ADAM

Family Detail Updates

There are two main mechanisms to update family information. The first involves sending a hardcopy of a detail update form to the family. This form is then returned to the school and will be captured manually into ADAM. The second is an online form that parents complete and the information is captured in the database, ready for approval.

Customising the Online Detail Update Forms

Very often schools will have confidential information or, at the very least, information that is not within a parent’s purview to change. This might be the pupil’s sport house, or grade, for example. An example is often the “General Notes” field in a pupil’s profile which schools use to record confidential information. Such information should not be presented to parents for them to view and update.

ADAM can allow certain fields to be shown and/or hidden on detail update forms. More information can be found in the sections discussing the management of core database fields and custom database fields.

Only the fields that are allowed to show on an update form will show. This affects both the hardcopy and online detail update forms.

Hardcopy Detail Update Forms

These forms can be printed out and distributed to parents.

The form is produced showing all existing information regarding the family on the left hand side and a space on the right for any corrections that need to be made:

Note that the schools can choose which fields appear on the form, and that such customisations will carry to both this printed form and the online detail update form discussed below.

Producing a Detail Form for a Single Family

To produce a detail form for a single family, navigate to the Family Info page of the family concerned (Families → Family Administration → Family Info). On the “General Information” page, click on the option to “Print detail update form”.

Alternatively, navigate to Families → Detail Update Forms → Details update forms. Here you will enter the name of the family to search for.

One can then choose to include specific children (if there is more than one available) before generating the form for printing.

When forms are returned, the changes on them must be manually captured by the school. This has obvious implications for already busy staff.

Producing Detail Update Forms for a Class of Pupils

Instead of printing forms one-by-one, they can be produced for a class of pupils. Navigate to Families → Detail Update Forms → Details update forms by class.

Here you will choose a class of pupils to produce the forms for. It often makes sense to use a grade-wide class to save repeating the steps too many times.

Note that ADAM will only produce an update form for the youngest/eldest children in a family (this can be customised in the Site Settings). This means that when printing detail forms for a class, not every child in the class will receive a form.

Online Detail Update Forms

Online detail update forms require parents to have a correct email address entered on ADAM. When these are distributed, ADAM sends a link to parents via email. This link is valid for 7 days only (this can be change in the Site Settings). Clicking on this link will taken them to a page in ADAM which will show them the information that is captured about them and allow them to update it.

Sending the Online Detail Update Forms

Navigate to Families → Detail Update Forms → Distribute online detail update forms.

Choose a class to which you would like to send the forms. This could be an academic class or any other class that is captured in ADAM. It often makes sense to use a grade-wide class for this to save repeating the steps too many times.

Once you have chosen the class, click on Send e-mails with links:

You will note that ADAM lists an email address that will be notified of the submitted information. This address can be customised in the Site Settings. More than 1 address can be chosen.

Parents will then receive an email similar to this:

Towards the middle of the email is the link that parents should click on to update their information:

Parents will then complete this information and click on the “Save information” button at the bottom of the form.

Once they have done this, a notification is automatically sent to the email addresses that were listed on the first screen.

The information is not stored directly in the database. Instead, it is saved temporarily, waiting manual approval. Only once it has been approved by the school will the updated records show.

Reviewing Detail Update Forms

Navigate to Families → Detail Update Forms → Review Submitted Changes. Any changes that require approval will be listed here:

Click on the option to review changes.

ADAM will display only the fields that had changes made to them. These can be edited or refused altogether by setting the “Approve Change” value to “No”:

At the bottom of the screen, click on the “Save Changes” button.

Reviewing the Detail Update Report

After the detail change emails have been sent out, it is useful to get an overview of which parents have and have not yet submitted their changes. Navigate to Families → Detail Update Forms → View online detail update report.

ADAM shows three sections: