Processing Roll Returns as an Office Administrator

In March and July New Zealand Primary Schools are required to return roll information to the Ministry of Education.

Additional roll returns are required in June and September for Middle and High Schools.

Processing the Roll Returns in Hero is efficient and user-friendly. As the Office Administrator you check and validate your student data and when ready, you create the official Roll Return which is then approved and submitted digitally to the Ministry by your school Principal.

To complete this process you must have Hero Administrator access.

ACCESSING ROLL RETURNS IN HERO

1. Navigate to the Administration menu. If you have a wide-screen device this will already be visible on the left-hand side of your screen. If not, click on the Administration menu icon at the top left-hand side of your screen.

2. Select Roll Returns

Here you will see the option to validate your data for the current period. The options available will differ depending on the time of year; you can only generate an 'official' return between certain dates as specified by the Ministry of Education.   

The MOE also provides specific dates in which they must receive your roll return.  Once the submission cut-off date has been reached, existing roll returns cannot be uploaded directly to the MOE or downloaded to Hero for manual upload.

Below this you will see lists of all the previous Roll Return files and validation results which have been created. This shows:

• The return period for which the report was run
• The date on which the report was run
• The status of that return or validation - not valid, valid, pending, approved or submission cut-off date is passed.
• Any actions you can take - viewing the tables/results, deleting 'draft' returns.  It is not permissible to delete 'official' returns as these are retained for historical viewing.   You can download historical data from here should it be required. 

CHECKING AND VALIDATING YOUR DATA

As the enrolment process in Hero validates all roll return data, there should be very few data errors to correct in your validation process.

1. Decide if you wish to validate your data with or without generating a Roll Return to be approved by the Principal. If you wish to only validate your data ensure the Only perform validation slider is ON (red).

Note: a Roll Return will only be created if there are no errors in validating the data even if this slider is set to off.

2. Select the CHECK DATA FOR <MONTH> button for the Roll Return you are working on

 

Hero will run validation tests on all the data stored for your current students. If any data is found to be incorrect or invalid, you will be presented with a list of students and the corresponding errors.

3. Correct any validation errors

Each student will be displayed along with any validation errors listed below their name.

Click on the (i) icon to take you directly to the student's information page to correct the data. Make your changes to the data and click the green SAVE icon. 

Click on the cog icon to take you directly to the student's manage student page to correct enrolment status errors

Once you have corrected that particular child you can use the back arrow to return to the list and continue. The child you have just corrected will still show in this validation result, you will need to re-run the validation to check errors are resolved.

You can also access this specific validation result at any time from the Roll Returns page by clicking the eye icon next to this result.  Click on the trash icon to remove unwanted validation results.

 

4. Repeat steps 1-3 until you can run that period's validation without any validation errors

Click here for a list of commonly found validation errors and how to resolve them

GENERATE YOUR OFFICIAL RETURN FOR DIGITAL APPROVAL

Once your data has been successfully validated and it is within the official Roll Return period you are able to generate the official return for Principal approval.

1. Set the Only perform validation slider to OFF (grey)

2. Select the CHECK DATA FOR <MONTH> button for the current Roll Return

3. If there are still errors in the validation, these will display for you to correct, tables will not be created and the Roll Return will be "Not valid"

4. If there are no errors, the Roll Return tables will be created and be waiting approval

Your Principal will receive an email notification that there is a Roll Return waiting for approval. They will also see a message on their home page and Roll Return page when logged into Hero until this is approved or rejected.

Once all the summary tables have been approved, the file is digitally signed with the Principal’s Hero login and uploaded directly to the Ministry.

You will see this Roll Return in the Existing Roll Returns along with it's Status which will change to Approved (pending upload), Approved and Uploaded or Rejected as your Principal goes through the process.

Note: Your Principal or acting Principal must have the correct permission set within their staff information to be able to approve roll returns

To set this permission, see the help article Ensuring the Principal has Access to Approve Roll Returns

For more information on the process for a Principal to approve a Roll Return, see the help article Approving and Uploading Roll Returns for Principals

CHECKING YOUR ROLL RETURN TABLES

You can access and review all information regarding this return at any time by using the action buttons located next to the return in the Existing Roll Returns List

1. Download the .moe file, should you need it by clicking the Download icon. This option is disabled after the official overdue date has passed.

2. View and/or print the tables associated with this return by clicking the Grid icon

This is your copy of all the data going to the Ministry. If your data is not correct here, then it will not be correct in the .moe file. 

You are able to print these tables using the print function in your web browser. Schools should print their Roll Return tables so they can review their roll summaries. They should keep these on-site for their records and for tabling at their next BOT meeting.

Note: the tables are designed to be printed in landscape mode.

3. Download a .zip file of student lists by clicking on the Disc icon. (optional)

The student lists can be used to check your data if you need to verify the values in the tables.  It is not mandatory to print or store these list.   They are purely provided for data checking.   

There is one list per table.  Each lists shows the data relating to that table and prints all the students that make up the individual table totals.  The order and subtotalling matches the tables to aid the checking process.  These lists are created using the MOE specifications.

Things to check:

Table M1 - The Total Roll must match your current roll. This will be a sum of both the Regular Students column and the Fee-Paying Students Column.  

Table M2 - The total will only differ from M1 if you have Foreign Fee Payers as this table only prints Regular Students. The M2 table is for schools that have an enrolment scheme. If your school does have an enrolment scheme and are missing this table please contact the help desk and we will add it for you.

Tables M3-M6 - Should all match your M1 totals. These should not normally cause any problems as the same records are being printed in different ways.

Table M7 - Check your totals here. They should match M2 as it excludes Foreign Fee Payers. If this does not add up, you will need to check your Maori Language Learning Levels to see if you have any outside the norm.

All other tables will be empty.

Note: In March tables will start with an M, in June they will start with an E, in July they will start with a J, and in September they will start with an S

More information about the requirements of Roll Returns can be found on the Ministry of Education webpage - School SMS Roll Returns