Release notes

Kestrel is released every few days, and this page states what those releases changed for a school: the changes made before launch in one entry, then a few plain changes each month. Each change is grouped under the area of the console it landed in, and the heading of a group links to the chapter of the user guide that explains the area in full.

A change that closed a security weakness is marked. Your account menu names the release your school is running, so the versions stated under each heading are the ones to compare it with. If something you read here does not match what you see, support can tell you which release your school is on.

Kestrel at launch

Kestrel at launch covers 49 releases, v0.0.1 to v0.11.0. 3 changes before launch closed a security weakness, and each is marked below.

Before launch, Kestrel was built release by release into one system for the whole school, and these are the changes a school will notice.

Across Kestrel

Each screen looks and works the same way

Lists, records, forms and settings share one layout, so a screen you have not used before works like the ones you have. On a phone, the areas of the console open from one button.

Signing in and access

Signing in through the school's directory is stricter

A person who signs in through the school's directory reaches only an account that belongs to your school. An email address the directory has not confirmed is refused.Security This change closed a security weakness.

A sensitive action asks for your passkey again

Producing a statutory return, a variation pack for a confirmation of enrolment or the staff import asks you to confirm with your passkey, however recently you signed in. One confirmation covers the next five minutes.Security This change closed a security weakness.

Enrolment

Enrolment follows each application through its stages

Your office sees where each application is, invites a family to an entrance assessment and lets it book a session. A family can ask to start in another year or cancel its own tour booking in the portal.

Attendance

The roll and the kiosk are built for a finger

The roll and the sign-in kiosk work on a touch screen, and the roll names the room and the teacher taking the lesson. A parent explains an absence from the portal.

The family portal

The family portal is drawn for a phone first

Families read their child's page, results and applications as easily on a phone as at a desk. Students read their own calendar, house points and goals.

Connections

A teacher's lessons and meetings work in Outlook

Once your administrator connects the school's Microsoft 365, your staff read their lessons and meetings in Outlook and file an email onto a student's record.

Privacy and safety

An extension cannot get round the limit on reaching the internet

An extension a school installs cannot open a connection of its own. Three loopholes that could have let one get round that limit are now closed.Security This change closed a security weakness.

Smaller fixes and improvements in Timetable and classes, Medical and Billing.