House Points and engagement tracking

What House Points are

House Points are a lightweight recognition tool. A teacher can award a point to a child in one tap, with an optional reason attached. Points accumulate across the school year and are visible to the child's parents via the Family Hub.

They are designed to recognise:

• Effort, trying hard even when something is difficult
• Participation, contributing during group activities or discussions
• Kindness and positive behaviour, helping a classmate, tidying up without being asked, showing empathy
• Achievement milestones, first time writing their name, counting to 20, completing a project

Setting up houses

Before teachers can award points, a School Admin must create the houses. Most schools use four houses named after values, colours, or local landmarks.

1. Go to House Points from the main navigation.
2. Click Add House.
3. Enter a House Name (e.g. "Eagle", "River", "Baobab").
4. Choose a colour from the colour picker. This colour appears on the house card and the leaderboard.
5. Optionally enter a Motto for the house.
6. Click Create House. Repeat for each house.

Awarding points

Points are awarded from the House Points module, not from the class register.

1. Go to House Points from the main navigation.
2. Click Award Points.
3. In the Award House Points modal, select the house that receives the points.
4. Optionally select a student within that house to credit individually. If no student is selected, the points count toward the house total only.
5. Set the points amount (default is 1; you can enter any number).
6. Enter a reason in the text field and select a category from the dropdown (e.g. Effort, Participation, Kindness, Achievement, Other).
7. Click Award Points. The entry appears in Recent Point Awards immediately.

Viewing the leaderboard

The House Points page shows each house as a card with its current total and member count. The house with the most points can be read at a glance.

A Recent Point Awards feed below the house cards shows every award entry with the house tag, student name (if specified), reason, points amount, and who made the award.

What parents see

Parents can see their child's House Points in two places:

• On the Family Hub home screen, a small points badge is shown on the child's profile card with the current term total and their house colour.
• Inside the child's profile under Engagement, a full history of every point awarded, with the reason and date, so parents can see exactly what was recognised.

Parents cannot see other children's points or the house leaderboard standings, only their own child's record.

End-of-term reporting

House Points feed into the Term Engagement Report, generated per class at the end of term from Reports, Term Summary. The report shows:

• Each student's total points for the term
• The most common reason for points awarded in the class (e.g. "Effort was the top category for Year 1 this term")
• Which house accumulated the most points across the school

The report can be downloaded as a PDF or exported as CSV for use in end-of-year certificates or external reporting.

Common mistakes

• Looking for a star icon or "+ Point" button next to student names in the class register — that button does not exist. All points are awarded from the House Points module via the "Award Points" button.
• Looking for house setup under School Settings — houses are created directly from the House Points module using the "Add House" button, not from Settings.
• Awarding points to the house only without selecting a student. Points still count toward the house total, but no individual student record is updated. If you want the recognition to appear on a child's profile, always select the student.
• Awarding points inconsistently across classes. If one teacher awards 10 points per day and another awards 1 per week, the house leaderboard becomes meaningless. Agree a school-wide rate of award (e.g. 1–3 points per child per day) at the start of term.
• Using House Points as a disciplinary deduction tool. The platform supports addition of points only. Design your House Points policy around positive recognition.