Industry Served: EdTech
NameDown, Solving the Messy School Admissions Problem
A Purpose-Built Platform for Applications, Selection Criteria, Waiting Lists, and Offers
One Place for the Whole Admissions Cycle
Discuss your projectNameDown is a specialised platform built exclusively to manage school admissions for primary and post-primary schools. It takes the process end to end: a customised application form on the school's own website, automated evaluation against the school's selection criteria, a digital lottery where places are oversubscribed, an active waiting list, one-click offers, and a second-stage form that completes each student folder. Data then exports cleanly to POD, PPOD, and the school's management information system.
Admissions had been running on paper forms, spreadsheets, and postal correspondence, with applicant data spread across systems that were never designed to hold it. Schools were managing statutory obligations and hundreds of anxious families through manual processes where a single transcription error carried real consequences. NameDown was founded to give school leaders a dependable system instead, developed alongside schools since 2021.
We developed the School Interface and the Admin Interface behind the platform. NameDown has been supported by Enterprise Ireland, NDRC, and South East BIC, and was featured in the Business Post in March 2024.
Project Challenges & Needs
Every School Admits Differently
Selection criteria, application forms, and required documents vary by school, so the system had to be configurable rather than fixed.
Highly Sensitive Applicant Data
Children's personal details and supporting documents demanded strict access control, encryption, and a clear audit trail.
Defensible Oversubscription
Where demand exceeded places, criteria ranking and the lottery had to be transparent, timestamped, and auditable if questioned.
Seasonal Volume Spikes
Applications, offers, and responses cluster into a few short windows, so the platform had to absorb heavy load without slipping.
Our Solution
We developed a scalable, role-based School Admissions Platform enabling
The two interfaces sit on shared admissions data, so every application, offer, and response lives in one place from first enquiry through to finalised enrolment.
Interfaces We Developed
School Interface
The working environment for principals, deputy principals, & admissions officers, allowing school staff to:
- Build and publish a customised application form for the school's admissions round
- Define selection criteria and priorities for the year.
- Review incoming applications with uploaded documents against each applicant record
- Run automated evaluation, then a digital lottery where places are oversubscribed
- Manage the waiting list and issue applicant numbers.
- Send first round and additional round offers in one click and track acceptances
- Contact parents individually or as a whole group through automated personalised email
- Filter, export, and download applicant data and folders for POD, PPOD, and school MIS
- See a constant overview of application status and key deadlines on one dashboard
Admin Interface
The platform control layer for the NameDown team, used to:
- Onboard schools with roll number, type, and location, and manage their staff accounts
- Configure form templates, criteria libraries, and email templates available to schools
- Set and monitor each school's admissions windows and application status
- Handle demo requests and support enquiries coming in from the website
- Oversee platform-wide activity, application volumes, and email delivery
- Manage subscriptions, permissions, and school-level configuration
Key Features & Capabilities
Transparent Criteria Handling
Selection criteria applied consistently, with every step tracked, timestamped, and auditable.
Digitalised Lottery
A defensible draw for places when a school is oversubscribed, replacing manual lotteries entirely.
Two-Stage Applications
Parents apply, then complete a second stage on receiving an offer, which updates the student folder automatically.
Seamless Communication
Automated personalised emails keep parents informed and cut both school workload and postal costs.
Secure Data Management
Sensitive applicant data and documents stored securely, with access limited to the right school staff.
Scalable and Dependable
Large application volumes handled without loss of accuracy, growing with the school year on year.
Outcomes and Impact
One Source of Truth
Efficiency
Schools report the process is more manageable with all information in one place, reducing the margin for error.
Lower Correspondence Cost
Savings
Contacting parents at the click of a button has replaced manual correspondence, with large savings in postal costs.
Backing and Recognition
Support
Supported by Enterprise Ireland, NDRC, and South East BIC, and featured in the Business Post in March 2024.
What Schools Say
NameDown has been a gamechanger for us here PCH. It has streamlined our admissions process, making it much more efficient as all of the information is in one place. It is extremely easy to use and ensures that selection criteria management, waiting lists, offers and acceptances are much more manageable.
Dave Dempsey, Deputy Principal, Presentation College Headford
Technologies Used to Develop the Solution
web application
Laravel
School and admin interfaces, forms, and the admissions workflow engine.
frontend
JavaScript & Responsive UI
Dashboards, filtering, and whole-group actions across large applicant lists.
database
MySQL
Applicant records, criteria, offers, and waiting lists with a full audit history.
criteria & lottery engine
Rules-Based Evaluation
Ranks applications by school criteria and runs a verifiable random draw for places.
document handling
AWS S3 with Signed Access
Uploaded certificates and supporting documents stored privately per applicant.
digital signature
In-Form Signing
Parents sign and submit the application without printing or posting anything.
email automation
Transactional Email with Templates
Personalised offer, waiting list, and status emails sent in bulk with delivery tracking.
data export
CSV & Folder Export
Structured output for transfer to POD, PPOD, and school management systems.
security & hosting
AWS with GDPR-Aligned Access Control
Encryption, role-based permissions, and audit logging across every admissions action.
Here's What Our Client Has to Say
They understood from the start that admissions is a process schools cannot afford to get wrong, and they built accordingly. The platform has handled every admissions season we have put through it, the team has been responsive whenever we needed them, and they have grown the product with us as more schools came on board. A dependable technical partner.
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