Overview
What is Orah?
Boardingware, headquartered in Auckland, offers their student management system for boarding schools, built around managing the needs particular to boarding schools, such as student care and student tracking.
Boardingware: Great for Boarding Schools
Boardingware - safety for the school and the boys.
Boardingware review
Boardingware brings peace of mind!
Best product on the market as of this review!
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Orah?
The suite includes:
Supervise - To simplify attendance and track student involvement
Keeping track of where students are shouldn't be difficult, no matter how necessary it is. Supervise provides solutions for attendance, sign-in and permission workflows.
Coordinate - To organise activities and events with speed and precision
Coordinate organises student activities and events so you can focus on creating the best experiences for your students.
Nurture - To prioritise student well-being and help students succeed
It's hard to know what's happening inside a developing mind. Nurture offers tools to monitor and analyse student well-being, to ensure they get the support they need.
Safeguard - To minimise risk and increase student safety
Safeguard helps mitigate risk and uphold safeguarding responsibilities with effective emergency response and risk planning
Orah Competitors
Orah Technical Details
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
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Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
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Reviews and Ratings
(6)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
Boardingware is a versatile software that meets the diverse needs of schools and boarding houses. Users have found it invaluable for tracking students' locations and movements, especially in a hybrid learning model where students may be on or off-campus. The software simplifies the process of conducting daily symptom checks and collecting information, eliminating the need for shared Google sheets and email blasts. It also consolidates all records in one place, making communication about staff much easier through the Pastoral Notes feature.
In addition to streamlining daily operations, Boardingware helps with managing student leave and submitting plans in advance. Multiple teachers can check in a group together, and supervisors can easily see the status of check-ins. The software replaces manual methods like paper and pencil for tracking student locations, making it more efficient and accessible for both staff and students. It has been particularly helpful for roll and bed checks in schools with a large number of students.
Boardingware offers convenience for parents too, as it facilitates uniform and standardized information entry for parent and student-initiated checkouts. From weekend activities to off-campus trips, the software integrates seamlessly, enabling attendance tracking and last-minute adjustments. Users also find it valuable for monitoring student leave patterns and potential absences, helping them identify trends effectively.
Furthermore, Boardingware assists schools in their duty of care towards students by enhancing safety measures. It simplifies the management of medical care, emergency roll calls, and administering medical attention when necessary. By reducing paper usage and ensuring accurate records, Boardingware improves efficiency while providing accountability and security.
The software extends its benefits beyond school administration to parents who gain peace of mind knowing where their children are at any given time. With improved communication channels between home, school, and students, Boardingware enhances safeguarding measures while streamlining processes such as overnight stays, headcount checks, and permission management.
Overall, Boardingware proves to be an essential tool for schools seeking effective student management, safety, accountability, and time-saving solutions. Its wide range of use cases demonstrates its versatility in meeting the specific needs of boarding houses and schools alike.
Versatility in tracking student locations and conducting COVID symptom checks: Many users have praised Boardingware for its versatility in tracking the locations of both day students and boarders. It has been highly effective in conducting regular COVID symptom checks, ensuring the safety of all students.
User-friendly visual interface with easy-to-use filters: The visual interface of Boardingware has received high praise from users for being user-friendly and easy to navigate. The ability to see all students at a glance, coupled with the use of intuitive filters, has made it extremely convenient for administrators to manage student data.
Real-time response feature during emergencies: Users love the real-time response feature in Boardingware, which allows everyone to quickly indicate their safety during emergencies. This feature has provided peace of mind to both students and parents, knowing that help can be easily requested and coordinated when needed.
Confusing User Interface: Many users have found the user interface of Boardingware to be confusing and time-consuming to familiarize with, making tasks difficult and causing frustration.
Issues with Data Saving and Access: Users frequently encounter difficulties accessing shared roll calls and experience issues with information not being saved due to internet access or connection problems. This can lead to data loss and a lack of reliability in the software.
Limited Customization Options: Some users have expressed a desire for the ability to apply filters to live rolls for specific groups or houses. The current lack of customization options in Boardingware limits its adaptability to different school settings and requirements.
Users have recommended several strategies for maximizing the use of Boardingware. Firstly, they advise utilizing the account manager for technical support and any questions that may arise. Secondly, taking advantage of the support sessions available at startup is highly recommended. Lastly, users suggest planning a few weeks of training before implementing the software to ensure a smooth transition. By following these recommendations, users believe that Boardingware can effectively manage all aspects of student life in boarding schools.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-5 of 5)Boardingware: Great for Boarding Schools
- Keeping all information organized in one place.
- Having my entire student database at the touch of a screen.
- It often freezes or stalls. In an emergency it could potentially be an issue.
- I wish that I could put class schedules in.
- I sometimes feel it is not worth the price.
- I believe it needs to cater more towards helping teachers within the classroom.
Boardingware - safety for the school and the boys.
- Captures roll calls.
- At a glance, one can see if students are on campus.
- Ease of use.
- I would like to see all parents having to capture weekend arrangements, whether they are going out or staying in.
- An automatic reminder SMS sent to parents who have not made arrangements by a certain time.
- We are able to manage the weekend and weekly sign outs of boarders. We are also able to store this information ion the cloud in case it is ever needed in the future.
- Parents are able to manage their sons where abouts and also have the knowledge that they know where their boys are on the weekends
- Housemasters are protected if they follow procedures in case of a boarder missing a roll call and has not signed out.
Boardingware review
- User-friendly interface. One doesn't need to really even use the tutorials if they don't want to.
- Customer service - I've never gone more than 24 hrs without an issue being resolved. Usually it's much less than that.
- Constant improvements and expansion. The program keeps growing without the need to change what we're doing. There are improvements that are helpful, but we're not forced to use them if they are not actually useful or needed. This is a great asset.
- The only thing I've thought of is that more space for a larger photo on the student's profile would be helpful. Other than this they need to just keep doing what they are doing.
Accountability of students from any location
Accountability of students from any device
Not sure what it would be less suited for as it fits our needs perfectly.
- We were tracking student leave by hand or by an in-house program. Both of these became inefficient and/or unusable. Having Boardingware has expedited the process. It's hard to give numbers, but we're several days ahead of where we used to be in terms of tracking students' leave for Thanksgiving break.
- Parent involvement was always an issue, but with Boardingware parents must approve a leave before we (the school) does. This makes parents take responsibility for their child which happens less than it should.
- Having access to flagged students with health issues makes it much easier to plan field trips. We can easily know who should have what meds or epi pens based on their Boardingware profile. Safety awareness and prevention has gone up due to this feature.
Boardingware brings peace of mind!
- Allows for all important information to be kept in one place.
- Their app allows every faculty member to access information from anywhere.
- They have been responsive to our feedback.
- Their updates sometimes lead to loss of functionality.
- It is hard to put a number on it because the reason behind implementing Boardingware was for safety and convenience. I do think it does help the school and the program to be less liable.
Best product on the market as of this review!
- Boardingware does an exceptional job of listening to its constituents, both administrators and parents alike, and adding or adjusting things accordingly to meet the needs of those that use their product.
- Boardingware does an incredible job of having a simplified student and parent user experience with apps specific to those users. The full program is incredibly powerful, and can be confusing for those not trained in its use, so to have these separate and specified apps do a wonderful job of creating a positive experience for the end users.
- Boardingware is great at being a reliable application with features that allow for consistency and accountability on all ends. It is quickly becoming our primary platform for all record keeping in the residential life program.
- Boardingware does depend on quite a bit of buy-in from the student end to be used to its fullest, and as with any product aimed about both adults and teenagers, that can take multiple academic years to cultivate regular use.
- Boardingware is a "power user" program on the staff end, which means it is an incredibly powerful tool that has a lot of options. This depth can also make some of the menus or information a little bit difficult to find or understand. The need for training is a strong one, and retraining is often necessary even for veteran users.
- The price is of course always a factor, but when considering the ease of mind for parents and staff, as well as a consistent understanding of where students are, the return is exceptional for this investment.