Parent/Carer Platforms

As a parent/carer of a child who attends Sandringham School, you have access to a number of digital platforms, which provide you with information about your child’s progress at school. This includes access to your child’s timetable, attendance, behaviour, homework and more.

Each of the platforms we use has its own specific purpose in helping you as parents/carers keep up to date with how your child is getting on at school. More detailed information about each individual platform can be found on this page. There are also useful guides which are freely downloadable to support you.

My Child at School

Bromcom MyChildAtSchool (MCAS)

We encourage parents to make use of our My Child At School online system where parents can review key data about their child’s education at any time of the year. This will contain the most recent data on attendance and rewards/consequences as well as a copy of all reports that we have produced on your child. For students in Key Stage 4 and 5, exam timetables for trial and public exams are available well in advance of the exam seasons. We are working with the systems vendor to increase the amount of data available via the system in future and it is a key part of our communication with parents.

What is MCAS?

My Child At School is a website and app for parents that is linked to our data management system in school. It provides:

access to real-time Attendance, Assessment and Behavioural information
communication facilities
trial and public exam timetables
instant access to published reports

How to access MCAS website

Brief information is below, for the full guide please see the PDF instructions at the bottom of this page.

You should have an email link from school.

If the link has expired or you have not received one follow the instructions below.

From within your web browser type http://www.mychildatschool.com. This will open the login page.
Enter the email address that you have supplied to school.
Click on the forgotten login Details link and follow the instructions to set up your password.
You will then be asked to enter a new password, do this and click on the Update Password button, this will be confirmed both onscreen and via another email. Note: If the e-mail has not previously been verified the first email received will be for verification and setup of Memorable Question.

How to access the MCAS app

This app is available through Google Play store or Apple Apps. The app has the great advantage of storing login information, avoiding having to remember and re-enter your password each time.

Below you will find the MCAS Parent User Guide to help you navigate this online service.

Technical Support

How to change your password

If you have a validated address you can use the password recovery service

Go to the website: My Child at School

Choose the “Forgotten Login Details ?” option

Choose the “I need to reset my password” option

Enter the email address you have used with your account

Click on Send reset email

You should receive an email as shown below:

Click on the link to reset your password. Please note that this link expires over 24 hours.

Enter your new password. Your password must contain at least one letter, one number and a non-alphanumeric character such as “!”.

Click on Update Password and then you should see the message below confirming the update.

How to navigate between different children (for families who have multiple children at the school)

If you have more than one child at the school you can navigate between your children by clicking on the student name on the left hand side on the screen and a drop down list will appear

If you have any issues, please contact us at data@sandringham.aetrust.uk

Parent Guide

MCAS Parent Guide 2024

ePraise

In September 2021 we introduced a new rewards system including a new structure and a digital online platform called ePraise. More information about the rewards structure here at Sandringham can be found on a dedicated section of the school website – https://sandringham.herts.sch.uk/rewards-consequences/

Access to ePraise is available via their free to download mobile app (from your application store) or on a web browser. Through the ePraise platform you will be able to:

View the rewards your child has received (including house points, accolades and achievements)
View your child’s timetable
Access a school information page with quick links to other digital platforms (e.g. ParentPay, MyChildAtSchool, etc.)

For the time being we have decoupled rewards and sanctions from a single platform. Whilst this does mean an additional platform for parents/carers to access, we are confident that the positive impact which ePraise is having outweighs the drawbacks of utilising another system. As such, information about consequences your child has received alongside their termly academic reports and examination timetable, can still be found on MyChildAtSchool.

To sign up to ePraise you will receive an email invitation. Please follow the instructions provided to register. The registration link is valid for 24 hours. You will only be able to register with ePraise using the email address the school holds for you (the one you would have received this letter to). If you have not received an invitation email, please check your junk/spam folder. Failing this, email data@sandringham.herts.sch.uk where our Data Team will be able to offer assistance.

If you have multiple children attending the school you will only receive one invitation as you will be able to view information about all of your children through a single account.

Below you will also find guidance for parents/carers written by ePraise which demonstrates what features are available on the mobile application and in the web browser version as well as how to navigate the platform.

E Praise Introductory Guide for Parents and Carers

Registering on our website

You may receive an invitation from your child’s school which will contain instructions for you to follow. If you don’t receive an invite, then you can register yourself by following these instructions:

Go to epraise.co.uk
Click login
Select the correct school
Select the Parent tab
Enter the email address you gave to the school (leave the password blank)
Click the Login/Register button
Follow the instructions in the email that is sent to you

Please note that you can only access ePraise if the school has added you as a parent. If your details are not recognised you will need to contact the school directly.

Once you have clicked the Login/Register button, you should receive an email that contains a link to create your ePraise password.

The link remains active for 24 hours so you will need to use it within that time or repeat the steps above to obtain a new email. Sometimes emails can take a few minutes to arrive or are automatically redirected to junk folders so please check this before contacting the school if you are unable to access the site.

Registering on our app

To register on our iOS or Android app you can:

Download our app (just search for ePraise in your app store) and open it
Select your school
Tap the ‘Register’ button
Enter the email address that has already been given to the school
Tap the ‘Request login code’ button
Enter the login code sent via email
Tap ‘Login’

Our app will log any user out that does not have a passcode or other authentication automatically whenever they leave the app, or after 30 days of inactivity if they do have authentication, to help provide a minimum level of security. You can use the ‘Register’ button to log in again in the future if you are logged out.

Dashboard

Available on our website only

The first screen you’ll see on our website is the dashboard. This is an overview of what has been happening at the school. The dashboard is not available on our app.

Changing Password

Available on our website only

On our website, you can change your password under Me > Settings. For increased security, passwords should at least be 8 characters in length and include a mixture of lower case letters, upper case letters and numbers. Passwords should never be shared with anyone else.

School information

Available on our mobile application and website

On the school information page, schools can post links to useful documents such as term dates and staff lists. You can find the school information under Home > School information on our website, and under the More menu on our app.

Your Child’s profile

Available on our mobile application and website

On our website, you can view your child/children’s profiles under the My children tab. On our app, they are listed as tabs on the main screen. Here you can see how they are doing in school, in areas such as achievement, behaviour, interventions, attendance and so on.

Google Guardian Summaries

Google Classroom plays such a crucial role in our curriculum delivery here at Sandringham. A feature called Google Guardians, which is part of the Google Classroom platform, is able to provide parents/carers with email summaries about home learning tasks students have been set on either of a daily or weekly basis. The email summaries include:

Missing work— Work that’s late at the time the email was sent
Upcoming work — Work that’s due today and tomorrow (for daily emails) or work that’s due in the upcoming week (for weekly emails)
Class activity — Announcements, assignments, and questions recently posted by teachers

It is important to recognise that you will not be able to access or login to Google Classroom. The Guardian Summaries simply come as an automated email, but contains all of the information you need to support your child at home.

In order to receive Guardian Summaries you will need to accept the invitation email which you will receive via email. Please follow the Getting Started with Google Classroom Guardian Summaries Guide below when accepting your invitation. If you do not receive an invitation then please check your junk folder and make sure you are checking the email account you have provided for communications with the school. After taking these steps, if you are confident you have not received an invitation or require a new one, please contact data@sandringham.aetrust.uk.

Below you will find a guide for how to accept Guardian Summaries and how to adjust the frequency you receive the email summaries.

Here are a number of frequently asked questions which you may also find useful.

How do I receive email summaries?

As a parent/carer, you must receive and accept an email invitation before you can receive email summaries.

How often will I receive email summaries?

Once you accept the email invitation, the default time you will receive emails is weekly, this will be a summary of the week’s Google Classroom activity.

How do I change the frequency I receive email summaries?

To manage email summary settings, you need a free Google Account. You do not need a Gmail address to create a Google Account. To create one with your current email address, go to Create your Google Account – https://accounts.google.com/signup?hl=en. Make sure to create the account with the email you have registered with the school (the one where you will have received the invitation).

If you have a Google account or have just created one with your email address and you have accepted the invitation, go to https://classroom.google.com/gs, where you can see the students connected to your account and manage the frequency of your emails.

If you do not create or have a Google account, you will get weekly emails and cannot adjust your settings.

What time of the day will I receive email summaries?

Summaries are sent at around 4:30pm on a daily basis when the daily option is selected. Weekly summaries are sent at around 4:30pm every Friday.

This is not a setting the school is able to adjust as this is set by Google.

Is there a time when I will not receive an email summary?

There could be. There are two main reasons why you would not receive an email summary:

There’s no activity to report for the given time period (e.g. during school holidays).

You selected ‘No summaries’ for how often you’d like to receive emails.

Further information about Guardian Summaries can be found on a dedicated parents/carers page on the Google website – https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/7126518?hl=en

Getting Started with Google Classroom Guardian Summaries