Kestrel

Part 5. Administration

5.4 The student record

Version 1.0 ·Updated 2026-10-07

Next reviewed by 2027-04-07.

Written for a school's staff learning how Kestrel works, the trainers who teach them, and the families using the portal.

The school's own fields, the lists it chooses from, boarding houses, the health centre's rules and the consent purposes it asks families about.

Written forITBusiness managerRegistrar

What this group is for

The group "The student record" says what the school records about each child beyond what Kestrel ships. A school adds a field for something it needs to know, adjusts the lists a form offers, opens its boarding houses, sets the health centre's windows and decides which consents it asks families for.

Who uses it

The registrar and the business manager decide what the school records. The IT administrator has the settings capabilities that save the change. The school nurse's work follows the health centre settings without changing them.

Key ideas

Field
A piece of information the school defines for its own records, with a type and a tier.
Tier
How protected a field is: internal, sensitive or restricted. Choosing a tier lower than the data suggests needs a written reason of at least 24 characters.
Vocabulary
A list the school picks from, such as languages or relationship types. Some entries came with Kestrel and some are the school's own.
Consent purpose
A reason the school asks a family for consent, such as photographs, with a note of where the answer is kept.

Screens

  • Fields

    /app/settings/fields

    The school's own fields on the student record.

  • Vocabularies

    /app/settings/vocabularies

    The lists the school chooses from, with its own entries beside Kestrel's.

  • Boarding houses

    /app/settings/boarding

    The boarding houses and their addresses, and recording a boarder's move.

  • Health centre

    /app/settings/medical

    The warning window, the yearly confirmation day and the kinds of condition.

  • Consents

    /app/settings/consents

    The consent purposes the school asks families about.

    Needs comms.consent.read

Defining a field

  1. Open "Fields" and choose "Define a field".
  2. Give it a Key, a Label and a Type: text, number, date, yes/no or one of a list.
  3. For one of a list, enter the Choices as "code: Label", one to a line.
  4. Choose its Tier: internal, sensitive or restricted.
  5. State the Purpose. If the tier is lower than Kestrel would suggest, give the reason in "Why the tier is lower".
  6. Save. The field now shows on the record.

A field is either "In use" or "No longer in use". Closing a field hides it, and the values already recorded are kept.

Vocabularies

The lists are Identifier systems, Relationship types, Court order kinds, Charge categories, Concession kinds, Countries, Languages and Genders. Each list has two tabs, "This school's own" and "Came with Kestrel". Add an entry to the school's own tab. An entry that is no longer wanted can be "Put away" and offered again later.

Boarding houses and the health centre

On "Boarding houses", choose "Open a boarding house" to add one with its address and "Record a move" when a boarder changes house. A house's address is the term address of each boarder in it.

On "Health centre", set the "Warning window, in days" and the yearly medical confirmation day as a month and day. Each kind of condition has a Name, whether to "Show a current condition of this kind beside the child's name", whether an action plan is asked for and the review interval in months. Choose "Save the kind" to keep it. The health obligations of the school's state apply on top of these choices.

Consent purposes

The table shows Purpose, Code, "Note kept at" and "Asked for", with the number of reminder days before a deadline. Choose "Save purpose" to add or change one. "Change" edits it, and "Stop asking" retires it until you choose "Ask again". The form families fill in for a purpose is built under a key made from "consent-" and the purpose's code.

Tasks

  • Add a field to the student record.
  • Add the school's own entry to a vocabulary.
  • Open a boarding house.
  • Set the health centre's warning window.
  • Add a consent purpose.
  • Find a student to check a new field. Find a person
  • Read a student's record. Read a person's page

Journeys that use this chapter

Settings

The choices here are the school's fields and their tiers, its vocabularies, its boarding houses, the health centre's window and condition kinds, and its consent purposes. The school's registered state, set under "The school", decides which health obligations apply.

Training notes

  • Ask who needs to read a field before choosing its tier.
  • Show that closing a field keeps its values, so staff are not afraid to tidy.
  • Practise adding one consent purpose and finding its form.