Early warning lists and leadership reports in schools

What an early-warning system in a school really is

"Early warning" can sound like prediction. In a school it should be something simpler: a short list of students where something already recorded suggests the team should look again. It does not diagnose, rank or score students. It points a person at a record, and the person decides.

That distinction matters. A list built on a few plain, visible rules is one staff can explain to a family, a principal or an auditor. A list built on an opaque score is one nobody can explain, and it is easy to over-trust.

Choosing signals that make sense

Good signals have three things in common: they come from information your team already captures, each one has an obvious next step, and they are rare enough that the list stays short.

Common signals Australian schools use include:

• a student says they want to talk to someone, or reports feeling unsafe or very low in a wellbeing check-in
• several low-mood check-ins over a few weeks, rather than one bad day
• a support plan that is not working, as judged by the case manager at review
• a student referred again soon after support ended
• attendance patterns, where your attendance data is reliable and timely

Avoid signals that are mostly noise, such as every behaviour incident, or that could unfairly label groups of students. Write down why each signal is there and review the list of signals once a year.

Running a weekly review

A list nobody looks at can do more harm than having no list, because it creates a record that the school knew and did nothing. Build the review into the week:

1. Fix a time. Fifteen minutes at the start of the weekly wellbeing or student support meeting is enough for most schools.
2. Give every name an owner. Each student on the list gets a named staff member and a next step, even if the next step is "no action needed, because…".
3. Record the decision. Write the outcome in the student's record, not only in meeting minutes.
4. Check last week's actions. Start by looking at what was due, before adding anything new.

The SSG meetings article covers agendas, attendance and action tracking in more depth.

Keeping outstanding actions visible

Most support failures are not missed signals. They are agreed actions that quietly did not happen: a phone call to a family, a consent form, a plan review. A short weekly summary of what is overdue or due soon helps each staff member keep on top of their own list without opening every case.

Keep these summaries free of student names if they go by email. Email is easy to forward and hard to recall. A count of overdue tasks prompts someone to log in. A list of names in an inbox is a privacy risk.

Reporting to leadership without exposing students

Principals and boards need to know whether student support is working: how many referrals, how long students wait, how caseloads are spread, whether support is helping. They rarely need to know who.

When numbers are small, even counts can identify a student. "One Year 9 student referred for safety concerns" may point to one person in a small school. Hide very small numbers and round others before a report leaves the support team. The leadership analytics article suggests indicators worth tracking.

How Descant does it

The student action list

On Descant's reports page, the Student action list brings together students with one or more of these signals:

• a check-in flag that has not been actioned: the student wants to talk, or rated safety or mood low
• three or more low-mood check-ins in the past four weeks
• a support case the case manager has rated "not responding"
• a new support episode opened in the past four weeks for a student who has had support before

Each entry shows the student's name, year level and the signals that put them there, with a link straight to the case or student record. Because it names students, it is visible only to staff who can already see the caseload. It is a list for the support team, not for wider circulation.

The rules are fixed and visible. Descant does not score or predict. It surfaces what your team has already recorded, so a person can decide what happens next.

The outstanding-action digest

Staff with leadership reporting access can switch on a weekly outstanding-action digest by email, choosing the day and time. It is off until someone turns it on. The email contains counts only: tasks assigned, overdue and due in the next seven days, consent follow-ups, and cases with no recorded contact for 21 days or more. Each person's email covers their own tasks and cases, and no email is sent when there is nothing to report. It says plainly that it contains no student names and no attached report. The detail stays in Descant.

Leadership downloads

From the same page, staff with leadership reporting access can download a briefing as a PDF snapshot, a spreadsheet with summary, breakdown and monthly trend sheets, a CSV appendix, or a printable meeting brief. Downloads contain counts, not names. Any count from one to five is withheld, a second figure is withheld where needed so the first cannot be worked out from a total, and other counts are rounded to the nearest five.

See school wellbeing reporting for leaders for what the briefing shows.

Common questions

Does the student action list replace professional judgement? No. It points staff at records worth reviewing. Staff decide what happens next and record it.

Can teachers see the list? Only staff with access to the support caseload can see it, because it names students.

Can we send the downloads to the board? They are designed for that: they contain no names and hide small numbers. Check your school's own rules on what goes to the board.

Start a demo to see the reports page with a made-up school, or read how Descant works from referral to evidence.