Changelog

Follow up on the latest improvements and updates.

RSS

Getting around SchoolMoney is now quicker and more intuitive with the updated navigation experience designed to help schools access key tasks and information more easily.
What's New?
  • SchoolMoney now has an improved side navigation menu that stays visible while you work, making it easier to move between areas of the product.
  • Related features and tools are grouped more clearly, helping you find what you need with fewer clicks.
  • The update also introduces improved list views on selected reporting pages, including: Dinner History, Club History, and Club Arrears.
SchoolMoney
SchoolMoney (1)
SchoolMoney (2)
Key Benefits
  • Find key areas of SchoolMoney more quickly
  • Move between common tasks with less effort
  • Reduced learning curve for new users
How it works
The navigation menu remains visible while you work, making it easier to move between tasks and key areas of the platform. If you need more screen space, the menu can be collapsed while still remaining easily accessible.
Click here to watch a demo
The new Performance Hub for Multi Academy Trusts and Local Authorities is now available. It provides a single view of communications and payments trends across schools, using data already available to help flag issues, recommend actions, and provide a platform for comparison.
NB: This feature is available for trusts and local authorities with schools using VenturEd Solutions communications and payments products.
What's New?
The MAT/LA Performance Hub brings together insights from existing communications and payments data into a single dashboard, helping leaders understand how schools are performing across their organisation.
The hub provides visibility into:
  • Eduspot app adoption across schools
  • Parent engagement and communication reach
  • Payment completion and outstanding balances
  • Areas of operational risk, with recommendations to address them
  • Performance trends over time
  • A compare feature to compare performance between schools
LAMAT Performance Hub
M5 Dashboard (1)
Click Here to watch the demo
(1) M5 Dashboard (1)
M5 Dashboard (2)
Key Benefits
  • Get a single source of truth
  • Monitor financial exposure, debt and overdue balances
  • Make evidence-based decisions with confidence
  • Detect potential issues earlier with clear risk indicators
  • Compare schools across a trust or local authority to identify which schools may need additional support
Click Here to watch the demo
We have made updates to the
Exclusions Report
on Assembly to make benchmarking more flexible, allowing you to compare exclusion rates against national, local authority and regional averages. Benchmark data is also updated automatically as new statistics become available, helping ensure your comparisons remain current. We have also updated the interface, introducing a new comparison page, richer breakdown tables and colour coded performance indicators.
What's New?
  • Flexible benchmarking across the report
  • New benchmark comparison page
  • Enhanced benchmarking insights
  • Expanded suspension analysis
  • Richer reasons analysis
  • Performance improvements to the Suspension Rate student drilldown table
Key Updates
1. Compare against National, Local Authority and Regional benchmarks
A new
Benchmark Selector
is now available across all pages of the Exclusions Report. This allows you to switch between National, Local Authority and Regional averages when reviewing exclusion data.
Once selected, KPI cards, breakdown tables and comparison charts automatically update to reflect your chosen benchmark. When comparing against Local Authority or Regional averages, the report uses the selected school's local authority and region to ensure the comparison remains relevant.
This means for you can quickly move between national, local and regional perspectives without leaving the page, making it easier to understand performance in the context that matters most.
Assembly benchmark selector
2. Dynamic Benchmark Labels
Always know which benchmark you are viewing. Dynamic labels have been added alongside KPI cards to clearly display the benchmark currently being used, such as
"vs National", "vs LA" or "vs Regional".
The labels update automatically whenever the Benchmark Selector changes so you can immediately see which benchmark your results are being compared against without needing to check the Benchmark Selector separately.
3. Phase-Aware Benchmarking
Benchmark comparisons now automatically reflect the phase of the selected school, including Primary, Secondary, Special and All Through settings. When no school is selected, the report defaults to the All-through (total) figure. This ensures benchmark comparisons are aligned to the type of school being analysed, helping provide more meaningful insights.
4. Automatically updated benchmark data
Benchmark figures used throughout the report now update automatically whenever the report is refreshed. This means benchmark comparisons always use the latest available data without requiring manual intervention. The Information tooltip button has also been enhanced to show which academic year benchmark data is being drawn from.
Assembly benchmark automatic data
5. New Page — vs LA vs Regional
This page displays suspension and permanent exclusion rates alongside Local Authority, Regional and National averages through summary cards and comparison charts. This means you can view all benchmark levels side by side and quickly understand how your school's performance compares across different geographical contexts.
Assembly benchmark comparison
6. KPI cards now reflect your selected benchmark
All KPI cards now use the selected benchmark as their target/goal value. The KPI target line and colour coding (above/below target) update when the Benchmark Selector is changed.
Pages affected:
Overview · Drilldown · Suspensions by Groups · Permanent Exclusions by Groups · Suspension Rate · Suspensions Vs National
7. Benchmarks Added to Breakdown Tables
Benchmark values have been added to FSM, Gender and SEND breakdown tables. School rates and benchmark rates can now be viewed together within the same table. This mean you no longer need to compare figures across multiple visuals, making benchmarking quicker and easier to interpret.
Pages affected:
Suspensions by Groups · Permanent Exclusions by Groups
Assembly benchmark comparison table
Additionally, the rate columns in the breakdown tables are now colour coded:
🟢
Green text
— the school's rate is
below
the benchmark average (performing better)
🔴
Red text
— the school's rate is
at or above
the benchmark average (cause for attention)
Where no benchmark exists for a particular group (for example, the Non-FSM row), no colour is shown. Areas performing above or below benchmark can be identified more quickly without manually comparing rates.
8. Side-by-Side Benchmark Comparison on Suspension Rate Charts
Suspension Rate charts for FSM, SEND and Gender groups now include benchmark comparison bars alongside school values. Each group is compared directly against the equivalent benchmark rate for that group. These visual comparisons are easier to interpret and provide greater context than a single benchmark line.
Assembly benchmark comparison chart
9. New Chart on the Suspensions Vs National Page
A new 1+ Suspension Rate by School chart has been added to the Suspensions vs National page.
The chart shows the proportion of pupils with one or more suspensions and includes benchmark comparison data. This helps to gain more complete understanding of suspension patterns across schools.
Page affected:
Suspensions Vs National
Assembly benchmark 1+ table
10. Richer analysis of exclusion reasons
The Reasons page has been enhanced to include both suspension incidents and permanent exclusions by reason. Drilldown analysis has also been expanded to allow you to explore exclusion types within each reason category. This means you can better understand not only why exclusions occur, but also the volume and type of exclusion activity behind each reason.
Page affected:
Reasons
Assembly benchmark reasons table
11. Faster Loading on the Suspension Rate Page
The detailed student level drilldown table on the Suspension Rate page has been optimised. This improves responsiveness when drilling from school through to individual pupil level, particularly for schools with large numbers of suspension records.
Page affected:
Suspension Rate (student drilldown table)
Assembly suspension reason drilldown
12. Compare exclusion reasons against benchmark trends
A new Suspension Reason vs Benchmark table has been added to the Reasons page.
The table allows schools to compare both suspension and permanent exclusion reason distributions against National, Local Authority and Regional averages. The Benchmark Selector controls which benchmark is displayed.
It displays per school and per reason:
  • # Suspensions
    — raw count
  • % Susp by Reason
    — school's % distribution across reasons
  • Benchmark Susp Rate by Reason
    — National / LA / Regional benchmark % (controlled by the Benchmark Selector slicer)
  • # Permanent
    — raw perm exclusion count
  • % Perm by Reason
    — school's perm % distribution across reasons
  • Benchmark Perm Rate by Reason
    — benchmark perm % by reason
This mean you can quickly identify whether specific reasons for exclusion occur more or less frequently than expected when compared with similar schools and benchmark groups.
Page affected:
Reasons
Assembly suspension reason benchmark
Key Benefit(s)
  • Compare exclusion rates against national, local authority and regional benchmarks
  • Access benchmark data that updates automatically
  • Gain more meaningful insights with phase specific benchmarking
  • View benchmark values directly alongside school performance data
  • Identify trends faster using visual benchmark indicators
  • Analyse exclusion reasons in greater depth
  • Understand performance across multiple benchmark levels from one place
  • Benefit from improved report performance and data accuracy
We have made attendance reporting faster on Assembly. This improvement means attendance data is now stored and processed more efficiently, improving performance, reliability, and scalability.
What's New?
  • Attendance processing and storage have been optimised to improve efficiency without changing reporting detail.
  • Nightly data refreshes at 9pm, ensuring reports include attendance data up to the previous day.
  • Historic attendance reporting is now automated, removing the need for manual setup and saving time.
  • Year-to-date reports now include National Persistent Absence for the current academic year.
  • Expanded enrolment types in reporting, including
    G (Guest), S (Subsidiary)
    , and
    O (Other)
    .
  • Historical attendance reporting has been enhanced with clearer summaries and trends.
NB:
Historic attendance report covers up to 3 academic years by default and 1 academic year for larger trusts.
Improved Attendance Processing on Assembly
Key Benefits
  • Faster reporting with quicker-loading dashboards and outputs.
  • Better decision-making with up-to-date and reliable attendance insights.
  • Reduced admin effort through automated reporting setup and maintenance.
  • Greater visibility of key measures such as National Persistent Absence.
  • Increased flexibility with broader enrolment type support.
We’ve given the incoming message experience in
Teachers2Parents
and
Groupcall
a significant upgrade to better support schools and trusts in improving parental engagement. This update brings conversations, contact details and key actions together in one place, making it easier to manage messages and build more meaningful connections with parents.
What’s New?
The Incoming Messages experience has been refreshed across both Groupcall and T2P, with tailored updates for each platform as outlined below.
  • Automatic “Action Required” status for attendance related messages
  • New “View Attendance” option showing a full audit trail of attendance updates for a student
  • Contact Details panel added to the conversation screen to manage contact preferences, omissions with end dates, related contacts and message history
  • Eduspot App indicator showing whether a contact uses the app and when they last registered
  • Log Communication feature to capture offline interactions such as phone calls, meetings and letters directly in the conversation history
  • Forward and Note functionality
Groupcall
  • “Action Required” status flag for attendance related messages
  • Automatic Action Taken status when adding notes or updating attendance
  • In-thread message translation
  • View Attendance option showing a full audit trail of attendance updates for a student
  • Contact Details panel within conversations to manage contact preferences, omissions with end dates, related contacts and message history
  • Eduspot App indicator showing whether a contact uses the mobile app and when they last registered
  • Log Communication feature to record offline interactions such as phone calls, meetings and letters in the conversation history
  • Forward and Note adding functionality
**Click here to watch the Groupcall demo**
(48) Messages (2)
Incoming Message
Teachers2Parents
  • Forward and Note functionality within conversations
  • Notes can be used to track actions taken, information or follow up tasks
  • Automatic Action Taken status when notes are marked or messages are forwarded
  • Contact Details panel to manage contact preferences, omissions with end dates, related contacts and message history
  • Ability to set omissions to run until a specific date
  • Welsh translations across the experience
Incoming Message T2P
Incoming Message Stream T2P
**Click here to watch the Teachers2Parents demo**
Key Benefits
  • Strengthen parental engagement with a complete view of every conversation and interaction
  • Supports clear message audit trails with a full communication history of messages
  • Reduce manual admin with automatic action tracking
  • Improve visibility of Eduspot App through app usage insights
  • Simplify contact management with easy access to preferences, omissions and related contacts
  • Keep all communication records including offline interactions in one place
**Click here to watch the Groupcall demo**
**Click here to watch the Teachers2Parents demo**
How it works
  • Incoming messages are managed through a unified conversation view combining messages, notes and actions
  • The Contact Details panel provides quick access to contact preferences, omissions, related contacts and communication history
  • Selecting View Attendance shows a full audit trail of attendance updates for the selected student
  • Log Communication allows staff to record offline discussions which appear within the conversation history
A new
Discount Scheme
feature has been added to School Money, making it easy for schools to create, apply and manage discounts on club fees for eligible students, while improving the payment experience for parents.
SM Discount Feature
What’s New?
With this new feature, schools can now:
  • Set up multiple discount schemes that can be reused across club membership
  • Create discounts as either a percentage or fixed amount to suit different schemes
  • Applied discounts are automatically reflected at the point of payment with no manual processing required
  • Add students individually or import in bulk using a CSV file
  • Fully integrated with the existing Club Register feature
  • Generate invoices for discounts to support funding recovery
Key Benefits
  • Reduced admin workload through an easy one time setup
  • Easier management and reconciliation of funding claims
  • Clear and transparent pricing for parents at the point of payment
  • Flexible setup supporting a wide range of discount schemes
SM Discount Feature 2
How it works
  • Schools create a discount scheme and define the value as either a percentage or fixed amount.
  • Once set up, the discount can be applied to club payments on new/existing membership.
  • Students can be added individually or uploaded in bulk using a CSV file.
  • Parents see the discounted price at the point of payment without needing to take any action.
Click here to watch a demo

new

improved

School Improvement

Xporter Portal

Xporter

Connecting Bromcom schools to Xporter is now easier

This update simplifies how Bromcom schools connect their MIS to Xporter, removing the need for manual entry of complex details.
What’s New?
  • Pre populated drop down list of valid Bromcom web service URLs
  • Removal of manual URL entry during setup
  • Streamlined selection of the correct connection endpoint
Key Benefits
  • Faster MIS integration setup for Bromcom schools
  • Reduces errors caused by incorrect URL entry
Bromcom MIS configuration
Historic attendance processing has now been optimised to deliver faster, more reliable insights across reports.
What’s New?
  • Historic attendance data is now processed in a more efficient format
  • Data is structured to significantly reduce overall volume
  • Reporting performance and stability have been improved across historic attendance reports
Key Benefits
  • Faster report load times
  • Improved performance for large datasets
  • More reliable reporting across large trusts
More datasets have been added to DfE benchmarking in Assembly, giving schools and trust leaders more reliable insights across their data.
What’s New?
  • Expanded DfE benchmarking beyond attendance, giving access to insights across more datasets
  • Duplicate prevention of national benchmarking data across schools within the same estate
  • More efficient processing, resulting in faster and more reliable benchmarking outputs
Key Benefits
  • Broader view of performance across more areas
  • More reliable benchmarking data to support decision-making
  • Cleaner, more consistent datasets with less duplication

new

Behaviour & Safeguarding

BehaviourWatch

SchoolPod

Sharing important behaviour and safeguarding information just got quicker

Behaviour and safeguarding information can now be shared quickly and consistently, removing manual steps and duplicate effort. This is especially valuable for schools using CPOMS as their safeguarding platform, as it removes the need to re key records and saves time.
What’s new?
A new Share button has been added to Slip records in
SchoolPod
and
BehaviourWatch
, allowing staff to:
  • Share slips with student contacts, including parents and extended contacts, via email
  • Share slips with other staff members via email
  • Share slips directly into a linked CPOMS account
Key benefits:
  • Less admin effort: Removes the need to re key or print and email slips manually.
  • Stronger safeguarding oversight: Behaviour and safeguarding context can be consolidated in CPOMS.
  • Full incident context shared: Slip commentary and audit history are included, preserving the full record.
  • Faster communication: Enables quicker, more informed sharing with parents, staff and safeguarding teams.
How it works
Sharing with staff and student contacts
Staff can open any saved Slip in SchoolPod or BehaviourWatch, select Share, and choose to send the record to:
  • Student contacts, including parents and extended contacts, shown with relationship and priority to support informed sharing
  • Staff members, with role information included to provide context
An email is sent with the slip details attached, replacing the need to print to PDF and email manually. No additional setup is required to share with staff or student contacts.
SP BW Slip sharing
Sharing with CPOMS
Schools that use CPOMS will need to complete a one time setup by connecting their CPOMS account in the Admin communication settings.
image - 2026-06-05T094844
Once connected, staff can share a slip to CPOMS using the same Share button. This creates a new entry in CPOMS containing the full slip commentary.
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