All About My Ancona

Note: As of the 2020-21 school year, My Ancona will no longer be the spot where homework is assigned and collected. Instead, 3rd through 8th grade will use Google Classroom and Preprimary through 2nd grade will use Seesaw. My Ancona pages will still exist, but will contain mostly static classroom information. My Ancona will continue to serve as the Ancona’s “School Information System” that stores your family’s demographic information, your child’s medical information, and other important items.

GETTING STARTED

All current Ancona parents and guardians have access to My Ancona. If you think you should have it and do not, please send an email to the registrar. When prospective parents fill out an inquiry form, they are assigned a My Ancona login with a few days which is used to fill out the application and go through the rest of the admissions process. When a contract is offered to a new family, any additional custodial parents will receive My Ancona accounts that will be used to review and sign the contract as well as other forms. The same accounts that are used in the admissions and contract process remain in place as a prospective student becomes a student. Parents of incoming students will have access to the parent resource board on My Ancona, but class information will not be visible until a few weeks before school begins.

The system will first prompt you to validate your profile information the first time you sign in. You’ll be able to adjust contact information about you, your child(ren), and (to some extent) your spouse. Also, please feel free to upload a picture of yourself for others in the Ancona community to view, and consider including something about yourself in the About section next to your photo.

It is important to keep your child(ren)’s information up to date on their profile: Address, Emergency Contacts (which double as authorized pick-ups), Allergies and Conditions, Medical insurance, and physician information. 

You’ll also want to take a moment to adjust your privacy settings if you’d like fine-tuned control over who can see certain parts of your profile.

The school will continue to communicate need-to-know items and weekly newsletters directly via email, but now you can also subscribe to be notified about certain events and updates to My Ancona by adjusting your notification settings. You are especially encouraged to check the box next to News Posted so that you’ll receive updates about all the wonderful things happening in your child(ren)’s classrooms.

Classroom Pages

  • Visit classroom pages that view syllabi (1st grade and up), classroom resources, expectations, news, photos, and videos.
  • View your child(ren)’s assignments
  • View your child(ren)’s gradebook with assignment scores (7th/8th only)
  • View transcripts (7th/8th only)
  • View a roster displaying the teachers of a class along with their contact info as well as a list of enrolled students
  • View historical as well as current progress reports

Student Information

  • View your chid(ren)’s schedule
  • Download files related to your child(ren)
  • View attendance information

Calendars

  • View a combined calendar that shows upcoming assignments, events specific to your child(ren), and daily schedules alongside the Ancona Events calendar
  • Subscribe to the combined calendar, or hand-pick which event types to subscribe to.

Parent Resources

  • This is a central hub for links to information you need as a parent
    • Library pages and resources
    • Sign-ups for after school, before school, music lessons, and other extracurricular activities
    • Links to subscription sites that you and your children have access to

News

  • View news that is specific to you and your family, such as announcements from your child(ren)’s classrooms– get notifications using these opt-in instructions.

Groups

  • The 5th & 6th grade as well as the 7th & 8th grade have “groups” that allow parents and students to see updates about group-wide activities. 

Directory

  • Student, Parent, and Faculty directories that allow you to search by grade level, advisory, etc.
  • View contact cards that include a detailed bio and photo, or simply find their contact info.
  • Print a directory based on your search

Our old system stored Emergency Contacts and Authorized Pickups separately, and oftentimes redundantly. My Ancona only uses Emergency Contacts, and we assume that anyone who is an emergency contact is also authorized to pick up your child unless otherwise noted.

In order to avoid miscommunication, It’s always best to communicate directly with both your child and their teacher if someone other than a parent will be picking up. Please send an email to or call the main office if someone other than a parent will be picking up your child from after school.

Here are detailed instructions on how to add emergency contacts.

Teachers will often share information about what’s happening in their classroom by posting it to the “News” or “What’s happening” portion of their classroom bulletin board. To get an email when these posts are made, you must opt-in by following these directions. 

Note that teachers also have a way of emailing all parents for their class, and will use this method for communications that are important for all parents to read.

Be sure to add the following emails to your address book or email contacts to ensure that they are not blocked by your email system:

 

All of your child’s teachers email addresses, which can be found by visiting your student’s “progress” page (click “Children” or your child’s name at the top left portion of My Ancona), then scroll down to view classes and teacher emails.

LOGIN AND ACCESS

  1. Start by making sure you are visiting the right address: https://anconaschool.myschoolapp.com
  2. Click the Forgot login/password or First time logging in? link. The system will ask you for your email address—make sure to enter the email address you have on file with Ancona. Then, it will ask you if you need help remembering your username, your password, or both
  3. You should then receive an email that will allow you to view your username and/or reset your password as needed.

Passwords must be at least 8 characters, and every 365 days you will be required to change your password. Your account has access to sensitive information about your own child, as well as contact information for almost all Ancona families, so it is important to use best practices to keep your password secure.

There is no My Ancona app. However, iPhone and Android smartphones running Safari or Chrome allow you to save/bookmark websites on your phone’s home screen. For the most seamless experience, make sure the autofill password settings are turned on. This will allow you open My Ancona just like it’s an app, and the most you’ll have to do it click “log in”, or sometimes click the “use password” button.

Please Note: It is highly recommended that you put a passcode on your phone, as there is sensitive info about your child that can be accessed.

Here are custom detailed instructions for iPhone, and basic instructions for Android.

When you first sign 19-20 contracts, the first parent to sign will be asked to sign in with their Smart Tuition username and password. This allows the system to transfer information about payment plans directly into Smart Tuition. In order to find out your username or reset your password, you’ll  need your Smart Tution Family ID. The Smart Tuition Family ID is included in your monthly email invoice that comes from the email address . If you’re having trouble finding it, you may contact Patricia Eringtonfor assistance.

Once you’ve signed the contract, you’ll be able to sign into Smart Tuition using a special link on the My Ancona Parent Resource Board. This will let you see details about your billing information.

DIRECTORY

What people can see depends on their role. Anyone with a login (faculty/staff, parents, and students) can by default see contact information, your photo, and your family relationships. Teachers of your child(ren) can view things such as medical alerts, allergies, and learning profiles.

As a parent, you can adjust your privacy settings to have fine-tuned control over exactly which information of yours is visible to other types of users. Student information available on the directory is limited to name, grade level, classroom, and relationship information. Only a student’s own parents and faculty and staff can see more detailed information about the student. When adding sensitive information, you as a parent can choose which roles should be allowed to view this information, although the school may restrict this further to comply with HIPAA and FERPA guidelines.

The My Ancona directory is password protected and only available to people within our community. We ask that all parents comply with the following privacy policy:

The information in The Ancona Family Directory is intended for the private use of our families. Information should be used only for personal (i.e. birthday parties, play dates, etc.) and school-related (i.e. pot lucks, room parents, volunteers, etc.) business. The information herein may not be used for parent business or advocacy nor may it be distributed to third parties. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

There are security measures in place that will alert us if a member of the community fails to comply with this policy. Failure to comply may result in suspension of access to the directory and/or other punitive measures.

There are three separate directories in My Ancona: Parent, Student, and Faculty and Staff. Looking for information about the Board of Trustees? This will continue to be housed on our public-facing website.

The Directory tool is found on the top navigation bar of the site.  While the basic functionality is fairly intuitive, here are some key advanced features:

  • Controls on the right of the search results let you filter based on grade level (parents and students, faculty), homeroom (students), and department (faculty)
  • You may download a printable version of the results of a search (not available on the student directory)
  • The search results can be displayed in “list view”, “grid view”, or “map view”. In order to view an individual’s information, it’s useful to view their Contact Card by clicking the Options button (sometimes denoted with three dots) and selecting “Contact Card”
  • You can add people to your contacts, which lets you pull up a quick list of friends and/or teachers who you’d like to look up often using My Contacts under the Directories menu.


Enrollment Contracts

While the enrollment contract process is mostly straightforward, a few steps such as signing in with your existing Smart Tution account are best done with the help of these instructions.

PLATFORM AND CONTENT

My Ancona is password protected, and serves as both the school’s learning management system (LMS) and school information system (SIS). Our public-facing website, anconaschool.org, is designed to give prospective parents and the public a wealth of information about the school. The parent resource board on My Ancona is designed to help parents quickly find information about the school. Many of the links on the resource board will point to information such as the school guidelines on our public facing anconaschool.org website.

The one you’ll have to use 99% of the time is your My Ancona login.  However, during the enrollment contract signing process, you’ll need to sign in with your Smart Tuition credentials as well. That being said, sometimes teachers may use additional tools which will require a different login.

NOTE: For the 2020-21 school year, assignments are being moved to the Google Classroom platform.

On the top navigation menu, click on Children, then your child’s name. This will take you to the Progress tab of their academic profile page. There, you’ll be able to see all sorts of information specific to your child, including a list of classes. Click on a class to be taken to the class Bulletin Board and to see other class-specific info. Note: There are actually many other ways to get to classes, including by looking at a student’s schedule. Follow this link to download detailed visual instructions. 

Beginning in 3rd grade, all assignments will be posted to My Ancona. On the top navigation menu, click on Children, then your child’s name. Click the Assignments tab to see a filterable list of assignments. Click on the Feed button to have homework assignments show up on your My Ancona calendar.

Alternatively, you can also look at the Calendar view, which includes student assignments. By toggling off the other calendar items, you’ll get a clear view your child’s assignments. To get more details on a particular assignment, simply click on it.

Note that while all students 3rd-8th grade will be able to log into My Ancona to view their assignments, teachers at different levels often encourage them to keep track of assignments using a paper organizer or homework sheet.

Ancona uses direct parent communication to let parents know of behavior issues. We do not use the “Conduct” module, as our approach uses a restorative approach rather than a one-size-fits-all disciplinary strattegy. Unfortunately, the software platform that My Ancona utilizes does not allow us to remove the “Conduct” module from view. 

“Groups” work differently in Middle School than in younger grades. Since Middle School students no longer have a “Homeroom”, groups for 5th & 6th grades as well as 7th & 8th grades are in place to allow a single spot to let parents know what’s going on in the grade level grouping as a whole. As of Fall 2018, there are no similar groupings in Preprimary or 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade classrooms. It is also important to note that each individual class for both Middle School and younger grades has its own “Bulletin Board” as well.

 To locate class-specific bulletin boards including ones for homerooms, start by clicking your child’s name on the top-left corner of the screen (click “Children” if you have more than 1 child enrolled). This will bring up his or her “Progress” tab, which has a “Courses” section that includes a link to the homeroom bulletin board such as “3rd/4th Homeroom – 208” as well as all other class bulletin boards in which the child is enrolled. 

Yes! On the top navigation menu, click on Children, then your child’s name. This will take you to the Progress tab of their academic profile page. Click on the Schedule tab to view your child’s schedule. Click on a course’s name to get more information about specific courses. 

PROFILE,  SETTINGS, and UPDATING INFORMATION

Log in and visit your profile by clicking your name toward the top of the screen. Edit your profile—also known as your Contact Card—by clicking on the pencil icon. Your changes will be reviewed by staff before being finalized and posted.

In most cases, families living in the same home are set up to share certain information, addresses and home phone numbers; changing these joint settings for one family member will update the information for all members of the family. You can also edit certain information in your child’s profile. If you have trouble, please email .

Here are special instructions for updating medical information and emergency contacts (authorized pick-ups) on file. 

These forms cannot be submitted directly through My Ancona, and must be emailed to the Registrar or dropped off at the front desk. The registrar will update immunization records accordingly, and upload and store these files securely.

We keep information about medications, medical conditions, and allergies on file along with physician information, medical history, nurse visits, and immunization records. Only a highly limited group of staff can view the entirety of our students’ records. Parents can choose to make reported medical conditions visible to others in the community (like teachers and coaches) on a case by case basis. When a student has a condition that the teacher should be aware of, the course roster will provide the teacher with pertinent details about the condition, including applicable emergency and medication information. Each year, parents are asked to fill out an “Allergies and Conditions” form that allows them to see what information is on file and update it quickly and easily. Parents can update medical information on file directly at any time by following these instructions.

Yes, we encourage you to upload a photo of you to your Contact Card! Student photos are populated using the school portraits taken every year, and new students will have a temporary photo taken on orientation day.

Each year, you will be required to fill out  an Emergency Contacts  Form, and the Allergies and Conditions Form — these are made available during contract season and are due by July 15. Only one parent needs to fill out these forms.

Optionally, you may fill out a Media opt-out form if you do not wish your child’s picture to be shared externally and/or within the community. 

The Hopes and Expectations form will be shared with parents over the summer and will be due just before the school year begins.

COMMUNICATION

Teacher emails

Teachers will send you emails directly from their school email accounts. It’s a good idea to add their email addresses to your address book early in the school year to make sure important emails don’t get filtered into your spam folder. Sometimes, teachers will send emails to parents of a whole class using special group email addresses managed by Ancona. In those cases, parents will only be able to reply to the teacher and not the group as a whole.

Newsletters and All-School Emails

All current parents should receive weekly newsletters, as well as other as-needed community-wide communications from the school. These will come from (most often) or . Please save these two email addresses in your contacts or address book to ensure emails don’t go to your spam folder. While it is possible opt out or unsubscribe from these school-wide emails, we advise against it as they will often contain important, time-sensitive information.

News Notifications

If you opt in to receive News notifications from My Ancona, you will get an email whenever a teacher posts a news item to their classroom page. Whether you sign up for notifications or not, it’s always a good idea to check in on your child(ren)’s class pages regularly, as teachers may post updates that are not marked specifically as News.

Emails from

Certain items such as progress reports and class assignments that require individualized content will be sent out from the address. The front desk staff and tech team monitor this account.

If you are not receiving weekly emails during the school year, something is wrong. Please let us know by emailing . If you need to change your email address on file, please update your My Ancona Contact Card (see Profile, Settings, and Updating Information) or email .

Yes! Please add to your address book. You can also opt in to receive alerts when News items are posted. See previous question for more information about News notifications.

The simplest way to get email addresses is to use the parent directory in My Ancona to look up addresses one by one. For larger groups, please send an email to with your specific request, and make sure to mention why you need the email addresses. This will help us to ensure that your purpose conforms with our directory use policy.