Using SchoolPost to publish exam results

Introduction 

This process describes how to publish exam results (and, similarly, exam timetables) to pupils via SchoolPost. 

Import of Exam Results / Exam Timetables into iSAMS 

The Exams Officer will be importing exams results into iSAMS, and I believe that all exam boards now support the iSAMS import process. 

Export of Combined PDF Results/Timetables Document 

The Exam Officer can use iSAMS reports to output a PDF document containing all the exam results according to the template. The templates must have some unique identifier in the header that allows the pupil to be identified by SchoolPost. 

Splitting the Combined PDF Results 

A-PDF Content Splitter application to be used to split the combined document into uniquely named PDF documents. The naming convention will depend upon the header information in the iSAMS report – e.g. could be Roll Number, iSAMS School Code, Candidate Number, Candidate Code etc. 

For example, A-PDF Content Splitter can be used to split the document on recognising “Page 1” (the combined results PDF will contain a Page 1 for each candidate).: 

Use A-PDF Transforms to rename the resulting PDF output files, perhaps based on detecting UCI Code. You could modify the output filename to be more user-friendly, e.g. Surname-Firstname-UCI Code. 

See PDF Content Splitter http://www.a-pdf.com/content-splitter/index.htm license code is: UDH85-YJDE7-NVHAG-9LNYF 

SchoolPost Publishing of Exam Results 

The resulting PDF documents can then be sent out to pupils via SchoolPost using a New Merge Publication, Document merge. The Exam Officer should be able to do this. SchoolPost should use one of the following {Code}. {ExamId}, {CustomCode} template codes and the user should be very careful to confirm that the number of matches is exactly correct.  

Mapping of iSAMS header to SchoolPost template: 

SchoolPost has a Share in Firefly option, this sends a SchoolPost document merge in the normal way, but also publishes the document to the pupils Documents area on Firefly – so they cannot just lose the communication. Deactivating the publication in SchoolPost immediately removes the document from the students profile in Firefly. 

Auto upload of results to ISC 
The Exams Officer is responsible for sending the exam results to the ISC. Post-rollover the report looks for former students that left in Year 13. If leavers are still marked as current students however (e.g. in year 33 or 34), then they may not be picked-up when the report is run. Best to temporarily mark them as leavers, create the report, and move them back again (at which point leaving data will be stripped). Ensure that you liaise with Basanta (final bills are being prepared at this time), timetablers, teams creation, and Salamander may need to be suspended. 

Original creation by Adam Banks, 8/8/2022