Use our Custom Report Cards feature to create bespoke custom report cards in Arbor, then send them out. Want to save time setting up your report cards? You can still use our Arbor Report Cards feature!
As this is a brand new feature, we want to make sure it's as useful as it can be to our schools. If you have any feedback, please submit it here: Custom Report Cards
Please note that Custom Report Cards are included in all Arbor Perform packages and our newest Comms package. All other Arbor packages won’t have this feature by default. Want to upgrade or find out what package you’re on? Just get in contact with our Partnership Team by emailing customersales@arbor-education.com
How long will it take?
- Set up your Custom Report Writer report - 15 minutes
- Create report card - 5 minutes
- Build your layout - 15 minutes
- Sharing the report cards - 5 minutes
Permissions
- School: Report Card: Administer - create, share, email and download report cards
- Students: Report Card: Administer All/My Students - download report cards for students
If you don't have the permission, you'll need to ask your admin team to give you permission using these instructions.
Please note that you'll also need to have permission to access all the fields included in the Custom Report Writer Report (more details on access here). If you don't have access to all the fields, you won't be able to generate, access, download or share the Custom Report Cards.
How to create a Custom Report Card
To pull data into your Custom Report Cards, you can set up a report in the Custom Report Writer. You'll then be able to use this report in your Report Card to generate Merge Fields and build your Report Card.
Step 1 - Set up the Custom Report Writer report
The first step is to set up a template in the Custom Report Writer from School > Custom Report Writer. You can see more information on how to set up a report here: Creating a report
Please Note: do not include a collation within the report, or you won't be able to link it to the report card.
Step 2 - Create the Custom Report Card
Go to Students > Report Cards and click +Add. Select New Custom Report Card.
Give the report card a name, and select the date of the report card. Top Tip: This date doesn't change the report card, it's for your school's reference to help plan when to send these out - this date shows on the main report cards list.
Select the custom report you've just made, and select the orientation.
Tick the Remove blank rows box to automatically remove any rows in tables that are blank. This means you can have one template for all students and Arbor will automatically remove blank rows of data (such as for assessments they don't take).
You'll then be taken to your report card overview. Click the Edit report card layout button to build your report card.
You can edit the details or delete your report card from the General tab.
Step 3 - Build the layout
Click Edit report card layout on the Report Card tab.
Here you can create your report card template.
- Redo or undo changes with the arrows
- Bold, italicise or underline text
- Add bullet or numbered points
- Choose your text alignment, font, size and colour
- Add hyperlinks
- Add tables
- Your merge fields will be used to pull in data from your custom report
- Add page breaks
- Please note that we do not support images
Once complete, click Save report card.
Step 4 - Add students
You need to select which students to create report cards for. Go to the Share Reports tab and click +Add in the Student Groups section.
You can individual students, whole cohorts or a specific demographic/custom group.
Top Tip: The date field for student groups is so your report card only pulls through the students in that group who are enrolled on that date.
You'll then see a list of report cards. Top Tip: You can click the button at the top of the page to regenerate them if you've made changes.
Once your table shows the status as Generated (you may need to refresh your page), you're ready to share them.
Editing the linked custom report
To be able to update the linked report, you must first remove all the students. This will delete the report cards generated for the students.
Click into the Share Reports tab, select the student groups then click Delete report cards.
Then go to the General tab and click on the Linked custom report field. Do not click Delete as this will delete the whole report card setup.
Remove the linked report
You can remove the linked report by clicking the X next to the Custom Report Writer report, then clicking Save Changes.
Please note that this will cause the merge fields in your report template to no longer work.
Swap the linked report
In the drop-down, change the linked custom report then click Save Changes.
You will then need to edit your report card layout to replace the merge fields.
Edit the Custom Report Writer report
Click the X next to the Custom Report Writer report to remove it, then click Save Changes.
Your merge fields in your report template will temporarily no longer work.
Once you've finished editing your Custom Report Writer report, add it back in from the General tab. The merge fields will be working again.
If you don't unlink it first, you won't be able to edit your Custom Report Writer report.
How to share your Custom Report Cards
Go to Students > Report Cards and select the report card. Go to the Share Reports tab.
You can send report cards to parents and students by sending them an email, or by sending it through the Parent Portal or Student Portal.
Sending Report Cards by email
- To check or change how the email will look, it's a good idea to check the template using the first section below.
- When sending the email to guardians, you can see which guardian will receive the email here: Which guardians are sent Report Card emails?
- The emails sent will be marked as Public (not Private), so can be seen in the main school Communication Log and on Communication Logs on the Student and Guardian Profiles. Further details here: Public or Private
Accessing and editing the Report Card Template
Go to School > Communications > Templates.
Click on the Report Card Template to see or edit what is contained in the email template.
After making any changes to the text or merge fields, select Save Email Template Changes or Reset Email Template to default to revert this template to the original version we set up.
Sharing all students' reports
Click either Email to primary guardians or Email to students.
Use the From drop-down box to select who to send the report card as (providing you are a Permitted Sender).
Choose how to combine the emails (if sending to guardians) then click Send email at the bottom of the slide over.
The signature at the bottom of the email is determined by the sender's name and job title. To see how to change this if it's incorrect, take a look at this article.
Sharing only certain students' reports
Tick the boxes next to the students to select, then click the Bulk action button to select the email option.
Use the From drop-down box to select who to send the report card as (providing you are a Permitted Sender).
Choose how to combine the emails, then click Send email at the bottom of the slide over.
The signature at the bottom of the email is determined by the sender's name and job title. To see how to change this if it's incorrect, take a look at this article.
Sending Report Cards via the Parent Portal or Student Portal
Click Share on Parent Portal or Share on Student Portal.
Select to Add the report card to the parent portal or student portal and click Share Report Cards. You can see how this looks here:
FAQs
Can we do conditional formatting or colour-coding?
You can apply conditional formatting to a report in the Custom Report Writer to colour code fields in the report.
This conditional formatting will not be pulled through to the merge fields used in your Custom Report Card. As such, you cannot colour-code fields in the Custom Report card based on data.
Can we download the Custom Report Cards we've created?
You can see how to download and print here: Download and print a Custom Report Card
Can we un-share Report Cards?
To remove report cards from the Parent Portal and Student portal, click the Share report cards options, untick the boxes then click Save change.
Please note that:
- parents or students may have seen and downloaded the report card before it was removed.
- if you have shared the report cards by email, it is not possible to withdraw these.
What does regenerating do?
Clicking the Regenerate report cards button in the Share Reports tab will refresh your report cards with the latest data in Arbor. This action is irreversible.
This means that any delivery statuses will be set back to Not Sent.
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