Critical DevelopmentsFrom First Principles Works

Critical Developments · Product 04

PASSport

See where target pupils should be, period by period.

Period-by-period pastoral tracking.

See PASSport in actionSee what it solves

The gap

Knowing where a pupil should be is not the same as tracking where they are.

Pastoral teams often need a fast answer to a narrow question: where is this pupil expected during this period? The danger begins when that operational question expands into a general appetite for pupil data. PASSport is built around the narrower task—and around the discipline required to keep it narrow.

  1. 01

    Non-standard placements sit outside the ordinary timetable view.

    Staff cross-reference lists, individual timetables and messages during a live pastoral check.

    A selected-period register shows the authorised cohort's expected alternative placement, current operational state and source freshness.

  2. 02

    Recurring provision, one-off sessions and pickups are recorded inconsistently.

    The working timetable cannot explain which arrangement applies on this date.

    Every-week, Week A, Week B, one-off and pickup records retain effective dates, duration, location, staff reference and movement instructions.

  3. 03

    A timetable change overwrites the regular pattern.

    History disappears and the next occurrence may be changed by accident.

    Date-specific exceptions cancel or move one session without rewriting the recurring placement.

  4. 04

    A check produces another informal message rather than owned follow-up.

    Important actions are acknowledged late, escalated unclearly or never deliberately closed.

    Handover records support ownership, acknowledgement, escalation, review, closure and reopening with dated history.

  5. 05

    A broad pupil export is imported because it is available.

    The register accumulates casework and personal data it does not need.

    PASSport admits only the minimum directory and timetable references needed for current placements and unresolved handovers.

Feature map

Find the tools for the task.

Choose a school task to see the relevant tools and their boundaries, then open the walkthrough.

Browse by area

Areas 7Features 38

School tasks, the tools that help and the boundaries to keep in view.

Find the expected session

  • This period, clearly

    See each permitted alternative session and its destination. Record Present, Located or Not seen for that occurrence when your access allows it. Cancelled sessions remain explicit; quick marks are unavailable for future dates and cancelled sessions.

  • The wider week

    Open individual weeks or compare up to eight permitted pupils. Related sessions help place the current record in context. Ordinary lessons appear only where supplied and permitted; coinciding records do not establish that pupils belong to the same group.

  • A view you can return to

    Save personal searches, filters and selected pupils without extending access. The operational date stays separate. Delayed, unavailable and access-ended information have distinct states, and access or verification failures clear loaded pupil information.

Expected placements and recorded session marks are separate from live location tracking and the school's statutory MIS attendance codes.

Open this walkthrough

Plan support around the school day

  • A pattern that fits

    Schedule a one-off session or a recurring Every week, Week A or Week B placement within effective dates. Use the configured school-day times, including year-specific variations. The school's confirmed Week A anchor determines the alternating dates.

  • Change one date

    Move or cancel a dated occurrence without rewriting its recurring placement. Destination conflicts are checked. Linked outcomes, exceptions and handovers protect earlier operational history; unused manual placements have a separate removal route.

  • Pickups and shared sessions

    Record pickups with explicit times and durations, plus collection and return instructions. Apply a reviewed placement draft to up to 50 selected pupils, with individual results. Governed locations and separate session/pickup types keep choices consistent; historical labels remain available.

  • Link agreed DAS provision

    For schools using both products, an explicit link can connect an approved DAS enrolment to its PASSport schedule. Both licences, current permissions and school setup are required. Discuss activation for your school before use. DAS keeps professional decisions; PASSport keeps the schedule and recorded delivery.

School setup required. Scheduling and batching do not decide pupil eligibility or enrolment. Ordinary staff see separately approved movement instructions; restricted operational notes retain their own access. DAS-linked provision is a configured option. Ask for a school-specific demonstration and discuss activation before relying on the link.

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Put follow-up in the right hands

  • Owned operational handovers

    Give a pupil or placement handover an owner code, priority and optional due date. Acknowledge, escalate, review, close or reopen it through recorded transitions. Closing a handover leaves pastoral case decisions separate.

  • Pastoral work beyond sessions

    Create permitted pastoral work without requiring a timetable placement. Assign shared actions to verified current staff or Account-owned teams. Recipients need existing pupil access and update eligibility; assignment and team membership grant no new product or pupil permissions.

  • Who acts and who reads

    Choose assignees separately from readers of staff-facing context. My tasks, All active, Review and Closed queues organise permitted work. The recent-closed count covers seven days; archive search reaches all permitted closure dates within its visible paging limits.

  • Personal updates on Today

    Find your pending actions independently of the register period. Add attributed progress and corrections without erasing earlier entries. Revision checks protect against stale saves. Marking an action Actioned removes it from pending work while Lead closure and external recording remain separate.

Restricted source narrative, supervisory write-ups, recording evidence and history retain separate permissions. Manual PASSport work keeps its own origin.

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Review, record and close work

  • A version the reviewer has checked

    Prepare versioned write-ups from permitted context and attributed updates. A reviewer approves the exact wording; an authorised colleague can then copy or export that selected approved version. Approval and export do not establish that another system has been updated.

  • Session facts ready to check

    Staff with pupil-data export permission can prepare an editable factual note from the visible session and outcome. It stays in memory and is copied only on request. PASSport neither saves it as a CPOMS record nor sends it directly to CPOMS.

  • Recording and closure, separately

    An authorised colleague confirms which approved version was recorded, with the system reference, person and time. A designated Lead separately closes or cancels actions. Every action must be Closed or Cancelled before case closure; permitted reopening remains explicit.

A recording receipt is the colleague's confirmation, not automatic verification of the external system. Staff completion, reviewed wording, recording and formal closure remain distinct.

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Bring existing work in carefully

  • Review pastoral rows

    Map a school-supplied CSV and review pupil matches, duplicates and conflicts before committing. This route accepts up to 1 MiB and 500 rows. Stable source identifiers are used only when supplied and valid; missing identifiers need deliberate creation or separate reconciliation.

  • Check placement batches

    Preview the fixed placement template against current school pupils, active references and timetable conflicts. Files are limited to 1,000,000 bytes and 2,500 placement rows, then rechecked before commit. Eligible rollback protects later edits, outcomes and handovers and may be blocked by them.

There is no direct CPOMS connection or assumed CPOMS export layout. School-led mapping review remains required. A record missing from a later file never closes existing work.

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Review provision activity

  • Choose the question and scope

    Report across up to 93 days for indexed pupils, a group or selected individuals, then narrow by year, type or location. Results separate distinct pupils, scheduled pupil places, provision sessions run and scheduled hours. A session counts as run only with a recorded arrival or location confirmation.

  • Take the selected detail

    Staff with dedicated pupil-data export permission can create an on-demand detailed CSV for the selected, permitted report scope. Exports are bounded to 10,000 scheduled sessions and protect spreadsheet cells from formula injection.

These are operational activity measures. Attendance, a recorded session or completed work does not establish educational impact or replace professional review.

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Set up access and look after records

  • The right people and pupil scope

    Read, record, handover, source, review, export, configuration and closure duties have separate permissions. Role profiles are starting points, not blanket access. Use the shared school directory for pupil identity; a name match or assignment never creates authority to read a pupil's record.

  • Keep unfinished work visible

    A warning helps you decide whether to keep editing or leave an unsaved form. Labelled controls support keyboard use. Discuss your school's access needs and device support, and try the relevant workflows during the trial.

  • Agree timetable retention first

    An authorised school can set approved retention periods, preview candidate totals and make a separate confirmed execution decision. School/DPO policy and an approval reference are required before a run. The timetable retention process does not delete pastoral records.

Configuration access never opens pupil records by itself. Agree the school's policy and approval before any retention run.

Open this walkthrough

The examples use fictional records. Any MIS connection, retention policy or use of pupil data must be agreed and approved with the school.

Compare with competitors

Find the right fit.

Official published descriptions checked 27 August 2026. Feature sets change; procurement requires direct verification with each vendor.

  1. 01

    Bromcom User Timetables

    Bromcom foregrounds timetable access through its Attendance module, dashboard and lesson views. PASSport does not replace that broad MIS authority. It narrows the view to pupils with non-standard placements and unresolved handovers, joining recurrence, pickups, exceptions and follow-through across an authorised cohort.

    Compare the complete cost Request a complete annual PASSport quote including shared Account, Wonde MIS integration for the agreed scope, ordinary hosting and processing, standard setup, updates and remote support. Compare any additional modules or integration charges within your current MIS package, including the work needed to use them. Supplier details · Request your complete annual quote

  2. 02

    Collaborative Learning Manager by Perspective

    CLM foregrounds off-site alternative-provision management across schools, providers and local authorities, joining attendance, safeguarding, progress, finance and provider oversight. PASSport serves a narrower school-operational question that can include on-site interventions, therapy, meetings and pickups.

    Compare the complete cost Request a complete annual PASSport quote including shared Account, Wonde MIS integration for the agreed scope, ordinary hosting and processing, standard setup, updates and remote support. Compare equivalent users, features, integrations and support, including any usage charges, using current written quotes. Supplier details · Request your complete annual quote

Best fit
Pastoral, inclusion and alternative-provision teams coordinating pupils whose expected day departs from the ordinary timetable and who need a fast, shared, permission-filtered period view.
Not intended to replace
The MIS pupil directory or ordinary timetable, statutory attendance register, live location tracking, safeguarding or behaviour casework, provider finance or emergency procedures.

Editorial perspective

The argument behind PASSport.

Pastoral teams often need a fast answer to a narrow question: where is this pupil expected during this period? The danger begins when that operational question expands into a general appetite for pupil data. PASSport is built around the narrower task—and around the discipline required to keep it narrow.

The question arrives at speed

The school day is arranged in periods; pastoral work is frequently arranged in interruptions. A pupil has alternative provision, an intervention, therapy, a meeting or a pickup. A colleague needs to know whether absence from an ordinary lesson is expected.

PASSport brings the permitted non-standard placement into a period-first register so the answer can be checked without reconstructing the day from fragments. That sounds simple. It is simple. The difficulty is preventing a simple tool from becoming something else.

The useful pastoral answer is often a narrow one. Good software resists the urge to make it wider.

Expected location is not observed presence

PASSport records where a pupil should be according to a stated placement. It can record an operational outcome, but it is not live location tracking and does not replace attendance, safeguarding or behaviour systems.

Expected in describes the authority of the schedule. Seen in describes a dated observation. Not seen records an operational check, not a conclusion about motive, conduct or safety.

Period-first means purpose-first

The ordinary timetable belongs to the school's source system. PASSport owns the alternative placement that applies in a stated period: effective dates, recurrence, location, type, movement instructions, exceptions and operational history.

Conflicts must be honest. An every-week placement and a Week A placement cannot silently occupy the same slot. A one-off change should not rewrite the recurring schedule.

Collect less, answer better

There is a persistent fantasy in school technology that usefulness increases with the number of fields imported. PASSport works in the opposite direction. Sensitive casework does not belong in the operational register simply because it exists elsewhere.

This is not privacy purchased at the price of utility. It is utility clarified by purpose: the placement, movement instruction, current operational state and route for follow-up.

Handover turns a check into accountable work

Some questions end when the expected location is confirmed. Others require acknowledgement, escalation, review or closure. PASSport keeps those handovers owned and visible without inventing a free-standing pastoral case file.

PASSport is not an answer to every question about a pupil. Its value lies in answering one urgent question well, preserving the difference between schedule and observation, and making the next responsibility clear.

With and without

Where the work gets lighter.

The point is faster period checks and fewer timetable look-ups when pastoral teams coordinate support for pupils on non-standard timetables.

  • Quicker period checks
  • One view for target cohorts
  • Less cross-referencing

Prepare a target list

Without PASSport
Open or print individual timetables and manually align them against the school day.
With PASSport
Load the approved export and save a filtered pastoral cohort in one visual view.

Check the current period

Without PASSport
Search pupil records or cross-reference several timetable screens during a live pastoral task.
With PASSport
Open the current-period view and see the expected lesson and room for the authorised cohort.

Hand over across the day

Without PASSport
Recreate or annotate lists so another colleague understands the relevant timetable context.
With PASSport
Share the same controlled view and filters without circulating another informal spreadsheet.

Measure it properly. Any published time-saving figure will come from the same task measured before and during a school pilot.

Security · UK GDPR

School data deserves more than a padlock icon.

Security and data protection are part of the product boundary. Certification, school approval and live use remain separate decisions.

Collect less

Define the minimum fields needed for each job, validate imports and avoid copying wider MIS records into the product without a clear purpose.

Control access

Use role-based permissions, least-privilege defaults and auditable administrative actions for data that should not be visible to every member of staff.

Protect and delete

Treat encryption in transit and at rest, tested backups, retention controls and reliable deletion as baseline technical requirements.

Make procurement evidence available

Prepare a clear data map, processing agreement, subprocessor list, retention schedule, technical-measures summary and practical DPIA support before contracting.

School-facing boundary: the school will still need an appropriate lawful basis, privacy information, access policy, retention decisions and—where the risk requires it—a DPIA. The supplier’s job is to make those decisions informed, documented and technically enforceable.