Why is the Department developing OneSchool?
How long has OneSchool been in schools?
Does my child's photo have to be included?
What data is being collected in OneSchool about my child?
What are extra curricular activities?
Why does OneSchool record career aspirations?
Who can access the Education Planning module in OneSchool?
Who has access to information about my child?
Who is developing OneSchool?
What security is in place to protect the information recorded in OneSchool?
Why is my school offering a BPAY facility?
How is the enrolment process changing?
Education Queensland is required to collect, store and use information about students and parents/guardians. Education Queensland collects personal information so it can:
The Department's current school management system which records some of this information has been in use for more than ten years and schools have created or put into use other databases and systems in an attempt to collect all the required data.
In order to collect this information and store it in one system and in a manner which makes it available to be used by Education Queensland employees in accordance with their specific roles and responsibilities, the Department began developing OneSchool.
The OneSchool application will ensure the data recorded is more accurate and more timely than the data which is entered multiple times in a number of disparate data bases and filing systems.
Teachers need to have professional and comprehensive information about their students at their fingertips to help enhance student learning. OneSchool enables teachers to meet the individual needs of the young people entrusted to their care by enabling access to a holistic record of the students in their care.
OneSchool has been operating in Queensland state schools since May 2007. The first release underwent a technical trial for seven months in 53 schools across the state before being deployed to all state schools during 2008. Release Two was deployed to all state schools in October 2009. In Smester 2, 2010, an additional Timetabling module was made available to schools. Release Three will be deployed during 2011.
Schools have had the option of including a student ID photo in the existing management system since 1995. OneSchool enables schools to continue with this option. Only one ID photo can be stored. Usually this photo is replaced each year when the ID photos are taken. When the new photo is uploaded the old photo is automatically deleted. The option to include a student ID photo in OneSchool is a school-based decision. Parents can negotiate with their school as to whether their child's ID photo is included in OneSchool.
No new data is being collected than what is currently being collected and recorded in schools. OneSchool Release One, which was deployed in state schools in 2008, enables users to view and/or record student information including:
1. Personnel and contact details
2. Record of Contact
3. Career Aspirations
4. Academic Achievement to produce Academic Reports
5. Behaviour - positive and negative
6. Extra-Curricular Participation
7. Attendance Information
8. Individual Student Plan goals for students identified with Specific Education Requirements
OneSchool Release Two enables teachers to plan curriculum, schedule assessment tasks, and record assessment data and was made available in October 2009. Release Two: Timetabling delivered timetabling functionality to schools in Semester 2 2010.
Release Three which includes finance, student and asset management modules and will be deployed to state schools during 2011. This release enables student enrolment data, student absences and financial processes to be performed in OneSchool. This release will enable the Department to decommission the existing School Management System (SMS).
Extra-curricular activities are those school activities which support or extend the school curriculum. Only the activities for which the student is a representative of the school or participates in at school are recorded in the OneSchool application. For example if your child is in the school swimming team or school orchestra, their participation in these activities is recorded and reported on in their semester progress report. Rehearsal and training times and venues are not recorded in the application. Information is not collected about the activities students participate in which are not organised or endorsed by the school.
The ability to record career aspirations primarily is functionality for secondary schools. All students in years 10, 11 and 12 are required to develop Senior Education and Training plans (SET plans). SET Plans are completed during Year 10 after students have had opportunities to explore and investigate options for the senior phase and post-school pathways. Recording career aspirations is the first step in this process.
Education Planning functionality was delivered in Release Two and enables students to complete the SET Planning requirements. Some of this functionality can be used with students in other year levels as it allows students to create and reflect upon their learning goals, record their career aspirations and participate in school developed surveys about their learning habits.
Students have access to the Education planning module. Each student is granted access to develop their individual SET Plan. The same security protocols have been established for students granted access to this module. On logging in to OneSchool, students only have access to the Education Planning module and their individual plan, and no other functionality in OneSchool. This module has been partitioned as a secure component within OneSchool. Appropriate staff members at the school can view the student's Education plan via the Career tab in the student's profile.
Teachers and principals do not have access to data about students at any other school. Your child's data can only be accessed by the principal and teachers at the school at which your child is enrolled.
Information about a student who has been enrolled as a future student of a school, can be accessed by the principal of that school prior to the student's official start day. A student is only identified as a future student at a school if the parents have confirmed their child will be attending the school with the new school's principal as part of the enrolment process.
There are multiple levels of access which restricts what a user can access in OneSchool. For example what a principal can see about your child is different to what a teacher can see. Data recorded in Education Queensland's existing school management system is entered by administrative staff in schools who will continue to record new enrolment details, absence information, update contact details, etc. until during 2011 when the processes will be performed in OneSchool (Release Three).
Regional and corporate personnel who require access to aggregate data reports or student information (regional or state view) in order to fulfil their role and responsibilities can be granted access to OneSchool. Their access levels are authorised by their Regional Director or Assistant Director-General. Prior to OneSchool much of this data had to be requested from the school. It took time for school staff to collate and return the required data. With OneSchool this data can be accessed when it is needed by the departmental employees who require it.
The OneSchool application has been and continues to be thoroughly tested by national companies that specialise in security. It is understood people have concerns about on-line databases, however, OneSchool provides better security than existing systems.
To access the OneSchool application, the teacher must first login to the Department's network and be authenticated before they can start the process to access OneSchool. Each user's access level is encrypted within their login.
As part of the access and authentication processes various security measures and encryption protocols are employed.
OneSchool Releases One, Two and Two: Timetabling are being designed and built internally by the Queensland Government's Department of Education and Training OneSchool development team. Release Three is also being designed and built by the same development team utilising a commercial finance product to support the delivery of the finance module in this release.
A feature of Release Three is the ability for schools to offer BPAY as a payment method for parents. BPAY will enable parents to make payments when it is convenient to them and not just during school business hours. It is a school-based decision to offer this facility to parents. If the school chooses to offer this service the BPAY logo will appear on invoices from the school.
Each school has been allocated a Biller Code by the Commonwealth Bank. Each parent is assigned a Customer Reference Number or CRN. This number is what uniquely identifies who paid the money via BPAY and to which parent account the monies belong.
If a school invoice is paid by BPAY, the payment will be deducted from invoices for excursions (Variation to School Routines) first and then in date order of outstanding invoices (oldest invoices first). If a payment is greater than the outstanding invoices, a credit will be applied to your account. If you wish to pay a specific invoice that does not match this sequence, an alternate payment method may be required.
In OneSchool, a state wide search for students already enrolled in a Queensland state school can be preformed which will reduce the time and paperwork involved when enrolling your child. Before OneSchool, the information a school is required to collect on enrolment was kept at the single school alone. When you enrolled your child at another Queensland state school (transfer, high school, etc.) you had to provide the same information by completing the entire enrolment form again. When Release Three is deployed during 2011, the Enrolment Officer at the school will be able to perform a search for your child. If your child has been previously enrolled in a Queensland state school a record will already exist for them and you will only need to update your information.
If you are enrolling your child for the first time but have an older child already enrolled in a state school, we can relate the siblings and reduce the amount of information you have to provide.
After Release Three is deployed to schools during 2011, the only time you should have to complete the entire enrolment process is on the initial enrolment of your child in a Queensland state school. Subsequent enrolments should only require the updating of information.
The state wide search can only be performed by an authorised staff member at each school and an audit log is kept of the details of all searches.
This page was last reviewed on 27 Apr 2011
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© The State of Queensland (Department of Education, Training and Employment) 2008.