How to add new houses to the STEER platform

Why am I seeing the error message: 'House values have changed'

When STEER attempts to import student data, it sometimes finds that there are new houses which don't match those from previous years. As this is often not intentional, we block these imports and give you the chance to confirm that you are happy with the change.

Potential reasons for this include:

1. New houses have actually been created at the school or are being tracked for the first time.

2. Houses in the school have actually changed names

3. Houses have been spelt slightly differently on your MIS/Wonde or CSV file.

4. A different house type setting has been chosen in the STEER import settings.

What should you do next?

Although we normally import student data automatically; to resolve this issue you need to complete a student import manually. Don't worry, you can still use Wonde (if you use it) and it's still very quick and easy.

You can do this by going this link:

https://steer.global/platform/edu/ast-next/admin/new-year-setup/import-students?origin=/admin/data-management

or by going to:

Admin --> Data Management --> Import Students

Make sure to use the import button which looks like this, not the 'sync now' button.

When you attempt to import you will see an error on the final screen which says your houses have changed. There is a "resolve" button which will show you the list of new houses.

 

As you can see in the example below, you will be able to see the new houses and approve them using the button at the bottom of the page.

After doing that, you can complete the import. If your school uses Wonde, we will now return to automatically importing your student data.

🚨 However, there are some some important steps you need to take after that! Read the rest of this article to find out.

What steps do you need to take next?

1️⃣  Inform STEER

Changing houses might seem simple from your side, but it's actually quite complicated under the hood. Letting us know will help us to ensure your data is in good order.

 

2️⃣  Update your permissions

This is really important. After adding a new house, none of your staff are going to automatically have access to the data of the students in that house. Somebody with access to the permissions page (admin users) needs to update it accordingly. 

Even staff who previously were not limited by house, are now only going to have permission to see the old houses, which will be shown like this: 

So, you need to go through all the staff and make sure it matches the new houses.

Here are some tips:

If staff are meant to see everybody, you can simply flip this switch again:

If staff are limited by some other setting (eg. Year Group) when you can simply clear the new house permission. That will enable them to see all houses again.

We understand that this is a bit complicated and may feel unnecessary, so are working on an update which will be released in the Christmas break 2024.

We are happy to support you through the process and resolve any doubts. Please reach needed!