Introduction
St Mary's uses Abyasa Pro to monitor trainee progress during placements. It is accessed via a web browser at https://placements.stmarys.ac.uk/pro.
You will find the answers to our most frequently asked questions below. If you can't find the answer below, or are still having difficulties, please send an email to Abyasa Help (abyasahelp@stmarys.ac.uk). Please note, a screenshot of your whole screen is often useful.
Frequently asked questions
The front login page for Abyasa Pro has two options – University login and Non-university login.
PCM / Mentor / CBM / ECT / AO
PCMs, mentors, CBMs, ECTs and Assessment Only trainees should choose the Non-university login option and use your existing username and password to log in. See other FAQs on this page if you are not sure of your username and/or password.
University staff / student
Anyone with a St Mary’s ID – staff, link tutors, students – will choose the University login.
If you are already signed in to your university account (e.g. if you’ve been using OneDrive, or moodle) the University login button will send you directly to your Abyasa homepage.
If you are not yet logged in to your university account, clicking the button will redirect you to the university login page, where your username will use the format universityID@stmarys.ac.uk / regnum@live.stmarys.ac.uk. You should then be directed back to Abyasa.
If you cannot log in to the university portal, there is an issue with your University ID. Try updating your password at https://passwordreset.microsoftonline.com/passwordreset#!/.
If you still have difficulties, please contact the IT helpdesk and ask for help with your St Mary’s login.
NB Abyasa Help can’t resolve issues with university logins.
Secondary PCMs (Professional Co-ordinating Mentor, in charge of ITT at your school), will be sent a link before the start of the school placement to create your Abyasa username and password.
Mentors are invited to Abyasa by their trainee at the start of the placement. If you are new to working with St Mary's students, you will set up your username and password as part of this process.
If you are having difficulty remembering your log in details, please email abyasahelp@stmarys.ac.uk and request an update link.
When you log in to Abyasa as a teacher, you should see a table on your home page with the names of any trainees you are supporting.
If you are a mentor, each trainee needs to invite you to view their timeline records. Ask them to send you an invitation, and look out for an email from Abyasa help with the subject line: Invitation to use Abyasa Pro. Use the link in that email to find your Abyasa teacher record (or create a new one) and this links you with your trainee. If you have problems with the process, please email Abyasa Help with a screenshot of where you have got to.
PCMs should be able to view the timelines all St Mary's trainees at their school. If you have problems, please email Abyasa Help.
Most document types can be uploaded to Abyasa – Word document, Excel spreadsheet, PDF, JPG.
Please check the file size and keep this to a minimum. If you have a large image file, it is worth exporting it to PDF and reducing the file size as you save it.
File naming is also important. Try to keep to letters and numbers rather than using special characters. There are certain special characters that should definitely be avoided, as these will prevent upload altogether.
Special characters to avoid when providing file name:
- / - Front slash
- \ - Backslash
- : - Colon
- ? - Question mark
- * - Asterisk
- | - Vertical Bar
- < - Less than
- > - Greater than
Trainees, university tutors and school mentors/CBMs/PCMs are all able to highlight the trainee's Progress Grid. The process is the same for all Primary and Secondary ITT routes, although the guidance of who does the shading and when may differ - please check with your Link Tutor.
The following video is a quick demonstration for trainees and mentors, with the essential points noted below.
The save button for the Progress Grid is actually called Sign-off & Submit - at the top of the screen.
When you have highlighted one of the tabs, click Sign-off & Submit, and it will ask you to select your current placement and create a new layer.
You need to click Sign-off & Submit for each tab, before you move to a new one, otherwise your shading will be lost.
Once you have added a layer, when you next do highlighting and click Sign-off & Submit, you'll be given the option to Save changes or Save as a new layer.
I recommend Save changes, otherwise you'll end up with lots of layers!
Secondary PGCE students in their Development phase will use the same CCF Progress Grid that they shaded in Foundation.
To start with a clean (unshaded) layer in each section, simply click the ‘New Blank Layer’ button at the top of the table. You can then continue shading as you did for Foundation.
The following video runs through the process:
Please note you will need to add a new blank layer in each CCF tab.
Please note: we will continue to add to this list of questions and answers as the academic year progresses. If your question is not answered above, please contact Julie at Abyasa Help on abyasahelp@stmarys.ac.uk.
A screenshot of your whole screen is often useful to help work out what is happening.