Following an increased number of enquiries from schools regarding online educational content delivery and parent & carer and student communication, we have prepared a number of resources to assist in the event of school closures.

With the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation now impacting school operations, we wanted to advise school communities on their use of Compass in the event that circumstances require school closures, measures they can take to aid social distancing strategies, and the steps we are taking as an organisation to minimise contact with school communities during this period.

Remotely assigning work to students

We want to ensure schools are aware of the ability to assign classwork and publish content and resources to students remotely through Compass. Our Learning Tasks module allows staff to set tasks for students, students to submit their completed work, and staff to provide feedback, comments and grades.

To assist any school that may not currently use the Learning Tasks module, it can be activated for up to three months at no additional cost for this period; if you would like to enable this module for your school, please get in touch.

Need some help using Learning Tasks? Take a look at this quick guide.

Keeping your community updated

In situations that can escalate quickly, we know how important it is to have tools to easily communicate with your community. We’d like to remind you of the flexible options for keeping parents & carers, students and staff updated available through Compass, whether by SMS*, push notification, email or the newsfeed.

Support is also available in the event that schools wish to fast track their rollout or use of the parent portal. The parent portal allows for free instant mobile push communications to be sent to parents & carers, as well as providing access to the news feed, events and excursions, Learning Tasks, school documentation, absence submissions and more.

(*Please be aware that additional charges apply for communications sent by SMS.)

Reducing cash handling and payments in school

Our payments functionality means that parents & carers no longer need to make payments for events, excursions or even the school canteen in the school office. Instead, they can process payments through the Compass portal or from the app, alongside providing consent.

Please get in touch if you would like to find out more about how your school could transition to cashless payments.

Suspending school visits by Compass staff

Members of the Compass team regularly visit schools to provide training, support or demonstrate the Compass product. We are minimising this to the greatest possible extent, for instance by replacing all on-site training sessions with remote training, delivered by Zoom, Google Hangouts or over the phone.

In order to ensure the health and wellbeing of our staff, and guarantee minimal disruption to our support services, we have also transitioned most of our teams to working from home arrangements across all of our domestic and international offices. We continue to be available during our extended support hours, accessible by phone, email and live chat.

Rescheduling this term's Compass Catch-ups

In keeping with our suspension of on-site school visits, we have decided to move our Compass Catch-ups to the web. Whilst we were excited about the opportunity to provide face-to-face updates, troubleshooting and networking, we believe this is a sensible step to take, consistent with conferences and events around the country. We will be in contact with everybody who signed up for either of our Catch-ups with details about the webinar shortly.

Photography, hardware and identity cards

For schools using our photography services through MSP Photography, delivery and production remains on track at this time. If you have not yet had your photography sessions for the year, please do not hesitate to contact our team to discuss any changes you may require, including rescheduling dates or arranging alternative approaches to your school photo day.

For schools who have purchased a KioskLite unit, we are currently experiencing some delays with our overseas manufacturers. Please be aware that new orders may incur a 3-4 week delay as a result of this.

Manufacture of student identity cards (including PTV approved cards) continues without interruption and we hold sufficient stock on-hand to fulfill new and existing orders.

Summary

We continue to be in contact with government departments and schools and have boosted our communication services to accommodate the increased use of SMS, email and push notifications throughout this period.

If you have any questions, or if we can assist you or your school at all, please do not hesitate to contact our team.