Review & Approval
An approval workflow makes sure someone checks a report before parents see it. Without a workflow, a user with the right permission can publish a draft directly. With one, a report must be submitted and approved first.
Report statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Being written. |
| Changes requested | A reviewer sent it back. It appears in the Draft card. |
| Pending | Submitted, waiting for a reviewer. Shown as Pending approval. |
| Ready to publish (Approved) | A reviewer approved it. |
| Published | Frozen and visible to families. |
Set up a workflow
Go to Configuration → Reports → Approval Workflows and press Create Workflow. You need Manage approval workflows. The wizard has four steps.
- Basic details. A Workflow name (for example "SLT Approval") and Active. An inactive workflow is ignored.
- Scope. All report templates, or pick the Report templates it governs.
- Approval rules. Switch Approval required on. Then choose:
- Reviewers: staff who may approve or request changes.
- Managers can always approve: stops reports from getting stuck.
- Leaders can approve: SLT can approve anywhere, and a year group coordinator can approve reports of their own groups. Heads of department are not included, because a headship covers one subject and a report covers all of them. This is off by default.
- Prevent self-approval: the person who submitted cannot approve.
- Allow withdrawing a submission: the submitter can pull a report back.
- Block submit when marks are missing and Block submit on quality failures.
- Notifications. Notify reviewers on submission and Notify the author on decision, both as push notifications.
The "Who can approve this report" summary shows exactly who ends up with the right. Leadership roles are assigned under Configuration → Users & Roles → Who leads what. See Leadership Roles.
One reviewer only
If you name a single reviewer and block self-approval, nobody can approve that reviewer's own reports. Add a second reviewer, or keep Managers can always approve on.
If you switch approval off, reports follow the direct flow: managers publish drafts without review.
The review in practice
Example: an approval chain HoD → SLT. Many schools want two checks. Create a workflow with the head of department and the SLT members as reviewers, and switch on Leaders can approve. The head of Science reviews her subject comments and approves. Then the deputy head, who is SLT, approves every report. In MarkBook this is one approval step. If your school needs the two people to sign in order, agree it as a school routine. The workflow does not enforce an order between reviewers.
Step by step:
- Teacher submits. On a draft, use Submit for approval on the row, or select several rows and choose Submit for approval in Actions. The report moves to Pending approval.
- Reviewer opens Pending approval. The table shows the checks and three icons: View report, Approve, Request changes. The button "Waiting on my decision" shows only reports you may decide. Approve all clean approves every clean report you may decide in one step.
- Request changes. A Reason is required. The author sees it on the report in a banner ("Changes requested by Ms Pop") and receives a notification. The report goes back to the Draft card.
- Author fixes and resubmits. The report shows "Resubmitted — awaiting review" with the last feedback.
- Approve. The report becomes Approved, ready to publish.
Other row actions: Withdraw submission (submitter, while pending), Return to draft (a reviewer, on a pending report), and Reopen draft (discards an approval and returns the report to draft).
Checking columns before reports
Report-facing columns can be checked inside the grid before any report exists. This is separate from report approval. See Checking & Approving Columns.
Edge cases
- If a report has no marks in a subject, Block submit when marks are missing stops submission and says which subjects.
- A report cannot be published while approval is required and it is not approved.
- Deleting a workflow does not strand reports in review: managers can still approve them.