Hi Alison
At our school we use EnrolHQ, which has a parent dashboard. Once a mid-year entry (primary or secondary) student is confirmed, their dashboard automatically updates to “Orientation” stage and their dashboard is pre-loaded with all relevant orientation information for their age/stage/year group. Any relevant parent handbooks and other handbooks are posted here as well. Enrolments staff send a welcome email to parents once contract is signed asking them to read all relevant info on their dashboard and complete any outstanding tasks. We load forms for them to complete on their dashboard such as medical forms, consent forms etc to streamline the process for them.
For primary age students who are interim entries and therefore missing their orientation day, we arrange an orientation ‘visit’ for each student individually as needed or in small groups if there are other students in their year group commencing at the same time. The visit is a few hours in length and gives the student the chance to meet their teacher, get used to the classroom and playground environment and meet their student buddy before they commence. This is usually scheduled 2-3 weeks prior to their commencement date.
We do not have any regularly scheduled mid-year orientations as our mid-year entry numbers fluctuate.
I find that a personalised approach works best with mid-year entry students, lots of phone communication with parents, but also detailed bullet point style comms via email and dashboards so parents can refer to these and prepare accordingly.
Let me know if you have any other questions and hope this helps.
Alana Macallister
Enrolments Manager
Loreto Normanhurst