘edit mark book’ link or from the Curriculum > Subjects and qualifications page using the hashed square icon.
Set up template markbook(s) – consider do you want to include report attributes? For vocational markbooks these can be copied from template markbooks visible in the samples department on our demo site. | Set up template standard markbooks variants: KS3 KS4 Vocational markbooks KS4 (see Demo site if require unit tracking in detail) (If tracking report attributes in vocational markbooks add marksheet) Update QAN code after each mark book is copied from the source Check QAN codes on subject and qualifications page
| Est. time: 90mins to 3-4 hours depending on size of school. Deadline: _______________ Completed by: |
Delegated set up of markbooks and assessment
If you wish your curriculum leaders or data manager to set up individual markbooks for tracking assessments, then follow this strand of set up. You may also wish to have a hybrid approach where you set up centrally using the steps above and then allow curriculum leaders to add additional zero weighted marksheets to each markbook. | ||||
7b | QAN code set up
| Follow Curriculum > Subjects and Qualifications NB: Add QANS before entering target grades to match grade type. Options: Central set up by exams officer (subjects and qualifications page). Curriculum leader set up with markbooks (will require access to correct QAN codes) use the “edit markbook” link from the subject page. Make sure to check subjects with an ! mark next to them. This can indicate a withdrawn qualification or a qualification that is not recognised in the performance measures. HINT: Using a peer approach between your curriculum leaders can also be used to support consistency in set up of markbooks. | Markbook QANs – Check if whole or fine grades: Y7 Y8 Y9 Y10 Y11 NB: SLT link managers may want to have an overview of subject area set up and have a clear timeline for each Key stage. | Implementation plan: Phased for curriculum Leaders Central set up Due date: _____________ Lead subject areas
Peer to peer subjects _________ +____________ __________ +____________ __________ +____________ __________ +____________ Deadline: _____________ |
8 | Subject settings | Curriculum > Subjects and qualifications Check settings for all subjects in all year groups. | Exclude from stats i.e. reg groups Set as tutorial subjects (for report formatting) Set as pastoral subjects (for report formatting) Hide subjects from parents/students Hide marksheets from parents/students Hide formative assessments Check discount codes Check (!) for qualifications with no discount code. Check QAN codes against entries | Est. time: 20mins Deadline: _______________ Completed by: | |
9 | Grades Upload
| Curriculum > Grades types > Actual grade • Upload KS2 data as ‘Actual grade’ rolled back to Y6 for all year groups. • Upload external target grades for all year groups HINT: Can be done as a single file using the grade file conversion link. Upload other grades as required i.e. Adjusted external target data sets. Guidance videos are available in Help & technical support > Online resources > General. | KS2 data: Y11 Y10 Y9 Y8 Y7 Teacher Target grade: Y11 Y10 Y9 Y8 Y7 | External target data: Y11 Y10 Y9 Y8 Y7 Other: Y11 Y10 Y9 Y8 Y7 | Est. time: 60 mins (there may be some time required to edit the CSV spreadsheet into the format required to upload into GO 4 Schools). Deadline: _____________ Completed by: |
10 | Set up student access | To enable student access to GO 4 Schools People > Student access | Upload student file format Check visibility in ‘Settings’ tab of manage> School Contact details and settings Check visibility | Estimated time: 20mins Deadline: _____________ Completed by | |
Student Attributes
To customise GO 4 Schools specifically to your school needs you can create specific student attributes for key groups of students for analysis and tracking. This is in addition to key groups that we take directly from your MIS (e.g. Pupil premium indicator and SEND).
| Task | Instructions | Checklist | Action |
11 | Set system attributes for analysis and visibility | Manage > Attributes Scroll down to system attributes. View settings of ‘Use for analysis of…. and set visibility for staff, students and parents. Use ‘Manage values’ link to change each. | Set key focus groups for analysis: Key groups for attainment analysis Key groups for behaviour analysis* Key groups for attendance analysis* Set visibility of student attributes | Estimated time: 20 mins Deadline: _____________ Completed by: |
12 | Upload special attributes | Manage > Attributes Special attributes are key to enable schools to view data outputs for national data sets. Scroll down to special attributes and upload data for each year group for:
| Upload special attributes: Disadvantaged Prior attainment KS2 (LPA, MPA, HPA) Review settings for visibility and for use for analysis | Estimated time: 30 mins Deadline: _____________ Completed by: |
13 | Create and upload custom attributes | Manage > Attributes These student attributes are specific to your school to enable teachers to be informed about key student groups.
Consider groups for attainment, behaviour and attendance. Common uploads include: Reading age scores, intervention groups, outlier groups, attendance concerns. | Add new custom attributes for tracking focus groups: Manage settings for each: o Visibility o Use for analysis | Estimated time: 30 mins Deadline: _____________ Completed by: |
14 | Customise attribute sets | Manage > Attribute sets Review attribute sets using the settings link and create school custom sets to show as ‘pop-outs’ in markbooks and to use for analysis for each year group. Hint: Attribute sets will also organise your student attributes into subsets to more easily select in data explorers, detailed stats and interactive ribbons, seating plan data sets etc. | Review system attribute sets
Show attribute sets in markbooks Create new attribute sets specific for school requirements | Estimated time: 30 mins Deadline: _____________ Completed by: |
15 | Upload GL data (CAT, PiM, PiE, PASS) | Manage > Bulk upload Student attributes See school managers guide for details on uploading GL data to add to GO 4 Schools. Hint: We suggest you edit the file to contain only the data required prior to upload. | Upload data Manage sets | Estimated time: 30 mins Deadline: _____________ Completed by: |
Documents
Specific documents can be uploaded for each student to be shared with teaching staff and or students and parents. We suggest you do not include sensitive information in this document and use the PDF format so it cannot be edited. The document can be any document you require, some schools use this for: EHCP summaries, learning passports, behaviour reviews and targets.
A member of staff assigned document manager may upload documentation, you may wish to assign this to pastoral/admin staff and/or SENCO.
You can also upload URLs to each student, this will allow you to link to a file held elsewhere e.g. Google docs, school network.
| Task | Instructions | Checklist | Action |
16 | Set up document types | People > View/Create Document types
“Link to markbook” will make the documents visible to teachers in the popout. | Add specific document types you wish to use in GO 4 Schools Set as enabled, disabled, read-only Link to markbook | Estimated time: 30 mins Deadline: _____________ Completed by: |
17 | Upload documents | See document managers guide People > Documents NB: There is no bulk upload, this is per student. | Upload documents/URLs | Estimated time depends on number of uploads. Allocated to: Deadline: _____________ Completed by: |
Residual schemes
We would suggest that you have target grades uploaded and you have some progress grades entered into GO 4 Schools prior to setting up your school residual schemes, this is so you can review the required output sensitivity and model your residual outputs.
| Task | Instructions | Checklist | Action |
18 | Residual scheme settings | Curriculum > Grade and residual settings To set the residual outputs required to be viewed in markbooks.
| Visibility of band Visibility of colour Visibility of value Check preferred scale (default – simple index) | Estimated time: 5 mins Deadline: _____________ Completed by:
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19 | Set up Residual schemes | Curriculum > Residual schemes By default, this will be set to GO 4 Schools current model. You may wish to copy and edit a system residual scheme or create a new scheme. If creating a new scheme, template versions are available. | Options: Check assigned residual scheme Edit residual scheme Create new residual scheme Assign residual scheme to specific subjects | Estimated time: 30 mins Deadline: _____________ Completed by:
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Reports - snapshots
| Task | Instructions | Checklist | Action |
20 | To set up timestamped data snapshots | Curriculum > Reports and Snapshots > Manage Create a new set of reports for a year group following the steps in the wizard. See report mangers guide for details. Hint: do not use ‘Publish’ as this makes a data report visible to parents and students. | Exclude subjects not included in school performance checking Select grade types required for snapshot Check for missing grades Select ‘Prepare’ | Estimated time: 10 mins Deadline: _____________ Completed by:
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21 | Check data via the report explorer | Select explorer from the report management page. | Download to CSV if required | Estimated time: 5 mins Deadline: _____________ Completed by: |