Approve a form and review responses
Written for: Staff who approve forms or review form responses.
Some forms need a colleague’s approval before they can be shared, and some responses need checking before they’re accepted. The person who builds the form chooses this in the form’s sharing choices, under Approval before sharing and Review responses before accepting them. This article is for the colleagues who approve forms and review responses. It also covers reading a campaign’s responses.
All of this is in Forms: open Parents in the sidebar and choose Forms.
Approve a form before it’s shared
Section titled “Approve a form before it’s shared”When a form needs approval, its author clicks Send for approval instead of Publish form. The form shows Awaiting approval in the Form library.
- Click the Publication approvals tab. Each request shows the form, its Revision, its Classification, how many Approvals it has and its Status.
- Click Read complete form before deciding to open the exact draft. Click Preview to see it as people will, then go back to Publication approvals.
- Click Approve exact revision, or Reject if it isn’t ready.
You can’t approve a form you sent for approval yourself. If the form needs two approvals, a second colleague does the same. When it has all its approvals, the status changes to Approved.
To share it, click Publish approved revision, or the author can click Publish form in the form’s Share window. You need permission to publish forms to do this.
Approval covers the exact revision you read. If anyone edits the form afterwards, it has to be approved again.
Review a response
Section titled “Review a response”When a form’s responses need review, each one waits in a queue after it’s submitted.
- Click the Response reviews tab. Each response shows its Form, Campaign, Revision, how many Approvals it has and its Status.
- Click Review response. You’ll see the answers under Structured response, any Signature receipts and files under Clean file evidence, and Revision and provenance. Earlier decisions are listed under Decision history.
- Under Record review decision, choose Approve, Request changes or Reject.
- Explain your decision in Rationale.
- Click Record decision.
A review never changes what was submitted. If the person sends a new revision, it appears as a separate item. Use Open previous revision and Open later revision to move between them.
You can’t approve a response you submitted yourself. Responses that hold sensitive information, such as medical details, need a colleague with permission to approve sensitive responses.
Read a campaign’s responses
Section titled “Read a campaign’s responses”- Click the Campaigns tab.
- Click View responses next to the campaign.
Under Response denominator you can see how many recipients the campaign has and how many have opened, submitted, completed or not yet answered the form. For surveys, totals for each choice are shown once enough people have answered.
Under Responses, each recipient is listed with the pupil, the respondent, the status and when they submitted. Click View response to read their answers.
Download responses
Section titled “Download responses”Under Exports, click Campaign summary PDF for a summary. For anything that names people, such as Response CSV or a Response receipt PDF, first enter an Export reason. It’s kept in the audit record. Downloads expire after 60 seconds, so save the file straight away.
When parents give different answers
Section titled “When parents give different answers”If a campaign asks for one response per pupil and two parents give different answers, the answers are held under Guardian response reviews until the campaign owner decides which one stands.
Search past responses
Section titled “Search past responses”Click Evidence search and search by campaign title, form title or an answer. Medical, SEND, admissions, annual review and safeguarding responses aren’t included: they stay in their own area of Student Radar.
Who can do this
Section titled “Who can do this”Your school decides who can approve forms, review responses and read or download them. The Publication approvals and Response reviews tabs only appear if your account can use them. If you need access, ask your school’s Student Radar administrator.
If something doesn’t work
Section titled “If something doesn’t work”| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| “A different authorised colleague must approve this item.” | You sent this form for approval. Ask another colleague who can approve forms. |
| “This form is still waiting for its required approvals.” | Wait for the remaining approvals before publishing. |
| “This form must complete its approval workflow before publishing.” | Send the form for approval and wait until it’s approved. |
| “No publication reviews waiting” | Nothing needs your approval at the moment. |
| “No responses need review” | No submitted responses are waiting for review. |
| “The submitter cannot approve their own response.” | Ask another colleague to review this response. |
| “This response changed while you were reviewing it. Refresh before deciding.” | Reload the page, check the latest revision, then record your decision. |
| “A specialist approver must decide this sensitive response.” | Ask a colleague with permission to approve sensitive responses. |
| “You can review this evidence but cannot record an approval decision.” | You can read the response but not approve it. Ask a colleague who can. |
| “Choice aggregates are hidden until at least five people have responded.” | Totals appear once five or more people have answered, so individuals can’t be picked out. |
| “Publication approvals could not be loaded” | Reload the page. If it keeps happening, ask your Student Radar administrator to check access. |
| “Review queue could not be loaded” | Click Try again. If it keeps happening, ask your Student Radar administrator. |