Our main priorities
- We need to ensure that our existing software can integrate seamlessly with Compass.
- We are seeking a user-friendly school management system that staff can learn to use with ease.
- Our aim was to find a system backed by a responsive support team, ready to problem-solve wherever issues arose.
- We sought a more effective way to connect and communicate with teachers, students, and parents across our entire school community.
- Our existing administration system was slow and often caused double-handling of data, making processes less efficient than we needed. We aimed to automate administration to make it faster, more streamlined, and better organised for our staff.
How we selected our software partner
One of the key reasons we chose Compass as our software partner was its user-friendly and intuitive interface. The platform is well-structured, with seamlessly connected pages that make it easy for users to navigate and access the tools they need quickly. Our staff were able to pick up Compass and learn how to use it seamlessly.
“We had a pilot program testing several school management systems, and Compass was the most user-friendly and intuitive option for students and parents.”
Our implementation process
After the launch of Compass, our customer success plan has been beneficial in reducing wait times and providing after-hours assistance for any issues that need resolution.
We’ve also appreciated the high level of customer service from Compass, particularly in support of integrating Compass with our existing software systems. For example, the Compass technical team collaborated with us to incorporate one of our existing software partners that was not previously compatible with their school management system.
The development team has been very proactive in helping us resolve issues. For example, when we experienced difficulties loading student grades, the problem was promptly addressed. Compass also supported us in implementing an API integration with our student identification software, allowing us to automatically track when a student or teacher changes classes after the start of the year—eliminating the need to update other systems manually.
Compass offers a better connection to our school community.
Here are some of the core aspects we appreciate about Compass.
- Finance Management has helped us gain greater control over budgets and purchase orders, reducing errors and making financial processes more efficient.
- Custom access allows us to decide what staff can interact with in Compass. This protects essential structures and keeps data secure.
- Target Communication through the newsfeed and email tools ensures that messages reach the right people in our school community.
- User-friendly design has meant staff can navigate modules with confidence. The menu structure is intuitive, allowing staff to hit the ground running without needing extensive training.
- The Events module has made a significant impact, enabling us to manage events with role marking, attendance, and payment all in one place, thereby streamlining a previously complicated process.
- Student wellbeing tools like Pulse and Chronicle have been invaluable for identifying behavioural and attendance concerns early. This proactive approach allows us to support students before issues escalate.
“If you are a little curious, you don’t need a training module to figure it out”
Expectations and initial impressions of Compass
We’ve received very positive feedback in surveys about the Compass Conferences module. It streamlines the student-teacher interview process by removing the need for in-person meetings, making it simple to use and easy to administer. Parents no longer have to deal with parking or waiting in queues on interview night; they simply click a ready-to-access Microsoft Teams link to join their scheduled meeting.
Administrators have genuinely enjoyed the Attendance module, appreciating its straightforward design and logical functionality. The attendance module has different layers where users at various levels can view or report attendance data easily.
We recently discovered the functionality of Custom Groups, which allows us to create specific groups for different sports and co-curricular activities. We had issues managing our sports carnival, but with Custom Groups, we can now easily sort students into age groups, take photos, and mark rolls more efficiently.
We look forward to using Compass in the future and to continual improvements over time.
