Set up a school that has no MIS

Written for: Headteachers and school administrators in schools without an MIS.

Most schools’ pupil lists come into Student Radar from their management information system (MIS). If your school doesn’t have an MIS, you build and keep your pupil list yourself in School Settings, on the Set up your school tab. From there you add pupils, keep your source documents, set up your own year groups and classes, and manage leavers.

Before you start

The Set up your school tab only appears when your school is set up to manage pupils by hand. To check:

1. In the sidebar, click Settings, then School Settings.
2. Click the Setting Profile tab.
3. Check that No MIS — manage pupils manually is switched on. If it isn’t, switch it on and click Save profile.

When it’s on, Set up your school is the first tab in School Settings, and it opens first. Switching it on doesn’t disconnect an existing MIS connection. See Set your setting type, country and wording.

Set up your year groups

Do this first, so you can place each pupil in a year group as you add them.

1. Click the Set up your school tab and scroll to Year groups.
2. Under Start from a list, choose the list closest to your school:
   • Pre-Nursery, FS1, FS2 and Year 1–6
   • Nursery, Reception and Year 1–6
   • Year 7–13
3. Click Create these year groups.

You can then change them to match your school:

• Click Edit to rename a year group or change its England year. Choose None if it has no equivalent England year.
• Click Move up or Move down to put them in the order pupils move through the school.
• Type a name in New year group and click Add year group to add one.
• Click Delete to remove a year group that has never had pupils in it.

Each year group can match an England year, so that statutory and early years checks still work. Your year group names and order are used across Student Radar wherever a pupil’s year group is shown.

To move pupils between year groups, tick them under Move pupils, choose a year group in Move to and click Move selected pupils. You can move up to 200 pupils at a time. If some pupils already have an England year recorded, click Place them by England year to put them in the matching year group.

Add pupils one at a time

1. On the Set up your school tab, under Add pupils individually, click Add a pupil.
2. Fill in what you know. Only First name and Surname are required:
   • Pupil identity: use the name the school calls the pupil in First name, and their full legal name in Legal first name and Legal surname. If their legal name is written in another script, such as Thai, use Legal name in local script.
   • School and enrolment: use the pupil’s real identifiers. Don’t make up a UPN or an admission date. Choose their Year group.
   • Language and background: record what the family has told you or confirmed records show, including First language, Home language and Receiving EAL support.
   • Home address, where you know it.
3. Under Family and emergency contacts, click Add a contact to add up to four contacts. Adding a contact doesn’t create a parent account or send an invitation.
4. Click Save pupil.

You’ll see “Pupil saved.” with an Open pupil record link. Open the record to add SEND, medical, safeguarding and support information. Each area keeps its usual permissions.

To stop and come back later, click Close form — keep draft.

Keep your source documents

Under Upload school documents, you can store general school documents and admissions spreadsheets: PDF, Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), CSV, JPG or PNG, up to 20 MB each. Choose a file in Choose a document and click Upload document. Files are stored as confidential documents for authorised staff. They aren’t processed, so storing a file doesn’t add any pupils.

To add pupils from a stored admissions spreadsheet, go to Review stored spreadsheets and click Process and review next to the file. Student Radar shows each row so you can match it to an existing pupil, create a new pupil record, or keep an applicant as a draft admission. Processing creates no pupils until you’ve reviewed and saved each row.

First aid and safeguarding records have their own importer, Import first aid and safeguarding records. Don’t upload them as general documents.

Set up classes

Under Shared school classes:

1. Choose a Class type:
   • Registration classes are pupils’ main class, such as their form or tutor group.
   • Teaching classes are shared lesson groups used by class views and registers.
2. To add a class, type a Class name and click Create class. To rename one, choose it under Class, type the new name and click Rename selected class.
3. To put a pupil in a class, choose the class, choose the Pupil, then click Assign or move pupil for a registration class, or Add pupil for a teaching class. Click Remove pupil to take them out.

You’ll see “Class changes saved.”

Record a pupil leaving

1. Open the pupil’s profile and click Edit pupil details at the top.
2. Under Leaving the school, click Record leaving.
3. Choose the Leaving date and a Reason, such as Moved to another school. Add a Destination school (optional) and a Note (optional).
4. Click Record leaving.

Pupils who have left stay on record and are listed under Leavers on the Set up your school tab. From there you can:

• click Re-admit if a pupil comes back, and choose their Return date;
• click Undo leaving if a leaving was recorded by mistake, and say What was wrong?.

If you added a pupil by mistake, for example twice, use Remove record created in error in Edit pupil details instead. The record is hidden everywhere but kept.

Notes

• Who can do what: adding pupils, adding contacts and storing documents each need their own permission. If a button is greyed out, the message beside it says which permission is missing. Ask your Student Radar administrator.
• Pupil limit: if your licence has a pupil cap, adding pupils by hand stops when you reach it. You can see the cap under Setting Profile, in Pupil cap on the licence.
• More than 1,000 pupils: the year group and class lists show the first 1,000 pupils you can access.

If something doesn’t work

What you see	What to do
“A pupil with that UPN already exists. Open their record instead.”	Search for the pupil and open their record rather than adding them again.
“The school’s pupil limit has been reached.”	Check Pupil cap on the licence under Setting Profile. If you need a higher cap, contact Student Radar support.
“Check the details and file limits, then try again. Names are required; dates and identifiers must be valid.”	Check the names, dates and identifiers, or that the file is a supported type under 20 MB.
“You do not currently have access to this action for this manual school. Reload or ask your school administrator.”	Reload the page. If you still see it, ask your Student Radar administrator for access.
“Pupil creation permission is required for this manual school.”	Ask your Student Radar administrator for permission to add pupils.
“Another year group already has that name.”	Choose a different name.
“Only a year group that has never had pupils can be deleted.”	A year group that has had pupils can’t be deleted. Rename it instead, or leave it unused.
“A school can have up to 30 year groups.”	Delete or rename an unused year group.
“Year groups changed since you loaded them. Reload and try again.”	Click Reload year groups and make your change again.
“Unable to save. Your entries are still here. Retry to check and complete the same request.”	Click Save pupil again. Student Radar checks whether the first save went through, so the pupil isn’t added twice.