How to Access Power School
What is PowerSchool?
PowerSchool is the online conduit where students’ marks, attendance, schedule information, and teacher comments can be found. PowerSchool gives parents and students continuous access to key information about students’ learning. As a result of the continued popularity and success of reporting via PowerSchool, we no longer send paper report cards home throughout the year. A final paper report card is issued in June. Checking PowerSchool regularly is a key communication tool for teachers, parents, and students.
How do I access PowerSchool?
Parents and students access PowerSchool online through the PowerSchool link or by downloading the PowerSchool app (to access the PowerSchool app, the district code W L J C is required).
Setting up a PowerSchool is only required once. The parent account stays active from year to year as students progress through middle school and into high school.
- For parents who did not have an account last year, click “Create Account” at the bottom of the page.
- Choose your own username and password. Write these down somewhere secure. Note this account will continue to be used by you into next year.
- For parents who had an account last year, but need to add another child to their account, log in to PowerSchool, go to “Account Preferences," click the “Students” tab and the “Add+” button. Enter your child’s Access ID and Access Password as required.
Students and parents have separate PowerSchool accounts. Students can only see their own information and they login to PowerSchool using the username and password that they use to log into the school computers.
Parents can access all of their children’s information who are attending a Red Deer Catholic Regional School from one account. Parents need an “Access ID” and “Access Password” from the school to set up a PowerSchool account or to add a new child to an existing account.
Helpful features of PowerSchool
- Marks: beside each subject, a current mark appears.
- Assignments: to see how a student has done on individual assignments, click on the subject mark and an assignment breakdown with marks appears.
- Assignment codes: if an assignment is missing/not handed in (nhi), late, exempt, or collected, an assignment code will appear beside the assignment mark.
- Comments:
- Assignment-specific comments: Teachers will comment on major/significant assignments. This could include such assignments as lab reports, essays and unit exams. These comments can be found by clicking on the term mark of any subject. If any assignment score is blue, click on it to find a comment specific to that assessment. On the app, a blue icon indicates a comment is available for an individual assignment.
- Global comments: Teachers will comment on main curricular outcomes and/or progress as a learner. These comments can be found by clicking on “Teacher Comments” on the side menu. Then, you must select the correct term from the drop-down menu beside “Reporting Term." (T1 = Term 1, T2 = Term 2 etc). Comments will appear beside each subject/teacher.
- The colour blue: Anything that is blue is a link to more information. For example, the mark beside each course/subject is blue, and if clicked, links you to all the individual marks for that course.
It is our hope that online communication will increase parent participation in their children’s education, which in turn, increases students’ interest in their own learning. As always, parents are encouraged to speak directly with teachers in regards to reporting if any questions arise. Please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teachers or school administration.