Post-Primary Digital Admissions Training 2021
Part 1 – The Parent Journey

Hello and welcome to part one of Post Primary Digital Admissions training. This concerns the parent journey.
My name is Chris Scott and I'm a seconded Principal working on the EA Transformation team.
To begin with, we want to look at some of the drivers for change and why we’ve put this system in place. The current system is an outdated, paper-based system which is becoming even more antiquated whenever we see it in comparison to the new Pre-School & Primary successful transition to an online process.
Initial co-design work took place in the summer of 2019 to develop a new system for Post-Primary.  Unfortunately it didn't get in place for the last year's intake, but the coronavirus emergency had provided impetus to this project and meant that we had to have something in place to avoid large numbers of parents moving around schools and indeed transfer large amounts of paper. So the project has undertaken a twin-track approach. Firstly to add document upload functionality to the Pre-School and Primary system, and secondly to develop a bespoke Post-Primary online system that integrates both the application and document upload processes.  This has been a project that's been delivered in a challenging time frame and considering that the team, including the web developers have never sat in the same room as one another due to the Covid restrictions, it has been quite a challenge and hopefully as you see the system here, you can see it's has been built to be fit for purpose and in co-design with school leaders.
So the key information around dates for the online application to Post-Primary is that it will begin access to the system will be from 1st of March 12 noon and it will close again on the 16th of March at 4:00 PM. Further information can be found on the dedicated hub at Digital Admissions on the EA website. 
Various communications will be put in place to ensure that parents are aware of the process. There's a video that will address the key messages that you’ll see in this training. Normally Primary schools would give out hard copies to their P7 pupils to give to parents around the process, but this year that will be a PDF leaflet that will be sent out to Primary schools, for them to then send onwards to parents.  We’ll use significant use of social media and of course this whole process is ‘digital-first’.
We are encouraging our parents to use the digital version because the full functionality and the benefit that comes to them in terms of the application process and indeed to get the outcomes at the far end is so much better if they do engage with it digitally.
And of course, as we’ve found in Pre-School and Primary, the support of schools is crucial to success.
In terms of our Pre-School and Primary applications and upload of documentation which has now closed, we have over 45,000 applications and over 60,000 items of documentation that were uploaded successfully to the system, so that gives us great faith in this new system moving forward in terms of its functionality.
We will of course rely on our Primary schools to get the message out to parents to use the system and to apply before the closing date.
Unfortunately the system doesn't allow Primary school Principals to see who has applied at this stage, perhaps that’s something for development for future years, but at the moment, regular updates for parents and regular reminders is all we’ll ask our Primary schools to do. Thank you, for that in advance.
There is a paper application available, but that will only be in exceptional circumstances and the parent will have to make a direct request to EA for that. Finally, all late applications will have to be on paper. 
In terms of assistance for our parents to ensure that they understand and can access the system, there will be virtual clinics rather than the face-to-face that obviously we'd prefer to do and have done in the past with our Primary and Pre-School, but these virtual clinics will be bookable slots where parents can receive support. Our EA helpline has been of particular support so far, our other sectors system and email support is also there.  All information will be uploaded regularly and updated regularly on the website and the Hub and the Intercultural Education Service will support us with translation services.
So the parent user will now be able to make a digital application for their child moving from Primary 7 to Year 8.  They can choose their preferred schools. They can upload documentation in support of an application and they can use a variety of devices to do that and at every stage we will encourage them to go to the schools’ admissions criteria to have a good look at that and do their homework before they even go into the system, our website will signpost them to do so.  And only then to upload the documentation that is required by one of the schools in their list of preferences.
So when they go to the EA website and click on the link, it will take them to a ‘sign-in' page.  Here they can either log back in if they’ve already registered, or they can register if they're here for the first time.
Clicking on the ‘register’ button will open a page which asks for their details, including their email address; an email will be sent to them for verification, and once they do that, they will be able to come back to this page and use the password they’ve set to sign in. 
Once into the system proper, they’ll be brought to this page which is where their application will sit, and the initial ask is for them to fill in details about the child, so clicking on ‘add child’ will take them to the page for those details.
So this is where they’ll put in the child's name; the sex of the child which is important for later on here as you'll see with the smart criteria on this particular form, their date of birth.  If they click the box to say the address is the same as the person who's registered, then the details already put in at registration will automatically fill here or else they can put it in separately if it's not the same; their relationship to the child and whether they have parental responsibility or not. If they don't know what that means or they want further information, clicking on the little icon will give them a definition of parental responsibility.
Importantly in some schools’ admissions criteria, is whether it's an eldest or an only child, which is this button, or the eldest boy or girl, and again, if they chose female here then eldest girl will come up here, and the same for if they choose a boy.
And finally on this page, ‘is the child registered with the EA as being entitled to free school meals’ - a yes or no answer here, and then clicking on ‘save’  takes them further in to the application where they can then decide to delete some of the details they’ve put in, edit some of the details they’ve put in, or start the application.
Clicking on ‘start the application’ will take them to the page that asks them where the child is currently at Primary school and obviously this can be very important for criteria in terms of feeder schools.  So by clicking on this box they can either scroll to the name of the school they want to put in, or they can start typing the name of the school and they'll be able to find it that way.
Then click on continue, and that will take them forward to their Post-Primary school choices.  So in this box, in the same way, by typing in here they will find their schools, or indeed they can scroll to them.
There's then a dedicated box here for whether there's a brother or sister currently attending the school and if they tick that box, then it opens a further dialogue box here which asks for the names of the brother or sister which will then be easier for the Post-Primary school to identify those children.
And finally in this section, once they have chosen a school, it will automatically fill the field that says ‘please outline how your child meets the admissions criteria’ of whatever school they chose up here.
And at this stage, they can put in all the additional information they want about how they meet the criteria and why they've chosen this school for their child.  There is a limit of 3000 characters in this box, and if that's not sufficient for some parents, they can of course upload additional documentation, with more information in the next stages as you'll see.
So a parent will then add further schools, add further school choices if they wish by clicking on 'add a school’ and if they decide that they want to add a further school, they can then choose it from the list as we saw earlier. If they choose ‘continue without adding another school’ and there are less than four schools on the list, a pop up will come up to say ‘we recommend a minimum of four’.
We cannot force the parents obviously to make this decision, but we're encouraging them with this pop-up. If they say ‘no’, that they don't want to add any further, they can still continue with the application, but hopefully they will go back by saying ‘yes’ and add further preferences.  The system will take 12 preferences in total.
Once they’ve chosen their schools, they can drag and drop them, as the information at the top of the page tells them here, so they’re added in this list in preference, depending on the order in which they are added, but at this stage they can then go back and move their school choices into the actual preference point that they would like. So clicking, dragging and dropping these schools will move them to different position in their preference list.
They can only add a school once, however, if you have school that has, for example, a unit attached to it, and it is listed separately as such, then they can of course make separate applications to those.
There are certain pages that will only be shown to parents if they apply to a school in their list of choices.
So the example here shows all of the possibilities that might be chosen, and this is saying not every school and every application will prompt these to come up. So for example, if you’re choosing an Integrated school where community background is important, then this page will come up.
If you're applying for school that uses the AQE assessment, this one will come up by clicking the ‘yes’ box (my child’s being registered for the AQE) then a candidate number box will come up here and similarly for GL, if they’ve been registered, you say ‘yes’ - the box will come up here for their pupil number.
And you’ll see later in the system they will be able to upload the proof of the child having been registered. 
And finally, in this section, if they wish to apply for special circumstances or special provisions, they can click the radio button here and say ‘yes’ and a  message will pop up to say, please upload any relevant documents to support this claim.
Clicking continue will move them on to the next page and this is where they choose the documents that they're going to upload. As I mentioned earlier, we hope that they will have already visited the appropriate web page to see the admissions criteria, but if they haven’t, they can click on the link here which will take them out to it.  If they do leave this page and have difficulty getting back to it, because the system is a login system, all the details that they have inputted so far will be saved and they’ll be able to start back where they left off.
So they choose the document type from this drop down and you can see here what the other possibilities are and a catch-all at the end for other documentation if nothing seems to match, what it is that they are trying to upload.
When they go to choose the document file, so in this case they’re looking for a birth certificate somewhere, it could be in their photo library, a photograph that they’ve taken earlier; it could be that they have the hard copy in front of them and they want to just take a photograph now and upload that.  Or they can browse to the area on their device, where they have saved previous files for upload.
We do suggest in the wording up here, that they remove any sensitive personal information, therefore by redacting that, then it can’t be seen once it is uploaded to the system.
Once they’ve chosen that file, it’ll be added to the list of files for upload.  They can continue with that to add whatever documentation they wish.
Having uploaded all those documents, they will then be taken to a summary screen.  The summary screen will allow them to have a view of everything they have inputted so far in support of their application and they can at this stage, edit any of these details which will then take them back to the relevant page for them to make any changes they want to.
It will also show them their preferences and all of the information that they inputted for each individual preference in support of their application.
The final page that they’re brought to is the submission of their application. Here, the terms and conditions of using the system are laid out and they must tick the box to say that the details they’ve provided are correct to the best of their knowledge, before they click submit and their application is now put into the system.
They can of course return later or at anytime to make changes or to view what their submission has been and they can make those changes right up until the closing date.
For further information or support, we do have our normal business as usual Admission offices and they’ll be providing support to our schools and to parents through the helpdesk number.  Also, you can send an email to Post-Primary Admissions or to the digital email address for further information or for support for your individual circumstances.
I trust you’ve found this helpful and thank you.