Finding the right group of students is the starting point for almost everything you do in TrackEd. Once you have your Found Set, you can view profiles, build a Datawall, sort the List view, save PDFs, send emails, and run reports for that exact group. Almost every output in TrackEd respects the Found Set you have selected.
TrackEd gives you three main ways to find a group: select a whole cohort from the Home page, run a name search for an individual student, or open the Find Panel for fine-grained searches. The Find Panel includes over 200 search criteria across cohorts, results, behaviour, attendance, NAPLAN, PAT, DIBELs, senior schooling data, and more, and lets you stack searches together to drill down to a specific group.
In this article
Detailed Guide
Cohort selection from the Home page
Searching by name
Opening the Find Panel
Choosing what group to search within
Running, constraining, and expanding searches
Saving and recalling searches
Working with the Found Set
Reference
Where to take your Found Set next
Three ways to find students
Most days you will reach for one of three options on the Home page. Pick a whole cohort by clicking Profile, List, or Datawall next to a year level. Use the Name search at the top to jump to an individual student. Open the Find Panel when you need a specific subset (e.g. Year 9 students with high absences and a low GPA).
Whichever method you use, the result is a Found Set. Once you have it, the same group carries through to the Profile page, List page, Datawall, and most report and export options.
Cohort selection from the Home page
The Home page lists your current cohorts with a count of students in each. Three buttons sit next to each cohort:
- Profile: opens the Profile page with that whole cohort selected. Click through students one at a time.
- List: opens the List page with that cohort in table format.
- Datawall: builds an instant Datawall for that cohort.
This is the fastest way to pull up a year level for a quick review or report. To work with a smaller group inside that cohort, open the Find Panel from the same page.
Searching by name
The ‘Name Search’ bar under the cohort list on the Home page searches across the whole school. Type a first name or last name and TrackEd takes you straight to the Profile page for any matches. If multiple students share the name (e.g. three students named Hermione), you can scroll through all of them.
From the matched profile, the Open in OneSchool button launches OneSchool for that student. The Name search ignores cohort selection and searches every current student.
Opening the Find Panel
The Find Panel is the main tool for pulling up specific groups of students. You can open it from several places:
- The Find Panel button at the top of the Home page (or under Option 5 further down the page)
- The purple Find Panel button at the top of the Profile page
- The purple Find Panel button at the top of the List page
- From within the Class Builder and SmartWall tools
The panel is organised into four sections: a purple area on the left for choosing what group to search within, an orange area in the centre for general options, a pink area below for detailed options, and a green find options panel on the right with the action buttons.
Choosing what group to search within
Before setting any criteria, pick the group of students the search will run against. The purple area on the left has four options:
- Selected cohort: the default. Searches within whichever cohort was selected when you opened the panel (one cohort at a time).
- Current students: searches across the whole school. By default this covers all year levels, but you can set a year level range to narrow it down.
- Pasted ID list: paste a list of student IDs, LUIs, USIs, or email addresses (MIS) and TrackEd returns those students. See ID Search and Excel file drop for the full workflow.
- Excel file drop: drag and drop an Excel file with student IDs in column A. TrackEd returns the matched students instantly.
The selected option drives every search you run from this panel until you change it.
Running, constraining, and expanding searches
With your group set and your criteria selected, three buttons control how the search runs:
- Find students (green): runs a fresh search and ignores any earlier Found Set.
- Constrain (purple): narrows the existing Found Set. The search runs only within the students you already have.
- Expand (blue): adds to the existing Found Set. The search runs across the original group and adds any new matches to the students you already have.
If you put more than one criterion in a single search, the results need to match all of them. Use Expand if you want an “or” search instead. For example, find anyone with a GPA below 2, then expand to include anyone with more than 5 behaviour incidents. The Found Set will include students with either condition.
The orange Reset button clears the panel. Cancel exits without running a search. The Omit preset roll classes tickbox excludes any roll classes you have flagged on the Settings page (useful for multi-campus schools or externally enrolled students).
Saving and recalling searches
If you run the same search every term, save it. With your criteria set, click the yellow Save this search button and give it a name. The green Saved searches button lists every search saved at your school. Saved searches are universal, so anyone at your school can recall them.
When you save a search, the Skip find panel option controls what happens on recall. With it off (the default), recalling a saved search loads the criteria into the Find Panel so you can adjust before running. With it on, the search runs immediately as soon as you select it.
Working with the Found Set
Once you have your group, the Found Set carries across the Profile page, List page, and Datawall in the same order. From the List page, click any column heading to sort. Click it a second time to reverse the order. The new sort follows you everywhere.
A typical workflow looks like this. Search for students failing in two or more subjects. Sort by GPA on the List page. Switch to the Profile page and click through from lowest GPA to highest. Or click the Datawall button and build an instant Datawall in that order. The same Found Set drives every view.
Most outputs respect the Found Set: PDF Bundles, the Datawall, alternative profiles, certificate profiles, bulk email, and most list-view exports all run against the students you have selected.
Reference
Find Panel buttons
The action buttons in the green Find options area on the right of the panel.
| Button | What it does | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Find students (green) | Runs a new search, ignoring any existing Found Set. | Starting fresh, or when you don’t want to refine an earlier search. |
| Constrain (purple) | Searches within the current Found Set. | Narrowing a group (e.g. start with Year 9, then constrain to ATSI students within Year 9). |
| Expand (blue) | Adds matching students to the current Found Set. | Building an “or” search (e.g. anyone with high absences or high behaviour count). |
| Reset (orange) | Clears all criteria from the panel. | Starting over, or when criteria from a recalled saved search aren’t what you want. |
| Cancel | Closes the Find Panel without running a search. | Backing out without changing the current Found Set. |
| Omit preset roll classes | Excludes the roll classes flagged on the Settings page from any search. | Multi-campus schools, or schools with externally enrolled students who shouldn’t appear in normal searches. |
| Save this search (yellow) | Saves the current criteria with a name for later recall. | Searches you run every term, or searches the whole school will need. |
| Saved searches (green) | Opens the list of all searches saved at your school. | Recalling an existing saved search. |
General search options (orange section)
The orange section in the centre of the panel groups the most commonly used search criteria. Each tab opens a different set of options.
| Tab | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Default | Yes/no flags and band searches: Gender, ATSI, DDA, DDA Level Category, DDA PL Level, Personalised Learning, ICP, AIMS, Out of Home Care, Custody Order, EALD, Wellbeing Monitoring, Flagged, Indigenous Status, Date of Birth, Enrolment Date, Departed Date, Attendance band, GPA band, EPA band, BPA band, Visa Subclass. |
| Number ranges | From/to ranges for: year-to-date absences, behaviours, contacts, attendance percentage, GPA, EPA, BPA (and trends for each), counts of A’s through N’s, achievement passes/fails, effort fails, behaviour fails, and Wellbeing Index. |
| Year/week ranges | Same number-range fields as above but limited to a calendar year and week range. Use this to compare a single term, or to look at recent weeks only. |
| Roll class | One roll class at a time. There is a separate multi Roll Class search in the alternate finds panel |
| House | One house at a time. |
| Coach or contact | Free text search for Academic Coach, Attendance Coach, Wellbeing Monitoring Assigned Staff, or DDA Monitoring Key Staff. Yes returns any student with a coach set; None returns any student without one. |
| Tags from list | Multi-select from the school’s tag list. Includes a date range filter and an Omit option to exclude tagged students. See Tagging groups of students. |
| Tags manual | Free text search for tag names. Useful when your tags follow a naming convention (e.g. matching the prefix of a multi-part tag name). |
| Class or staff | Up to six timetable class IDs or class IDs at once, or a staff ID to find every student that staff member teaches. |
| Senior schooling | QCE points missing core, no numeracy, no literacy, no academic integrity completion, QCIA yes/no, ATAR Eligible yes/no. The pink Find menu on the Profile page has many more senior schooling searches. |
| Tracking Template | Search any field in any Tracking Template (e.g. PAT scores, PMs). Use operators like greater than, less than, or specific number, plus trend up/down on yellow-highlighted columns. |
Detailed search options (pink section)
The pink section below the general options covers detailed result, NAPLAN, PAT, and DIBELs searches.
| Section | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Skip / Subject result grades | Find students with passing or failing grades, or specific letters (A through E), in achievement, effort, or behaviour. Set how many subjects (e.g. at least three) and either a specific subject or core subjects (English, Maths, Science, Humanities). |
| Subject result trends | Same options as result grades, but searches by trend direction (up or down) between reporting periods. |
| Subject result rank | Find students ranked from the top or bottom by score. |
| NAPLAN vs national | Compare a student’s NAPLAN result against national averages. Set the strand and test year, then search for students above, below, gaining more, or gaining less than the national cohort. |
| NAPLAN trend | Find students with upward or downward NAPLAN trends. |
| NAPLAN rank | Top or bottom rankings (e.g. top 10, bottom 20) by score or improvement. |
| NAPLAN percentile | Same as rank but using percentile chunks. |
| NAPLAN band | Search by the new proficiency levels: Exceeding, Strong, Developing, Needs Support. |
| PAT rank | Search by ranked scores or percentiles. |
| DIBELs | Set test year (Beginning, Middle, or End), risk classification (At Risk, Some Risk, Minimal, Negligible), and minimum, maximum, or range on the composite score. |
For results-focused searches with even more control, see Results Search.
Where to take your Found Set next
The Found Set is the input to almost every output in TrackEd. Once you have the right group selected and sorted, the next step is usually one of:
- Save PDFs and PDF Bundles for the group, with your chosen profile slices.
- Switch to a different list view (e.g. Engagement list) to see the data shape that fits the question you are asking.
- Click the Datawall button to build an instant Datawall sorted in the order you set on the List page.
- Build a SmartWall for live, interactive PLT or staff meeting use.
- Set up a class with the Class Builder for that group of students.
- Print a ClassMat for the class.
Each output picks up the same Found Set and sort order. The work you put into finding and sorting your group flows through to whatever you do next.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why does my Found Set get reset when I go back to the Home page?
A: The Home page is a starting point and clears any active Found Set. To preserve your group, stay on the Profile, List, or Datawall page and open the Find Panel from there. Constrain and Expand both work against the existing Found Set when opened from those pages.
Q: How do I search for students who match either condition A or condition B?
A: Run the first search with the green Find students button. Then re-open the Find Panel, set the second criterion, and click the blue Expand button. Repeat for any additional “or” criteria. Multiple criteria in a single search require all of them to match, which is why stacking with Expand is the way to do “or” searches.
Q: How do I exclude particular roll classes from every search?
A: Add the roll classes on the Settings page under the omit list, then tick the Omit preset roll classes box on the Find Panel. This is useful for multi-campus schools, externally enrolled students, or specialist groups that shouldn’t appear in normal cohort searches.
Q: Can I save a search so my whole team can use it?
A: Yes. Set the criteria, click the yellow Save this search button, and give it a clear name. Saved searches are universal at your school, so anyone can recall them from the green Saved searches button. Use a team prefix in the name (e.g. “Wellbeing Team / Term 1 Watchlist”) to make it easy to find.
Q: Can the Find Panel search across multiple year levels at once?
A: Yes. In the purple area on the left, choose Current students instead of the selected cohort. By default this covers all year levels, or you can set a year level range to limit it.
Legacy Content
The original 2021 training videos are preserved below while updated videos are being recorded.
