About
At YYRCHS, we play a crucial role in maintaining students’ connections to their regular base school or kindergarten, bridging the gap between hospital, home, and education settings. We aim to improve learning and wellbeing outcomes through targeted, individualised experiences, providing students with a sense of normality, purpose and success in an acute tertiary and quaternary level hospital.
“Compass is a respected and commonly used platform across Victorian Government Schools. While we have a complex setting, Compass had options for flexibility that allowed for use in our context, and had similar examples in Designated Purpose school settings across Victoria.”
Yalingbu Yirramboi – The Royal Children’s Hospital School
The Challenge
Initially At YYRCHS, we support a highly transient cohort. Students may be in hospital for less than a week, remain for extended periods, or move constantly between hospital, home and their base school, often with unpredictable admissions and changing capacity to engage. We needed a way to capture and record real-time information and communications as they occurred, supporting continuity of education across settings. Attendance monitoring was particularly challenging, as traditional “set class” approaches didn’t suit a changing cohort.
In our pre-existing education service, we relied on a non-learning-based management system with limited functionality and integrations because it was designed for clinical documentation rather than school management. This meant we couldn’t collect enrolment and demographic data in a meaningful way, and we were forced to use fragmented tools with limited integrations. While we worked with an analyst to build features, this was often a long process and restricted the level of customisation we could achieve.
Our main priorities
- An adaptable system for a highly transient cohort
- Real-time capture of information and communications
- Stronger attendance monitoring
- Meaningful visibility of enrolment and demographic data
- A fit-for-purpose school management platform
- Greater flexibility and customisation
Choosing Compass
We selected Compass as a trusted education platform already used across Victorian Government Schools, with flexibility to suit our complex specialist setting. We also saw relevant examples of Compass supporting Designated Purpose school environments across Victoria, helping build confidence that the platform could adapt to our context.
Why Compass
Following our transition to a Department of Education setting, Compass helped us mitigate key system and process constraints. Using Pulse reporting and integration with CASES21, we could gather enrolment data, including demographics and custom flags, supporting clearer visibility and reporting needs. We also needed a platform we could tailor quickly; Chronicle enabled more responsive, fit-for-purpose documentation aligned to strategic priorities, improving consistency and supporting reporting through Pulse. Day-to-day, our teachers create an Individual Education Plan (IEP) in Compass during admissions to document how a student learns best and the strategies that promote success. On discharge, IEPs can be shared with families and the base school to support seamless transitions and continuity of learning focus areas.
Migration and implementation
We started as a new Compass entity and benefited from Compass’ integration with CASES21 to support reporting and accessible, user-friendly processes. The Customer Success Manager worked closely with our complexities to localise the platform, provide PDF process guides, and deliver onboarding training tailored to our unique use of Compass.
Benefits and change
Compass supported improved enrolment visibility through Pulse reporting and CASES21 integration, including demographics and custom flags. Chronicle enabled more responsive, fit-for-purpose documentation and improved consistency, with better foundations for reporting through Pulse. The platform also made it easier for us to record attendance, apply setting-specific flags, and document individual students (not only classes), which is vital in our environment
