Counting Down

Despite everything that happened in 2020 we can now all look forward to a well earned break, heart warming family time and a good catch up with friends. 

Schools are wrapping up the year with prizegiving's and shows, students are figuring out what to do for the next few weeks and staff are no doubt breathing a collective sigh of relief.

Here at Edge we'll be having a break from December 23 until January 11, but systems and emails will be monitored throughout with rollover happening automatically once the New Year arrives.

A few of quick reminders:

• Configure your 2021 calendar via Admin>Setup>Define School Calendar.
• If you have a timetable Activate it ready for your first school day of 2021.
• New staff are added via People>Staff Register Staff Member. Make their start date earlier than the start of school so they can access Edge when they need to using their school email and clicking Forgot Password the first time they need to login.
• End date staff that have left via People>Staff>View/Edit Staff.
• The Edge App can be downloaded from either App and Play Store. Search for MUSAC Edge.

From all of us here at Edge, have a festive Christmas and a relaxing New Year.

Countdown to Christmas

Term 4 has started as wet day for many of us and the last term of the year also brings with it many different thoughts .. EOY reports, NCEA exams, the festive season, a long hot summer  (hopefully).

It's also the term when you can get prepared for the following year. To this end we would like to encourage all our existing Classic Library users (MLM) to upgrade to Edge Library which is cloud based making it available on any connected device .. which could include students being able to search the catalogue from home.

To make the process as easy as possible there is no charge to convert your existing data and the annual license fee is the same as MLM. If you would like to change during term 4 there would be no additional license fee for 2020. The only cost to change is up to two hours of online PD. Click Here to view our Edge LM overview video and please contact services@edgelearning.co.nz to begin the process.

NB. If you would like to change from a library system other than MLM to Edge LM we are happy to help. Please contact sales@edgelearning.co.nz

We would also like to remind schools that if they would like any editing done to their existing end of year Custom Caregiver Reports (CCR) or are wanting a completely new CCR then please get in touch as soon as possible so we can get these underway well before the middle of the term. Please contact services@edgelearning.co.nz

Related to this if you would like any assistance or want to know more about any aspect of Edge please don't hesitate to contact our Support Desk on: 0800 600 159, support@edgelearning.co.nz, or contact services@edgelearning.co.nz for online or onsite training.

Edge SM newer features video

Curriculum Analysis and Acceleration Learning video .. please contact our Services team to assist with configuring this functionality.

An air of normaility

We are now nicely into term 3 and if we weren't hearing news reports from our near neighbours and further afar it would almost seem like as if everything was back to normal. It's now a definite advantage being far away from the rest of the world.

The lockdown has definitely given us some new normals with 'Zoom sessions' now being part of our daily vocabulary and for supporting schools and delivering PD this is definitely the way to go. Staff from Edge can catch up with far more schools in a day and there are all round benefits with less time on the road having an eco benefit as well.

We still do like to visit schools however so please don't hesitate to contact us when you have a query or looking to extend your use of Edge, Edge Library or Assay.

New and refined features continue to be added to Edge with some useful additions to Attendance:

Marking Bulk Attendance

- In Mark multiple days we have added the ability to pick the period (or half day) to mark

- Ability to exlude certain students from the group to be marked

- Ability to add a note to all students in the group marked for multiple days

Health and Safety

Below is an example of how the Edge Health and safety functionality can be configured.

To have full access to Health and Safety you need both Account Maintenance and Health and Safety Officer User Responsibilities.

Our Health and Safety section has been set up in a similar way to the Pastoral area. It allows you to record and analyse incidents and to keep a log of sick bay use.

Caregiver Reporting

Covid-19 has certainly thrown a spanner in the works for most schools.  Caregiver reporting is one of those areas that we have found a shift to either no report for Mid Year or a specifically designed Lockdown report.

If you require help to create a report for this unprecedented period of school life we have an experienced team willing to help you with ideas or to simply modify your current report to reflect the new way of reporting the lockdown period.

The Attitude to Learning (ATL) reporting is another fast and efficient way to communicate with caregivers giving a snapshot of students progress using a 5 point scale (5 being the highest) in areas such as Key Competencies, Effort, Behaviour, Homework etc.  You choose how often these reports are created and they can then be published to the Parent Portal/Edge Mobile App or emailed home.

Uncharted Territory

Wednesday April 29th is sounding like it will be the first of some very unique days in New Zealand education with teachers potentially teaching their students both in class and at home.

To help schools as much as we can our Support Desk can be contacted on 0800 600 159, or emailed at support@edgelearning.co.nz.

As well we will continue to offer a range of Webinars as well as updating a number of our training videos and notes in Edge Answers. The link to Edge Answers (Help) is at the bottom of nearly every page in Edge.

Below are the links to some of our newest videos and we will continue to update these on an almost daily basis.

Edge SM Release Notes May 4


Latest Videos

Mark Rolls

Relief Rolls

Student Search

Making Payments

Teacher Mode Overview

Add House

Adding Other Attendance Codes to Teachers

Widgets

Marking Attendance by Group (Bubble)

Bulk Field Update

Enrolment Settings

Portal Setup

School Announcements

User Rights

Unlocking Users and Resetting Passwords

Defining Classes for Primary and Intermediate Schools

Advanced Filterable Lists - Summative Feature

Advanced Filterable Lists - Grouping Feature

Caregiver Flags

Adding and Editing Staff

Online Enrolments

Term 2 begins

With schools about to go back for term 2 .. but with nobody actually at school, it certainly is a unique time in education for us all.

It is however great to see the level of government support with laptops, education packs and dedicated TV channels being made available, but the next two weeks will certainly take a lot of adapting to.

Here at Edge .. apart from all of us working from home and no school visits .. it is pretty much business as usual .. even down to offering a series of webinars that cover a wide range of topics.

Our Support Desk is also operating as usual on 0800 600 159 or support@edgelearning.co.nz, so please don't hesitate to contact us with any queries or questions.

All the best from the team at Edge and have a very Happy Easter.

2020 Well Underway

The new year is now definitely underway for all schools. For some the students have only been back for a day or two, for others well more than a week. Either way below are a few reminders to kick the year off:

• To ensure your attendance is created correctly your Calendar can be managed via Admin>Setup>Define School Calendar. Here you can add event days to cover Athletic and Swimming days as well as Teacher Only days. Please remember to add these at least a day before the event.
• Health and Safety functionality was added late in 2019. Click here to see how to configure and use.
• MoE Returns are two weeks away. Click here for background on the process.
• Announcements are a great way to communicate with your Staff and Community. Click here on how to configure and use.
• Many schools arrange for professional photographers to photograph their students early in the year. Click here to read how to export student data for them so you can then import individual student photos en masse' back into Edge.
• For other tips click the Help button at the bottom of the page in Edge.
• For further assistance contact Edge Support: 0800 600 159, support@edgelearning.co.nz