Data guidelines
Synergetic Guidelines for Names and Addresses
Roles and Responsibilities
One key person for each constituency
Constituency | Person responsible | Role | Area of the School | Comment |
@PC (Current Parents) | Georgina Hayes | Secondary School Reception | SS Reception | |
@SC (Current Student) | Georgina Hayes | Seconday School Reception | SS Reception | |
@PF (Future Parents) | Overseen by Rebecca Darling (Admissions Coordinator) | |||
@SF (Future Student) | Overseen by Rebecca Darling (Admissions Coordinator) | |||
Full Fee paying students (both Current & Future) | Lynn Bullock | Admissions Assistant – International Students | Admissions | |
@SP (Past Student) | Kate Birrell | Alumni and Community Manager | Alumni | |
@STF (Current Staff) | Fiona Kerr | Payroll and Financial Accounts Coordinator | Accounts | |
Suppliers | Accounts Payable | |||
Wider BGS Community other CP, Staff and Suppliers | Emily Ianuali | Development Office Manager | Development Office |
Guidelines when creating or changing names on the Synergetic database.Please note: If a contact has multiple constituencies with one of them being ‘Current Parent’ – the ‘Current Parent’ will over-ride all others and be directed to Georgina Hayes.
- Names are entered into the Synergetic database as per what is on the birth certificate / enrolment form.
- The Preferred Formal field where possible should be populated with the Preferred Name.
- From time to time, the Display Names will need to be altered if someone wants to be known at school with a different surname (to their legal surname).
- Instances have arisen where students want to use a different surname day to day in school than their ‘legal name’.
- Any changes to their ‘Legal Name’ must be made by Clare Smith (Coordinator of Academic Records and Reporting) to ensure it is reflected correctly for Academic Reporting and VCE enrolments. Override Legal Name’ field in Synergetic is used to record their ‘legal name’.
- The ‘legal name’ (as per their birth certificate) will appear on formal reports and during VCE will be recorded on VASS and will appear on final VCE certificates.
- Names can only be changed on formal reports or on VASS with legal name change documentation.
Hints and Tips
- First letter in UPPERCASE and rest in lowercase
- No special characters except Apostrophe, hyphens and single spaces are allowed for Double‐Barrelled Surnames
- No Leading or trailing spaces within names
- No brackets
- No additional spaces between Double‐Barrelled names
Guidelines when creating or changing address and/or phone numbers on the Synergetic database.
Australian Addresses – Entry into the Home Address tab Occupation Address tab
- Abbreviations are not used, e.g. Street is expressed as “Street”, not “St.”, Road is “Road”, not Rd.”, etc.
- Where possible the Building/Complex Sub Unit should be located on the same line as the Street Name, positioned before the House/Property Number.
- The Floor/Level is positioned as the first item, located on the same line as the House/Property Number and Street Name. However, it can be placed on a separate address line, above the line containing the House/Property Number and Street Name, if necessary.
- Complete Suburb, State and Postcode fields for Australian addresses only. The Suburb field must not include countries or numbers. Postcodes for all Australian addresses must be entered. If in doubt, please check Australia Post website.
- Suburb is named before East, West, North, or South, e.g. “Malvern East”, not “East Malvern”. The exceptions being East, West, North, and South of a capital city, e.g. “South Melbourne”, not “Melbourne South”, “North Perth”, not “Perth North”.
- For all Australian addresses the country field must be completed.
- Punctuation should be avoided, with the exception of ‘‐’ or ‘/’
Invalid Address
- Incorrect addresses, ‘uncheck’ the valid address field (see process below for Returned Mail).
Name / Address Changes
- If any address changes through a telephone conversation (in writing is preferred / Current Parents should be encouraged to use ‘Synportal’ for updates) or there is something you feel explains an ‘Action’ to a name / address change please enter your initial, date, and a reference comment (please ensure to put contact method phone call / email / letter / conversation), for example,CS 16052016 phone ca// / Comment
- This should be added into the ‘Comms’ tab in Community / Development / Current / Past or Future students to ensure everyone has access to it. Use discretion in using the Comms tab; only in circumstances where community members are keen not to receive any further mail, updates are given over the phone or you feel an explanation is required to explain a change.
- This field has been selected as it is the only ‘Common’ field across all areas of Synergetic.
- Leave the ‘Communication’ drop box empty.
Returned Mail
- All returned mail comes back to SS reception.
- Casual reception staff follow up on returned mail with a telephone call / email.
- Mark on the returned mail the correct address and the action taken (time and date called / initials).
- Pass the updated address information to the appropriate area of the school. If contact is unable to be made, then mark this and the address can be ‘unchecked’ as a Valid Address by the appropriate area.
- Future rdarling@brightongrammar.vic.edu.au (Rebecca Darling)
- Current contactdetails@brightongrammar.vic.edu.au (Georgina Hayes)
- Past kbirrell@brightongrammar.vic.edu.au (Kate Birrell)
- Once addresses have been followed up if the mail please pass the mail back to the sender letting them know addresses have been updated so the mail can be resent if required.
Email Addresses
- No duplicate emails between parents. Add the email address into the Mother’s record and make a note in the Father’s record;
- Phone tab / Web Site URL field
- Initials / Date 16052016 / PARENTS SHARE EMAIL ADDRESS – DO NOT ENTER DUPLICATE
This also prevents us from contacting parents unnecessarily when we are following up where we do not have email addresses for parents. - Default emails need to be Home Email or Occupation Email NOT both (this causes significant issues with their network login for Synportal / Hub).
‘Bounce back’ Email Addresses
- If you do not have time to follow up ‘Bounce’ back emails, then please send them to the appropriate area for follow up;
- Future rdarling@brightongrammar.vic.edu.au (Rebecca Darling)
- Current contactdetails@brightongrammar.vic.edu.au (Georgina Hayes)
- Past kbirrell@brightongrammar.vic.edu.au (Kate Birrell)
- Current Parents takes precedent over Future / Past.
- Future Parents takes precedent over Past.
- If you have some time (to help share the load) please follow up bounce back emails and notify the correct person of the updated email address as appropriate.
Phone numbers – Entry into the Phone tab and Occupation tab
- The set out for phone and fax numbers is XXXX XXXX, the “03” is not to be entered for Victorian phone numbers, but must be entered for all interstate numbers, i.e. XX XXXX XXXX.
- The format for Australian Mobile Phone numbers is XXXX XXX
- All phone fields must not include letters, punctuation, etc
- Overseas telephone numbers should include the area code, e. “852 2598 6166”. 0011 should not be entered. Try to set out with spaces, especially after the country code and area code part of phone number; these are usually obvious from the way the phone number has been provided. If number is too long to fit in the field, omit the spaces.
Overseas Addresses – Entry into the Home Address tab and Occupation Address tab
- Complete entire address (except Country) in Lines 1‐3
- For overseas addresses enter the Postcode in the Suburb field. Leave the State and Postcode fields blank.
- The country name must be entered in the Country field of the address; even for Australian addresses.
- Select appropriate Country from the drop down menu.
Other things to note:
- Updates required to parent’s status in Synergetic must be sent to Head of MIS (Thivi Athipar) to be actioned.
- Notification needs to be made in writing by parents, an email is sufficient.
- Bear in mind that this has implications on Accounts and the distribution of fee statements / Debtors.
- Do we need a formal process when we become aware of parents separating?
- Notification received verbally / by email
- Follow up by Head of School / Deputy Head of School / Form Teacher (JS) / Tutor (UC/SS) / Someone else?
- Enquire regarding the following;
- New addresses for both parents (where applicable)
- Who is the student living with?
- Clarify both parents to receive mail and reports
- Any special arrangements we need to be aware of
- Any change to the billing arrangements
Miscellaneous
- Punctuation is not to be entered in the Address fields, for example: ‘P.O. Box’ should be entered as ‘PO Box’.
- Unit, Flat or Apartment Addresses should be entered as: ‘Unit 1/205 St Kilda Road’
- Office Suite addresses to be entered as:
- Line 1: Suite 3
- Line 2: Level 5 205 St Kilda Road
Please note that two spaces are required between Level 5 and 205 St Kilda Road
- All parents (future and current) must have a home
- If mail is returned, please endeavour to follow up the correct address. This is particularly critical for Current Parents / Current Students. Do not leave it ‘Address Unknown’.
- PO Box Addresses are not to be entered in Home address fields for current and future parents, but into the Postal Address
- Ensure that there are no spaces before or after a field
- When changing an overseas address to an Australian address, please take notice of the country field and remove the entry and vice versa.
- Do not enter ‘As mobile’ in a phone field, or ‘as home address’ into another address field.
- Do not enter data that is not complete, i.e. if there is a digit missing from a phone number it should not be entered. If possible it should be followed up and the correct phone number entered.
- The same goes for email addresses; if it is apparent that the email address is incorrect, do not enter the address. If possible it should be followed up and the correct email address entered.