Admissions

The pipeline from first enquiry to an enrolled student.

The stages

An enquiry becomes an application, an application is assessed, an offer is made, and an accepted offer becomes an enrolment.

Documents

Documents can be attached to an application and stay with it. What a school requires is its own policy.

The admission number

Allocated once, at enrolment, and not reused. An admission number is how a student is identified for the rest of their time at the school and afterwards, so it is not something to edit casually.

Guardians at admission

Capture the guardian properly at admission — it is the link that later gives the family their portal access, and fixing it afterwards is more work than getting it right here.

Next year's admissions

Admissions for next year run while this year is still being taught. Use the year switcher; an application recorded against the wrong year is a real problem to unpick.

The admissions office's settings

Office settings, at the top of the Admissions page (also under Settings → Admissions office), holds the decisions the office makes once a season:

• Office phone — the number a family is given in the missed-call message. Until it is set, Log a missed call cannot reach a family outside WhatsApp's 24-hour reply window. A landline with its STD code, a mobile, or a toll-free number all work; it is shown exactly as you type it.
• Signature — the small line under every message a counsellor sends. Name the office, not a person: a personal name on a stranger's phone invites calls to that member of staff.
• Office hours — the days and times the admissions office is open. By default these follow the school week; untick same days to keep the counter open when the school is not, such as Sundays in admission season. A family's wait is counted only in these hours, and the school calendar's holidays do not count.
• Reply time — how long a family may wait for an answer before the counsellor is told.
• Reminders — the hour, the day before, that a family is reminded of a campus visit (between 9 am and 8 pm, outside the quiet hours); when counsellors hear about follow-ups that are due; and how long a new lead may sit untouched before the admissions head is told.

The screen shows the effect of each setting: the missed-call message as the family will read it, and the reply time as a time on the clock. Anyone in the admissions office can see these settings; the principal and the school admin can change them, and every change is recorded in the audit trail.