Preparing for September

It’s September, welcome back. We hope you had wonderful Summer holidays and you’re ready for a new academic year, your classrooms have been freshly decorated, you have brand new students in your classes and the pupils are ready to learn. With Squad in Touch, there are a couple of things you will need to do which our helpful staff are of course more than happy to assist you with. We have made a quick list below of the elements that will need your attention or you will need to let your dedicated account manager know about.

Moving up students

With student move ups there are a couple of different options dependent on your schools subscription type, please see below:

MIS Integration

If your school has MIS integration then you don’t need to do anything, your students and all of their details will automatically update, this include any new students that have joined your school this year.

If your school is not on MIS integration yet it is something you would be interested in then please get in touch and we would be happy to discuss it with you.

Manual move ups – No MIS Integration

Please get in touch with your account manager and send over your latest student data, we will then get them updated for you within 2 working days and ensure all data matches that which you sent over.

ISA Tournament users

If you are a school with ISA then please make sure all of your students are up to date, please get in touch if you have any questions or if you need any help.

Student Accounts

When activating students we will follow your instructions from the previous academic year so if your school policies regarding students having their own accounts has changed, then you will need to get in touch to let us know the new instructions.

Squad in Touch manages student accounts

If we manage your student accounts for you please ensure that Squad in Touch has access to your new students email address or, if you only have students over the age of 13 with accounts please ensure we have an up to date list of your year 8 students email addresses so we can activate accounts throughout the year.

School manages student accounts

If you manage your student accounts and would like students to sign themselves up so you can accept and merge them via your Squad in Touch account please request for your new students to sign up. You can see how to manage student requests here. Also, if you would like a letter template to send to students inviting them to sign up please let us know.

Inviting parents and linking them to their children

Once you have all of your new students on the system and you’re happy with all the information and data related to them you can then send out your letter to new parents asking them to sign up for an account. If you haven’t still got your initial letter for parents that you would have had at the start of your subscription please get in touch with your account manager who will happily send you one over.

If a parent already has a student in the school and therefore already has an account then they can easily set up the new student on their current account so they will not need to create a new log in.

If you have MIS integration enabled on your subscription then your students parents will be updated based on MIS details. If there is a new student linked to the same parent on their MIS data the role will be granted to that parent automatically. although if for some reason it is not – you can manage it yourself from your Squad in touch account, via the Users > All users and contacts section. Please see our guide on Managing users requests and another guide on Managing User roles.

Updating staff list

If General Messages module is included in your school subscription, your staff list will be updated automatically once we get changes from your MIS. Otherwise, you have to manually manage your school staff.

New school staff

When new school staff members join the school they can create their own account for themselves via the Squad in Touch website, please see the guide on singing up for an account. If they are coming from a school that used Squad in Touch then please ask them to get in touch with your account manager and we will be able to swap their email address and school over for them.

School staff leaving

If a member of school staff is leaving and therefore they are no longer permitted to have access to your schools Squad in touch account you are able to manage their role and revoke access from the USERS > ALL USERS AND CONTACTS section within your Squad in Touch platform.

Please note, it is the school’s responsibility to make sure non-authorised individuals do not have access to school data.

Teams

Moving up teams

If you would like to move your school teams up with the year group and then you can do this from the Teams section within your account. Once students year groups have changed you can easily edit details of the team ensuring they match the eligibility criteria for any events you are creating. For example ensuring you change the name of the team from ‘Y7 Girls football’ to ‘Y8 Girls football’ and the age group from Y7 to Y8

Creating new teams

Alternatively you are able to create new teams for this academic year

For more information around managing your Teams go to the Squad in Touch Sport > Managing Teams section in our support guides here.

Clubs

Term dates

Each new academic year we add generic dates to all schools for terms, however if your school has alternative dates, doesn’t do clubs the first / last weeks of term or you would just like to check they match, then please send your schools specific term dates over to us and we will happily check and amend where needed.

Archiving clubs

On your Squad in Touch account the oldest club is shown first, if all clubs are activated from last year you are able to select all and using the Actions button you can Archive clubs, in archiving clubs you are not losing any data this will just mean that your view is easier when managing this years clubs. If you have clubs still in draft format these clubs can either be deleted or you can amend the details to suit information for this academic year.

Booking forms templates

Are your booking form questions up to date? If you have additional questions you need to ask parents / students this year or you would like to amend current questions please get in touch with your account manager with details of this.

Creating new clubs

If clubs are similar to last year, or continuing on, please do not extend the dates of the club as this will not work, you can however duplicate a club including student registers if you need to via the Actions button. If doing this ensure you remember to update the club dates to cater for the new academic year.

Duplicating old clubs to create new

You are able to duplicate clubs, you can do this either by going through your previously Archived clubs (filter by archived) or if you haven’t yet Archived your clubs then you can select your chosen club and using the Actions button select to create a club like the one you have selected, either with details only or to also include student registers. Please if duplicating ensure that you have changed the dates to match the new year and that if selecting term dates that your term dates have been updated by Squad in Touch.

For more information around managing your clubs and extra-curricular activities go to the clubs & Extra-Curricular Activities section in our support guides here.

Events

Keeping your history in one place

Providing all of your student data has been updated this means that your students will fit the criteria for any events that you create or are invited to. All event information will remain in your calendar so you can have a continuous history of events that you are able to always look back on.

Consent Request templates

With regards to your parental consent requests, if you have additional questions you need to ask parents this year or you would like to amend current questions please get in touch with your account manager with details of this.

For more information around managing your schools events go to the Squad in Touch Sport section in our support guides here and select from one of the areas surrounding Events.

Managing Tournaments

Confirmation request templates

Do your tournament confirmation request questions need updating? If you have additional questions you need to ask schools this year or you would like to amend current questions please get in touch with your account manager with details of this.

Managing tournaments

Get all of your tournaments added for the year and make sure that all of the booking opens at the correct time based on the tournament date. Also, make sure you check which tournaments are being shown as ‘Highlighted’ on your booking platform ensuring it is upcoming tournaments so your schools can quickly book onto the most popular events.

New Schools

Send any new schools your booking website address and ensure that they have been added to your account from the Schools section within your platform, this will provide them with the ability to book onto all of your upcoming tournaments.

New Union Admin

If you have a school hosting a tournament and you would like a member of their team to become an admin on your account so they can manage their own tournament from the union admin side. They can request a role themselves from within their account profile, alternatively please send their email address to us and we would be more than happy to provide them with a role.

For more information around managing your Tournaments go to the User Guides for Tournament Organisers section in our support guides here.

Taking part in tournaments

You can find all tournaments that are available for booking on your Unions Squad in Touch booking website, you are able to book on if you have an active school admin account and you are part of the union. For more information around taking part in union tournaments go to the Managing Tournaments as a competing school section in our support guides here.

Reports

We have a brand new feature available, you can now get up to date statistics, reports and forms extracted into a spreadsheet format. We have reports available for anyone who has a Sports Platform, Whole School Extra-curricular Activities account or if you are a Tournament Organiser / Union Admin. Why not see what report options we have available here

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