Latest News 2025
Google Update for MACS Google Administrators - February
Google Administrators of schools in the Google Workspace for Education Central Instance received an email update for February.
As a follow-up to our previous communication regarding Google Workspace for Education Plus, we're excited to share some of the latest updates and upcoming events that may be of interest to your school.
Google Workspace for Education Plus Updates
Google continues to introduce several new features and enhancements to Google Workspace for Education Plus. Here are some of the key highlights:
Last year, Google Vids was launched. An easy-to-use video creation app that both educators and students can use to create and collaborate with video.
Getting started: Vids will be ON by default and can be disabled at the school level. However, if Google Docs are turned OFF in your domain, Vids access will be unavailable.
If you’d like to discover the potential of video for impactful teaching and learning experiences with Google Vids, click HERE to register for the Google Vids short course offered on Google’s Skillshop
Google Classroom
Read Along: includes access to a growing library of decodable books from Heggerty that educators can assign to practice specific decoding skills.
Introducing the ability to ‘grade all’ in Google Classroom: To further improve upon grading options for teachers Learn more about grade all in Classroom.
View student engagement on assignments: For assignments with attached student copies of Drive files, teachers can see which students have not yet edited the attachment. This could be an indicator that students need additional support.
Check out the 51 new handwriting font families added to Google Workspace Edu tools. Based on research, they aim to help teach students how to handwrite & even include regional nuances.
Google Drive
Automatically generated captions for videos in Google Drive: This feature uses Google's speech-to-text technology to create captions, which can be edited for accuracy.
Google Events
Free monthly webinars centered on the classroom, with a range of topics to help you use Google for Education tools to positively impact learning and teaching. Click HERE to register.
Learn how to use Google tools effectively, discover the magic of Gemini in education and empower your educators with easy-to-use tools so they can focus on teaching.
Learn how to use generative AI tools to help you save time on everyday tasks, personalize instruction, enhance lessons and activities in creative ways, and more.
Register to join Google for Education product experts, partners and your peers every month to learn about the latest advancements in Google for Education.
We encourage you to explore these new features and take advantage of the upcoming events to stay informed and maximise the potential of Google Workspace for Education Plus.
Please note that a Quick Reference Guide titled, Creating Google Groups for Efficient Communication and Collaboration has recently been published for MACS schools. Creation of Google groups makes the sharing of Google files more secure ensuring the right people have access to appropriate files.
If you have any questions or require further assistance, please don't hesitate to contact the ICON eLearn Consultants or the MACS Google Admin team.
School Savings Bonus (SSB)
11 February 2025
An update has been deployed to the eFIN and eSIS applications to accommodate the School Savings Bonus.
The following GL codes have been pushed across from eFIN to eSIS for all schools on ICON, along with the Fee codes created in Fee Maintenance:
Income:
School Saving Bonus 13120
Credit (Charge Reduction/Adjustment):
SSB_Fees 10024
SSB_Levies 11241
SSB_Other 11624
These fee codes are to be used for charge reduction purposes.
A listing of these reductions applied can be seen in the crystal report “Debtor Reduction Report by G/L Code.”
For questions about which fee code to use school administrators should seek the advice of MACS Finance Business Partners.
Common Issues at the Beginning of the School Year
30 January 2025
The start of the school year is a busy period for schools, primarily due to the need for accurate information in administration systems. This data is critical as it supports various third-party applications, reports, and services.
It is also a hectic time for ICT Support staff, given the high volume of calls and requests to correct information or ensure applications are functioning properly.
To assist with these challenges, schools are encouraged to utilise the Beginning of Year Common Questions resource. This resource is designed to help administration staff and leaders to resolve issues independently, potentially avoiding the need to log service requests and wait for callbacks during peak times.
We encourage school administration staff and leaders to refer to this resource and any related documents referenced within it, to attempt to resolve issues before contacting the Service Desk.
Term 1 - Need to Know - Training and Support for ICON Administration Staff and Leaders
20 January 2025
The ICON Training and Knowledge Consulting Team will provide support, training, and refresher workshops, as well as appropriate online support materials to help administration staff and leaders in ICON schools perform critical activities during Term 1.
Key activities, training, and support resources are outlined in the Term 1 2025 - Need to Know information sheet.
New principals and administrative staff at ICON schools can register for training listed on OPL, or contact the training team for alternative arrangements via email: icontrainingadmin@macs.vic.edu.au.
Refresher workshops and online resources for key term 1 activities are available. Term 1 Training & Refresher workshops are outlined here.
The MACS Shared Services Admin Duty Planner outlines key activities by term for admin staff in ICON schools.
Access Quick Reference Guides, training manuals, presentations, and other ICON application reference material via the ICON School Resources Google Drive or relevant support pages https://www.icon.cecv.catholic.edu.au/application-support.
eSIS – Upgrade January 6-7, 2025
20 January 2025
The latest eSIS upgrade incorporated several enhancements and bug fixes. Detailed information on these improvements can be found in Release Notes V 71.43.
Enhancements
Medical Incidents (Sick Bay) Module in SynClient & Synweb
The upgrade included enhanced functionality for recording medical incidents, ensuring better compliance with the MACS Medical Management Plan, Administration of Medication, and First Aid policies.
New features include:
Recording parent contact when a student is in the Sick Bay.
Documenting the administration of medication in the Sick Bay.
Conducting and recording a Head Injury Assessment in the Sick Bay.
Emailing incident reports to parents from Medical Maintenance.
Pre-filling the correct fields in Absence Event creation when signing a student out of the Sick Bay.
Resources: QRG - Medical Maintenance (Sick Bay) eSIS , QRG - Medical Maintenance (Sick Bay) Synweb
Training on the functionality of medical incidents can be provided to schools if required. Requests can be sent to icontrainingadmin@macs.vic.edu.au.
Other enhancements include:
Finance Past Postings Fix
Reversal of Bounced Payments (Finance): Prevent staff from editing a closed posting to enter reversed bounced payments and enable them to record it in a different posting.