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Entering/Maintaining Data:

Why can't I find a pupil that I entered?

There are two common reasons for this:

When you record a pupil as a new entrant on PPOD, they are always recorded in the following academic year. So if your PPOD is currently in 2018/19 any new entrants will be recorded in your 2019/20 academic year. You can find the pupil by searching for them without putting a year into the search parameters. You can then correct the academic year on the pupil's record (under the 'Enrolment' tab) if necessary.

OR

You may have input the pupil's name the wrong way around, i.e. you have put the surname in the forename field and vice versa.

A pupil who is coming to my school is not on my Inter-School Transfer List.

If you have a pupil enrolling that does not appear on your list, contact the pupil's previous school and ask them to input your school's roll number in the Early Leaver details for the pupil. This will cause the pupil to appear on your Inter-School Transfer List.

A pupil who is not coming to my school is on my Inter-School Transfer List.

You should not accept a transfer of a student via PPOD if the student is not coming to your school. Contact the school that sent the pupil to your Inter-School Transfer list to advise them of their error and ask them to remove your school's roll number from the pupil's record. This is important as another school could be waiting for the pupil to appear on its Inter-School Transfer list. Details of the old school are available by clicking on its roll number on the list.

How do I transfer a pupil to another recognised school in the State?

Use 'Pupil Search' to find their PPOD record, click on the 'Enrolment' tab, then tick the 'Early Leaving Indicator' box, input the Early Leaving Date and from the 'Early Leaving Reason' dropdown select 'Another 2nd Level School in the State'. Input the new school's roll number or search for it by name, then save. This will cause the pupil to appear on the new school's Inter-School Transfer List. When they accept the transfer, the pupil's record is taken from your PPOD and transferred to the new school's PPOD. NOTE: If there are outstanding assessments you must complete them before marking the pupil as an early leaver.

How do I enter a pupil who is coming back to the school?

If the pupil is coming from another recognised Post-Primary school you should use the Inter-School Transfer facility (if you have already created a new entrant record for the pupil you should delete it and use the transfer facility).

If the pupil was enrolled in your school last year, you can search in the previous academic year and go to the enrolment tab and click on Create New Enrolment Record.

If the pupil was enrolled in your school previously and did not attend another recognised school in the State since, you can find them in your PPOD by searching for them without putting a year into the search parameters. When you find them, click on the 'Enrolment' tab and click on 'Create New Enrolment Record'.

If the pupil was enrolled in your school previously and attended another recognised school in the State since, you should contact the pupil's previous school and ask them to input your school's roll number in the Early Leaver details for the pupil. This will cause the pupil to appear on your Inter-School Transfer List.

I am getting a 'Duplicate PPSN' message when I record a pupil on PPOD.

You may have already entered the pupil in a different academic year or you have recorded another pupil on PPOD with that PPSN. Using the pupil search facility, leave the Academic Year blank and search for name or PPSN.

What do I do with new entrants for 2018/19 on PPOD who do not arrive in my school?

Before generating your October Returns you should delete any new entrants who have not taken up enrolment in your school by 30th September.

Where a new entrant advises your school they will join after 30th September you should set the enrolment date to the date they are expected to attend.

If the new entrant attended your school for even one day before the 30th September but you know they do not intend to return to your school you should mark this student as an early leaver rather than delete the record.

I am trying to allocate a subject/short course to a pupil but it is not in the dropdown list.

If a particular subject is not appearing in the dropdown list you should go to the 'School Subject Lists' and check if it is on the list for the programme that you are using.

If it is not there you must add it. You will then be able to allocate it to pupils. Note that there is a separate tab/list for each of the programmes (JC/JCSP/TY/LC/LCVP/LCA/RLC/Core VTOS). If the subject does not appear in the list under a particular programme tab then it is not allowed to be taken in that particular programme.

This procedure also applies to short courses - you first check that the short course has been input to the 'School Short Course List'..

What do I do about Short-Term Pupils?

Short term pupils are foreign pupils who are only in the school for short period of time (28 weeks or less in an academic year) or on an exchange programme. You should enter them on PPOD with their enrolment date and tick the 'Short Term Pupil' box on the 'Enrolment' tab.

How do I enter a pupil who is repeating 6th year?

The way of recording this on PPOD differs slightly depending on whether the pupil sat the Leaving Certificate examinations the previous year or not. Please see PPOD Guide 5 ( Updating PPOD for Students who are Repeating a Year) for details.

Why can't I save my changes?

If you encounter problems when you are saving a record please check to make sure that you have all the mandatory fields completed (mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk (*)). A message in red print at the top of the page will inform you what is causing the problem.

Some of the pupils' enrolment dates are incorrect. How do I change them?

You can use the Batch Update facility to update the enrolment date for a number of pupils at once.

Go to Pupil Batch Update and search for the group of pupils affected; e.g. 'Academic year' 2018, 'Programme' Junior Cycle and 'Programme Year' year 1. This will return all Junior Cycle year 1 pupils for 2018/19.

Click on the 'Enrolment Date' heading which will sort your dates in order. Select all pupils by clicking on the small selection box in the first column on the header. If you have any late entrants they should be either at top or bottom of page. Deselect these pupils.

Click on the 'Select Pupils' button at the bottom of the screen. On the next screen input the desired enrolment date in the format of DD/MM/YYYY or use the Calendar Box, then select 'Update Batch'. The enrolment date will be updated for all selected pupils.

I am trying to change a date (e.g. date of birth, enrolment date) for a pupil but it will not save.

The date must be input in a certain way in order to allow you to save it. Click on the calendar and then select the year, then the month, then the date in that order. You can now save it successfully.

Progression:

When can I begin Progression?

Progression is generally open to schools from early May onwards, but it is recommended that you run the progression routine as late in the school year as possible, ideally after the end of the school year. For detailed instructions please see PPOD Guide 10 (PPOD Progression).

I forgot to key all my early leavers for 2017/18 BEFORE running Progression on PPOD. What do I do??

As progression will have created a 2018 enrolment record for this pupil you should record the Early Leaver details on the 2017 record with leaving date of no later than 31/07/2018. When you input and save this information a 'Delete Pupil Enrolment' option appears. Click on this button. This puts the early leaving details into the 2017 enrolment record and deletes the 2018 record (as pupil is not enrolled in your school for 2018).

There is a pupil starting here next September but I transferred him/her in using the Inter-School transfer BEFORE running Progression on PPOD. What do I do?

You have created a 2017/18 record for this pupil in your school when they did not attend your school in 2017/18. You cannot delete this record so, after you have done your progression, you should email the details to p-podhelpdesk@education.gov.ie. The department will arrange to delete the incorrect enrolment record.

Synchronisation:

How does synchronisation work?

Synchronisation involves the copying of information from one system to another. The process is run from your local software system. You input your synchronisation credentials into your local software system and run a process which pulls the student information into your system from PPOD.

What are my synchronisation login credentials and where do I get them from?

Your synchronisation credentials consist of a login number and a password. If you no longer have these to hand please contact the PPOD helpdesk, providing your school's roll number, and we will reset your account allowing you to create a new password.

When you create a new password the login number, which is positioned to the left of the password field on the screen, changes automatically. The new login number and password are now your current synchronisation credentials and it is these which you will use in your local system to synchronise with PPOD.

My system is telling me that my Data Synchronisation Credentials cannot be authenticated.

Your login credentials may have expired, so you should contact the PPOD helpdesk. If this does not clear the problem it could be an issue with rights within the school's network (you should contact the school's I.T. technician or your local software provider).

October Returns:

How can I check that my school's student records on PPOD meet the Department's requirements for the October Returns?

Once you have run the Progression routine you can run the Rules Report which you will find under the October Returns option on the PPOD menu. To do this please click on the "Generate Rules Report" button to initialise the rules report. When generated this report will check each student's record for any errors.

You should inspect the warnings and errors reported and resolve these before proceeding to generating your October Returns on or after 30th September. For the warnings reported which cannot be resolved you must include an explanation with the paperwork submitted to the Department stating the reason they could not be fixed. Note that you will not be able to submit your October Return with errors outstanding - see PPOD Guide 11 (PPOD Rules Report) for more details.

Who do I contact if I have any problems?

If you have any queries in relation to PPOD please email our helpdesk and we will endeavour to respond ASAP.

The helpdesk email address is p-podhelpdesk@education.gov.ie. If your query relates to the synchronisation of your data please contact your software provider.

See Also

PPOD User Guides

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Why can't I find a pupil that I entered? There are two common reasons for this: When you record a pupil as a new entrant on PPOD, they are always recorded in the following academic year. So if your PPOD is currently in 2018/19 any new entrants will be recorded in your 2019/20 academic year.