Getting Started
Setting up your school
We have kept setting up COMS simple.
- Click Profile in the top right hand corner.
- Click on Calendar to get to your school settings.
Under profile
In School settings
- Upload your logo.
- Add your school name.
- Add the times your school usually starts and closes.
- Add the days in the week that your school is open.
- Click save.
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In Term Management
- Add a term. Your school can work with 2 to 4 different terms.
- Name the school term.
- Add the first day of that term and last day.
By completing your school terms, will configure the days that attendance needs to be taken.
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Additional Holidays
- Add a national, federal or bank holiday.
- Name the holiday.
- Add the date.
By adding additional holidays, this will determine what days attendance needs to be taken.
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Setting up your classes
To create a new class:
- Click on the left hand navigation panel under records.
- Click the Add Class icon on the top right hand cormer.
Add your class details.
- Add the name of your class.
- Select your class type. This is important, because this can’t be edited later.
- Select guide(s) responsible for your class.
- Select assistant(s) if applicable.
An important feature of COMS is that the curriculum framework is set around the class type. For example the 3 to 6 class is based on a 3 year learning cycle for the Child.
There are 5 class types:
- Infant – also known as the Nido phase that typically covers a learning framework from 3 months to 12/18 months
- Toddler – typically covers children from 12/18 months to 3 years.
- 3 to 6 – covers a 3 year cycle from 3 years of age, also known as Primary or the Childrens House
- 6 to 9 – covers a 3 year cycle from 6 years old, also known as Lower Elementary.
- 9 to 12 – covers a 3 year cycle from 9 years, also known as Upper Elementary
Edit your class details. In the class records, you will have an overview of all of your classes.
By clicking on edit, you will be able to change the name of your class, or change the guide or assistant details.
You will also be able to make the class inactive.
Adding children
In order to add children to your account, navigate to Child under Records and the select Add Child in the top right hand corner.
In order to create a Child, the following fields are required.
- First & Last Name
- Select a Class
- Age Band
One of the unique features about COMS is that activity lessons are laid out over a 3 year cycle. Because the activities are presented in a progression, a suggest age band is indicated for each activity.
This doesn’t mean that the Child cannot work on an activity originally intended for a child a year younger or older, it is only a recommendation.
Therefore, the following age bands apply:
3 to 6 years:
- C1 activity – introduced at 3-4 years of age
- C2 activity – introduced at 4-5 years of age
- C3 activity – introduced at 5-6 years of age
6 to 9 years:
- L1 activity – introduced at 6-7 years of age
- L2 activity – introduced at 7-8 years of age
- L3 activity – introduced at 8-9 years of age
9 to 12 years:
- U1 activity – introduced at 9-10 years of age
- U2 activity – introduced at 10-11 years of age
- U3 activity – introduced at 11-12 years of age
There are other fields that can be updated, which are purely informative and related to the child, such as Date of Birth, Health details.
If you would like to give COMS access to your Child’s guardian, you will need to add their email address.
Adding a Guide and/or assistant
In order to add a Guide or an Assistant, navigate to Guide or Assistand under Records on the left hand panel.
Click the Orange circle in the top right hand corner to add a new Guide.
Follow the same instructions to create an Assistant, except navigate to Assistant under Records and folow the same steps.
Add the first and last name of the Guide.
If would like your Guide to access COMS, add the email address. Please note that once you add their email address, the Guide will receive an email notification with their login details and password.
Assign the class that the Guide will be responsible for.
Note that the Guide will have access to only the class that they are assigned to, which enables them to Plan, Present and Observe their activities.
The same above steps are followed for Assistants, except they are only able to make Observations and not Plan or Present activities.
Setting up your lesson activities
In order to set up the activities for your school account, we have prepolutated an extensive list of Master Activity lessons per stage.
Navigate to Activities under records.
You can then filter by Stage, Activity Type, Category (Topic) or Age Band.
You can also search for an activity.
If you prefer to not present an activity, you can make an activity inactive, which will then not be available for your Guide to present or make an observation.
By clicking on the Eye icon for a specific activity will display the details of that activity, including the description, outcomes, mastery criteria, associated exercises and in some cases a YouTube video resource.
By clicking on the Pencil (edit activity) icon, you will be able to create and edit a lesson plan for your activity, which will be display on the previous screen.
Setting up your own activities
By clicking Add New Activity, you will be able to create your own activities unique to your school.
