Boardingware Reviews

I like the fact that Boardingware can promt you to have conversations with students and parents over their leave requests giving you the value of insight and monitoring leave. It also provides a highly convenient way for keeping you informed of your student's whereabouts when you have 101 other matters to be concerned about. In short, it help me maintain peace of mind...and not having to continuously trawl through e-mails or permission slips.

I don't like the fact that it can be complicated for parents to use and understand initially.

Make use of the support sessions available at Startup

Managing student leave during the week and at weekends.

- Monitor student's leave and potential absence.

- Keep an eye on and spot trends in leave patterns.

- Simple (once parents have the hang of it) and effective way of approving leave and comings and goings.

- Registering students at times during the day.

This program immensely helps facilitate the boarding life at school. The program is easy to learn, aided by the offerings of online training sessions. You can keep records of students' health conditions, disciplinary occurrences, general notes, see parental permissions, and keep track of their late or timely departures and arrivals from campus. Taking roll is a quick easy process with student lists created for different situations.

On occasion, I have noticed issues of not being able to access shared roll calls or information not being saved due to internet access/connection; however, I would say I have experienced few issues with this program.

Boardingware overall has helped our residential faculty awareness of all students' whereabouts, habits, any health issues (getting sick, etc.) and noting parent permissions. This enables our community to have access to up to date information in between our regular meetings, which also facilitates our duty rotations so no information is lost. It is a great resource for us to look back and notice any conditions that might need addressing, or to reward students for their responsible behaviors and leadership.

The communication and accountability boost Boardingware provides us is huge. All our residential faculty and administrators know where all our children are all the time, up to the minute.

The information shared between parents and students is not always as transparent as we'd like, especially as a junior boarding school. Specifically, if parents aren't included in the workflow of an event leave, parents they have to use a workaround to see what events students signed up for.

We began the year with the rollout, and gradually phased in additional features/tasks within the first two months. Incrementally building this way was instrumental to our faculty buy-in.

Our parent and student-initiated checkouts are much more streamlined now. In the past, the ResLife office would field emails, phone calls, and texts relating to travel information. Now, parents are able to enter all necessary information in a uniform, standardized way, and the feedback from all parties has been really positive.

We've also integrated Boardingware into all our weekend activities/trips. As context, we have 100 boarders, ages 10-15, and we send 20-25 "trips" out-- both on campus and off-- every weekend. Between these faculty-led activities and students checking out to go home for the weekend, we process on average 270 checkouts per weekend. Our residential faculty are now able to pull rosters quickly and accurately for attendance, and any last minute adjustments are easy to make.

Boardingware is a game changer, period.

Ease of use for student accountability & maintaining logs for retrieving student leave.

Experienced a few glitches at the outset, but these were all corrected quickly and we've not experienced any for the last couple years.

There may be other programs, but for us Boardingware has been perfect. It not only keeps updating its product, but the staff are extremely helpful and kind.

We needed a better method to track student whereabouts as well as process the leave requests when students left campus. Using Boardingware has made this process much faster, more time efficient, and gives the ability to access logs for a much longer history without having to keep a hard copy paper trail.

I love knowing where all my students are at any given time. I appreciate how easy it is to set up new leaves, sign kids in and out. We don't have hundred of students, but even if we did I do think Boardingware would be beneficial to a school of any size or caliber.

I feel like it often glitches or won't load the moments when I need it most, or need it to work faster. I do think that for some age groups of co-workers it took a long time for them to learn it simply because they are not as familiar with technology. However, I have changed some thing, which I appreciate having the ability to do, in order to make it easier for them to navigate the system. I also dislike that it is not really geared towards school who also have day students. While yes, there are ways to use it for day students it takes a lot of extra work on our part.

It will cover almost all of your basic needs at a private school and will make your days a lot easier. I think it is great!

Where students are at any given time. Not having to worry about a person who is specifically taking care of travel plans - it is all on Boardingware.

Boardingware has allowed our school to go away from some of the paper usage for a typical week, while increasing communication between our dorm staff and day staff. Any administrator, teacher, or dorm staff can find out where a student is quickly, or know if they are not in the right place. It allows the school to keep a record of every time a student is out due to illness, field trip, sporting event, or off campus function.

The only negative I have truly encountered is in the check out system. Any sign outs must be done over 15-20 prior to sign out or the system signs out the student automatically. Example, leaving at 3:00, if you enter the data after 2:40, they will be signed out automatically. before 2:40, the entry awaits the proper procedure.

If you are part of a boarding school, give it a test run.

The Boardingware system has allowed my office to cut down on paper usage on a daily basis by keeping everything electronic. It also keeps a accurate records of all data entry that otherwise could be misplaced, or lost.

1. Boardingware is immediate. Once we confirm information in one part - it becomes immediately available to all users so we know what’s going on in real time.

2. Boardingware is user-friendly. Our school staff and students all understand how to use the software, and it is available on multiple platforms for convenience.

3. Boardingware is customizable. Any school can adjust the categories and conditions for management of its students.

It’s hard to say what I dislike because usually when there is a problem with the system, Boardingware’s staff is quick to respond and roll out new solutions.

We are able to make trips and other off-campus activities much more manageable by keeping everyone aware of student participation. Also for international student leaves we are now able to confirm the location of the person giving permission for the leave. This helps us be sure that emails and permissions that come to us from international parents really do originate from those locations and not from within our own school area.

While there are some aspects I would still like to see improved, I find that Boardingware is very handy for keeping records for student location with our private school.

One of the aspects I would like to see improved is the ability to apply a filter to a live roll so that when one person creates a live roll for the while school, I can filter to the specific house or group that I am attending to.

Giving every faculty member the ability to find out where a student is be they on or off campus is a big benefit when there is any kind of emergency.

I love that I can use my phone to check where students are going at any time of the day. I also love that I can see their leave histories to check who they are going out with and where they frequently go.

The thing I dislike the most is that when we have spotty wi-fi or data, it just stops working. Also there's been some issues with "Live Roll" where it would crash and I would lose the entire roll. In addition, I do not like the fact that there is no feature where students can put in a "Holiday Leave" that has multiple destinations and hosts for those destinations. Currently I have my students put in separate Holiday Leaves for each destination they go to which can be a hassle.

Accountability and security.

The Boardingware program is a great tool for keeping track of where our students are and where they are going. It is intuitive and easy to use. They are always work to improve the software in order to make the experience more user-friendly.

It took many of our students and faculty to get their heads around how to use Boardingware.

We use it for boarding school in order to track our students and check them in and out at check-in times

As the app has developed they have used our feedback to create additional capabilities that meet our growing needs. The team has been incredibly responsive with troubleshooting issues, even with a 12 hour time different between our locations.

Shockingly, [read: sarcasm] this web-based platform is dependent on wifi connection. This is sometimes an issue as our connectivity on campus can be less than reliable.

We are able to monitor our students and communicate with parents about permissions very effectively.

The system, although a technical solution, puts student safety first. It allows for easy communication between students, home and school thus promoting a positive school culture. It also allows for efficient check in and headcount. This is particularly important in an emergency situation. The Boardingware team are also great at listening to both support and consider future improvements to the system.

That we did not think of this before 2017.

Get onboard with a team dedicated to keeping students safe and dedicated to continuous improvement with the product.

Greater communication between students, home and school. Improved safeguarding. Improved process for overnight stays and very efficient head count checks. We now know where our students are 24/7.

User friendly for all parties and increased accountability

Needs a better interface for large TV screens. The old web app leave board allows up to have around 40 students on the screen at once but could do with some refinements / updates.

Easy to implement, functional and will soon become an integral part of your management system

Time effective, less paper trail, more convenient for staff, students and parents, access to pertinent records/information on the go

My favorite thing about Boardingware is how it appeals to visual learners.

I dislike that the data for some groups has to be manually entered, as we rotate required dinner table groups and our Culinary Faculty Supervisor has to manually enter 200 names every 2-3 weeks. I also dislike how VASTLY different it looks for Apple products versus Android, making training documents VERY hard to create.

Plan a few weeks of training and use time before it becomes live with your students. Very hard to play catch up after a few days of not requiring fac and students not to use it, so give time for getting everyone up to speed or they view it as optional and you spend whole year unteaching bad habits

We are able to care for and keep track of our students and their habits more effectively using Boardingware. The benefit of having information at my fingertips (Staff App) is huge as a person who is mobile throughout the day (no set classroom or office so no desktop or laptop).

I love the accessibility of boardingware. As a weekend administrator on duty who is also a dorm parent it is so convenient to be on my dorm and to be able to see where all of our other students are or to have access to contact information if we need to track them down. It is also great having the phone app for athletic travel.

I would love to be able to see groups of students signed out together so that we can bettie monitor if they sign back in together or if there are changes in the patters of their travel. This is something we were able to do on our old paper model and it was often influential in monitoring potential disciplinary issues.

We've had a bunch easier time keeping track of our students. Boardingware is also very accessible to our students.

Getting easier. Easy for parents to submit passes. Less wasted paper

Parents don't call to confirm plans (need to...just in case students know their log-in). Difficult for parents to get started (different skill level with computers). Binder was easier.

The Boardingware Staff App on my personal phone keeps crashing every time I try to access the requests.

Co-workers aren't as good at figuring it out.

Admin has real-time information

Boardingware is a very professional application that does the job much better than a paper-based system. It is not a difficult programme to learn to use and with the phone app you can even do it on your phone for convenience.

There is nothing I dislike about Boardingware.

It is a programme that lets you do a lot more in a very small amount of time.

Keeping a track on boarder whereabouts is key. You can always go back and have a look at any rolls done etc. The record is always there! Parents submit leave rather than us chasing up, which we used to.

I like the page set up.Makes it easy to see all students at a glance.Information at your fingertips(no more trawling through pages in folders etc).

1.If the site crashes need hard copy back up.2.Changes in face page format as it takes a while to familiarise.3.A shared office computer not ideal as logging in and out important to remember especially if personal information is added under the incorrect user name.4.More time sitting at computer not healthy.5.Less personal interaction with clients.

Benefits : parents can see communication online instantly. Girls can sign up for leave more easily.

The software is able to handle all of the ins and outs of boarding school life.

The ios app and the iPad app and the web version all look/feel different from one another.

We did a 3 month trial to see if it was right for us. Give it time. It takes a while to learn all of the features and implement it with your students.

We now provide better service to our boarding families and timely notification of when their child leaves campus for an hour or for a day.

Our staff loves that we can use it from our computers and our phones.

I hope that someday it will integrate with our SIS.

Keeping track of students when they come and go from campus; tracking the administration of medicare; emergency roll call for fire and other drills.

We love boardingware as it gives great access and insight to our students movements and needs, also links our families well to keep in touch with leave requirements.

It changes wuite often the look and sometimes the functions, but once you get used to the new functions or looks they are better than previous.

Benefits of having medical patterns/histories and leave patterns etc. Really managing to get a great look at the care of our residents and if a pattern emerges with pastoral needs etc.

An effective, accesible solution supported by motivated and friendly staff at a young, dynamic company eager to learn and grow.

It doesn't sych with PowerSchool but it does with toher whole school information systems, for example iSAMS

It's a no brainer

Student travel, movement and registration

Having everything in one place and being able to find whatever I need right when I need it.

Constant look-and-feel and functionality upgrades are much appreciated but occasionally lead to confusion as information moves, gestures/button presses change, etc.

In short, we are collecting and controlling information about students to a greater degree than was ever possible before—leading to gains in efficiency, safety, and time that can be bettter used getting to know the students well rather than hounding them about this and that.

All records are easily accessible. The system provides the platform for necessary information to be available to all stakeholders through clear processes

Not being able to customize fields specifically for our Boarding House

I highly recommend Boardingware as a very satisfactory system for managing leave and pastoral processes in a Boarding House

Security of data history relating to student leave; accessibility of information by parents/caregivers and staff. Boardingware has provided a higher level of interactive communication between Hostel staff, boarders and their parents/caregivers

Parents can view their child's whereabouts. We can see who the 'leave' went through (staff/parents). Everything in one place.

Language when building forms a little complicated. Rolls could be managed differently as could the Dining room details.

Safety is paramount, so this is helping us keep an eye on things.

We can approve leave quickly without major fuss.

Time saving! Not as much time looking through emails etc - everything is in one place.

I like that it is relatively easy to use, making it easy for us to account for all of our students. It’s definitely better than managing the students using paper sign in and sign out procedures.

I would like to be able to specify who my notifications are sent to and which ones I receive. I would like to just receive them for my dorm, but not the ones for all the other dorms. It would also be useful if we could message students within the app.

We use it to account for all of our students. The benefit is, if used correctly, we always no where the students are.

The ease of access of various rolls. The interface is much more attractive than it used to be.

Still sometimes freezes and I have to restart.

Keeping track of where our students are.

The ability to have all the information of what happens in the dorm in one place.

I would like to have the ability to send push notifications to students from the app.

It allows all my staff to be in the loop about what it is transpiring in the dorm. Sickness, discipline notes, where students are, etc. All that information is a couple of clicks away.

Most important for me was the ease that I can maneuver through the app and how easy it is to teach others.

The program seems to send out an auto invite when I publish the event. I would like to see controls and choices before I send anything out.

This enables us to run our school's orientation smoother and edit on the fly as needed.

Ease of use, keeps records in the cloud. Secure and security for oneself, parents and staff members

Doesn't send a reminder to parents who have not signed out. Need a "repeat" sign out box so parents don't have to do each week, unless they need to edit. Each boy parent should either sign boys out or in, but must happen.

Keeps records in the cloud

The system is easy to use and allows parents, staff and students to be fully informed particularly in regard to leave requests.

Nil

Think the programme is suitable. I do not use this now that it is installed and the staff are proficient.

I thoroughly recommend Boardingware to other Boarding Schools looking to manage all aspects of their students on one platform.

Student Management

They are very responsive to our needs in terms of working with us to develop new features that better suit our program.

Nothing comes to mind. I need 40 characters.

We are a school, so it isn't so much a "business", but it is helping us keep better track of our students and make sure that they have permission to travel off campus.

The interface is very easy to use and clear. Students, parents and staff use it with no problems. It is also possible to customise so that it matches our specific school requirements.

Not much. Sometimes you need some practice to find the right options.

Students signing in and out of the boarding house. Parents requesting weekend leaves.

We, as a school, have used Boardingware for the last 18 months and have been very impressed with the product. The team are always looking to improve and will listen to feedback given in order to deliver a high quality piece of software. The product itself has allowed us to save time, be more efficient and make better decisions. Thoroughly impressed and pleased. Will continue to use.

Not much! A few glitches appear on the Android app with formatting and viewing.

Time saving! Saves so much time and admin cost. Very easy to use.

Boys have adapted very successfully to boardingware.

Excellent back up service by the staff of Boardingware

Parents have quickly adapted and have commented on the ease of signing their sons out.

The extra areas such as profiles, pastoral care have been brilliant in helping staff write reports

Can't say there is anything as it has made our lives much easier in regard to leave management, pastoral and accountability

The main one would be the accountability, in regard to the students where abouts at all times. Safety of the students is paramount.

I like the ability to show the boarding parents which children are in the library after school hours because the students have to sign in online.

Nothing so far. I do not use the program extensively, so I really do not have enough experience with it to make a clear argument.

N/A

I liked that it was an easy to use app. I also liked that you could see the pictures of the kids. However, if the pictures were bigger it would be more helpful.

I didn't like that you couldn't msg the students via the app.

Tracking where students are is very helpful.

It doesnt matter how silly the question there is always someone ready to help... without judgement!

this. questionnaire.. I am in Boarding School and a my role is a senior care giver

Pastoral notes are really helpful to all staff particularly when not seeing each other prior to shift change

Customer Service --- Last year Kathleen was awesome and this year Jessica is just as awesome. Bware gets back with you quickly and helps you solve issues fast.

I wish an email notification was sent out when we make a comment to a Post.

Leaves, tracking

Easy to use with great support. All users find it easy to navigate and help us only a click away

There have been a couple of improvements I've been trying to get introduced: parent approval notification and leave limit notifications

Leave surveillance and tracking

The real time data ensures we provide the best possible care for students.

The delay in updates from different devices.

Ensuring the safety and security of the students. Improving the workload of boarding parents and matrons.

Ease of use for staff, students, and parents. Ability to customize some fields and functions. The customer service!

Nothing that I dislike... just hopes for added capabilities.

Student safety, lack of student information system, staff communication.

I love how the company works with you. They try to find a way to do program their system to work in the way you need.

We are a smaller school, so we have some specific needs that are little bit harder to get with the system, but they are trying their best to help us.

We are using it to provide a more ecological system for managing our students comings and goings.

Easy to use, easy to set up users, parents use it

Sometimes have issues if too many users online

Gives parents and staff peace of mind and confidence that we know where our students are

Paperless leave approval system that involves parents having access to approval.

Navigation at times but that's probably because I haven't spent the time to get to know all the features.

Validity of leave approval.

Fantastic support from the Helpdesk

Realtime and multi user aspect of ... several staff can be doing a 'live' roll at the same time

It has streamlined leave processes ... authorising and communicating with students and parents simultaneously ... the leave 'resubmit' function is fabulous

You can not enter recurring leave incidents

Try it ... you wont be disappointed

Provides a professional and reliable platform for operating the Boarding House

It is flexible, user-friendly and streamlined.

There is no student app for boardingware.

Boardingware allows use to keep track of our boarding community efficiently and effectively.

It works on ipad and on my iphone which is very convenient.

If you mark a pupil in for a roll, they aren't automatically signed in as being back at school. You have to tick a separate box before the roll. I always thought that this should be a default setting.

Easier to keep track of where students are supposed to be.

The simplicity of the software. It is intuitive and the teachers and students all got used to using it very quickly.

Whenever the iPad used as the kiosk has an Ios update, this can throw the p[programme and it needs restarting

We have been able to register and keep track of our boarders far more effectively than when paper was used.