The behaviour log

§ 01What the behaviour log is

The behaviour log is a single running record of conduct incidents — both the good and the not-so-good. Each entry ties one moment to one student: a category (e.g. “Late to class” or “Helped a classmate”), a severity, a short narrative of what happened, and a date.

What makes the log add up is signed points:

• A merit is positive — a category set to +2 rewards good conduct.
• A demerit is negative — a category set to -3 records a problem.

So one log holds both sides of the story. In the teacher console it's titled Behaviour Log, with the prompt "Log discipline or merit incidents for students in your classes and review recent entries." In School Admin it appears as Behaviour — "Discipline and merit incident log for the whole school."

§ 02Not the report card's conduct traits

This trips people up, so it's worth being precise. Simusim has two separate things with similar names:

The Settings page for traits even calls them "Behaviour categories rated on the report card" — same word, different feature. Rule of thumb: if it's a thing that happened on a Tuesday, it belongs in the behaviour log. If it's a rounded judgement of how a child generally conducts themselves this term, it's a conduct trait on the report card. This guide is only about the behaviour log; conduct traits live with the report card.

§ 03Setting up the categories first

Before anyone can log anything, a school admin defines the categories teachers pick from. Until at least one exists, a teacher opening the log sees: "Your school has no behaviour categories set up yet. Ask your school admin to add categories before logging incidents."

1. In School Admin, open Settings → Behaviour categories. The page explains it plainly: "Default points are signed: negative for a demerit, positive for a merit."
2. In the add row, give the category a Name (e.g. "Late to class"), set its Default points, and leave it Active. Press Add category.
3. Choose the sign deliberately. A demerit is a negative number (e.g. -3); a merit is a positive number (e.g. +5). Points are whole numbers between -100 and 100 — if you stray outside that, the page says: "Default points must be a whole number between -100 and 100."
4. To retire a category, press Edit and untick Active (it stops appearing in the picker), or Delete it. Deleting is gentle: "This soft-deletes the category. Existing incidents keep their recorded category name; the category just stops appearing in the picker."

§ 04Logging an incident

A class teacher does this from the staff console, in Behaviour Log, under Log an incident:

1. Pick the Class. The Student dropdown then fills with that class's roster — until you choose a class it reads "— Select a class first —".
2. Pick the Category. Each option shows its points, e.g. "Helped a classmate (+3 pts)" — so you see at a glance whether you're recording a merit or a demerit.
3. Set the Severity — Low, Medium, or High — and answer What happened? in the narrative box (up to 2000 characters; a counter shows what's left).
4. Set the Date (defaults to today; can't be in the future).
5. Optionally tick Notify parent by SMS — see the next section — then press Log incident.

A teacher only sees their own classes here. If none are assigned, the form says: "You have no classes assigned. Ask your school admin to assign you to a class before logging behaviour incidents." A school admin can also log incidents from the whole-school view.

§ 05Notifying the parent

Behaviour notes live in the portals by default, but you can also push an SMS to the student's primary parent. There are two moments to do it:

• At log time: tick Notify parent by SMS "(sends an SMS to the primary parent)" before pressing Log incident.
• Later, from the register: a school admin presses Notify parent on the row. Once sent, the row shows a Parent notified badge with a Resend button.

The SMS carries only the category and severity — never the free-text narrative, which can be sensitive. Sending is also idempotent: a parent isn't double-texted for the same incident unless you explicitly resend.

§ 06The whole-school view (admin)

A school admin sees every incident across the school in Behaviour — the place to spot patterns rather than one-offs. The filter bar lets you narrow by Student, Class, and a From/To date window; press Apply, or Clear to reset.

Each row shows the student, category, a colour-coded severity badge, the signed points, the date, and the narrative — with per-row Notify parent and Delete actions. Deleting confirms first ("Delete this incident? … This cannot be undone.").

• One student acting up? Filter by that student to see their run of incidents and whether merits are balancing the demerits.
• A rough class or a rough week? Filter by class, or set a date window, to see where the heat is.
• An empty result reads "No incidents match these filters. Try clearing them."; a brand-new school sees "No behaviour incidents logged yet."

§ 07What parents & students see

Both portals show a read-only view of the same record — nobody outside staff can add, edit, or delete an incident.

• Parents see a Behaviour tile per child: each note's category, severity, signed points, narrative, and date. Merits show as a calm sage chip and demerits as an attention amber chip. With nothing logged, it reassures: "Nothing to report — there are no behaviour notes for this term."
• Students get their own Behaviour page (eyebrow "Conduct record") listing the same entries — merit points in green, demerits in red. Empty, it simply reads "No behaviour records."

Because the points are signed, a child whose merits outweigh their demerits sees that reflected — the log is as much about catching students doing well as flagging problems.

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