Data & Integrations

SchoolsBuddy integrates with a variety of different SIS/MIS so you will be given guidance on anything you need to know about importing and syncing information from your own system when you join.  Data is synced every night, at roughly 1:00am - 3:00am.  Attendance data is synced twice daily at roughly 9:30/10:30am and 2:30pm in your timezone.   Our support team can trigger a one-off sync if you need to update your data by occasional request, but the usual updates are frequent enough to take care of most day-to-day needs.  We currently operate a one-way sync.

Most of the time, you will not need to make any user updates in SchoolsBuddy; you can continue to manage your student body in your Management Information System and we will receive updates. 

Please note

• SchoolsBuddy is built around the fact that all users must have a unique email address to be able to access the system. Please ensure all parents and staff have a unique valid email address in their record in your MIS/SIS.
• If a user record (student/contact or parent/staff) is synced/imported into SchoolsBuddy without an email address, they will be allocated a "dummy" email address. Once the record is updated in your MIS/SIS with a unique valid email address, that person's record will update in SchoolsBuddy on the next available overnight sync as long as the MIS/SIS ID match the original record received into SchoolsBuddy. 

What you need to know about how your MIS data is handled:

STAFF

• All staff accounts created by your data feed have access to student data including contact details and medical information as available (if medical data is synced)
• External staff can be added to SchoolsBuddy manually and configured with lesser permissions. These permissions can control access for the external user (i.e coach) to take attendance, view guardian information, view medical data, send communications or edit and cancel events.
• We create staff accounts in SchoolsBuddy based on your email domain.  Let us know if you have more than one.  e.g.janedoe@exampleschool.sch.org.uk or janedoe@thetestschool.org
• If a staff member uses their staff email address in your MIS as a parent contact, they will automatically be able to switch between parent and staff modes on the web and mobile apps. If you would like to prohibit staff from using the same account, we can block all emails with the school domain from being used for parent accounts and they can be manually added to SchoolsBuddy as a parent with their personal email address.
• If the emails in your MIS are different for the staff member as a teacher and a parent, they will automatically get two separate accounts. 
• Staff can use a combined Staff parent account if relevant.
• We designate “Super users” for your school who can give elevated permissions to other staff members for functions such as administration, absence monitoring or financial processes.
• Staff accounts must be manually deleted when no longer required unless you are using ManageBac or some Wonde-facilitated integrations (contact us if you would like further details).

PARENTS

• If you would like us to prevent parent contacts from being created with your school email domain we can block these.  
• Both parents see all activities booked and charges for their child, but they will have their own credit wallet and voucher wallet to keep their individual finances separate from each other.  A parent cannot use their partner's balance to pay for bookings or charges on the student's account.  Money that is refunded from an activity is refunded to the credit wallet of the parent who made the payment initially, and can only be reused by them, or refunded to their original payment method.

STUDENTS

• Primary School students are initially set up with dummy email addresses.  We can import real email addresses if you would like students to access SchoolsBuddy when these exist in your MIS/SIS.

GDPR and Data Handling

SchoolsBuddy is compliant with GDPR. Please visit the Security and Compliance section of our website by clicking here. You can see information on Data Handling, Data Protection and GDPR.

FAQ

Q: Can I change a student's MIS ID? 

A: You can change a student's ID as long as you are creating a new student ID for them.  IDs that were previously used for other students cannot be re-used.

Q: Can I change a parent's MIS ID?

A:  You can change a parent's ID as long as you are creating a new ID.  You cannot reuse or swap IDs between parents.

Q: What happens if my school changes their MIS/SIS?

A: If you are planning to change your MIS/SIS please contact SchoolsBuddy as early as possible before you make the change as we will need to plan for the data migration.  It can be a very complex procedure so we will hold a consultation about the changes being made, the parties involved and the potential impact.

Q: Are ASCII Character sets supported?

A: Yes, they are.  If any characters are displayed incorrectly in SchoolsBuddy,  your Organisation Super Admin users can edit these directly in Reception > Users.  If lots of characters are displayed incorrectly, please contact us to review.

For more details about Medical and Dietary information, attendance marks and teachers' classes please see the relevant article for your MIS.

Q: Which systems do SchoolsBuddy support currently?

A: Below our the systems are current customers are using and the integration partners we use to support the data exchange.  Our integration partners can support many more MISs, so please feel free to get in touch with us and we can review the options together.