SARDS (School Administration Resources, Discussion & Support) is for employees of the Department of Education (DE) in Victoria, Australia. It is specifically targeted at Administration staff (Education Support) working in schools (Business Managers, Finance Managers, HR Managers, Administration staff, First Aid staff, etc) and the DE employees that support them (Corporate staff managing process & policy, DE trainers, etc.)

Purpose

SARDS is built to provide 3 main things to Administration staff:

  • Resources:  To support the daily operation of School Administration where these resources are not provided by DE, such as templates, calculators, SQL scripts and pro-formas. The intention behind providing these is for Administration staff to collaborate on a resource to make it fit-for-purpose, with the intention that it will be passed to and owned by DE.
  • Discussion:  A searchable set of discussion for all topics, questions & ideas from Administration staff. The discussion library provides a reference archive for future search, and an jumping off point for future resources.
  • Support:  General support for School Administration staff: the intention is that if you get stuck or need urgent assistance, SARDS is a gateway for getting support from your peers as soon as possible.

History

SARDS was started in 2019 by a DET Administration employee (a Business Manager) who recognised that one of the most valuable resources for Education Support staff is their peers, and wanted to see a better platform for connecting Administration staff in schools across the State of Victoria.

Technology

SARDS is a custom-built application using Ruby on Rails. It is hosted on a Virtual Private Server provided by BinaryLane in Melbourne.

Security

  • Modern server-hardening techniques are used and regularly updated to ensure the integrity and security of the server which hosts SARDS.
  • The Rails application uses the latest Ruby and Rails security features to maintain application integrity, such as prevention against injection attacks and cross-site scripting.
  • When access is requested to SARDS, the employment of the requestor with DE is verified before their access is enabled. Accounts are only provided for people who have a valid DE @education email address.
  • The server is located in Melbourne CBD, so all information stored on SARDS servers never leaves the State of Victoria.

Feedback


If you have any questions about SARDS or wish to provide feedback, please get in contact with the Administrator.