Sandroyd bet on the right MIS

Sandroyd Preparatory Boarding School can trace its roots back to 1888 when Revd. L H Wellesley Wesley created a small coaching establishment for the sons of his friends who were due to go to Eton.

Key challenges

Teachers wanted the ability to create academic school reports easily from home and give academic staff access to up-to-date pupil records.

IT Services Manager at Sandroyd School, Carol Webster explains: “One of the key motivations for looking for a new management information system was that teachers wanted to do their end-of-term academic school reports at home in their own time. Also, at school, some teaching staff use shared desktops, so it can be difficult to coordinate and generally reports were taking a long time to produce. We looked at using ‘off-line’ reports, but this caused all types of issues.

“We also wanted to improve access to up-to-date pupil information, particularly relating to pastoral care. Pupil notes were originally recorded in a book, making it more cumbersome to update on a regular basis and also more difficult for different staff to look up information quickly at any location.”

The solution

Sandroyd School chose MIS that provides electronic based reporting from any location and centralised access to comprehensive pupil information

“We implemented 3Sys in 2011,” says Carol. “This took just a day to install plus a day’s training. I then trained all the academic staff and provided information packs on how it worked. Like any new system, there is often a mixed reaction as some are more technology-savvy than others, but now that everyone’s used to it, they all the like the fact that it’s made their jobs a lot easier. With reporting, for example, this is now much faster than it was previously and they now have the ability to do this when and where they choose. They can also input information directly onto the system without having to paste from other documents.”

Assistance with regular pupil assessments

Carol continues: “We use the Pupil Notes section of 3Sys to include all sorts of additional information about each child, whether it’s a medical note, a note about dyslexia (which will flag up automatically) or a pastoral care update. The school does fortnightly pupil academic assessments, so this kind of information is vital in putting these together.”

Enhancing pastoral care

“It is very important to have up-to-date information on pupils available to all our 40 teachers. Maintaining a high quality of pastoral care is particularly important in a boarding school environment where children are away from their parents and sometimes require even greater emotional support. 3Sys provides a single point of access for all information that can contribute to pastoral care.

“Not only does the system provide comprehensive information on pupils, but teachers can also benefit from additional information such as details on parents, so they know who is connected with whom. Pupil information is centralised on a single system which means that everyone is looking at the same data, rather than it being spread across a multitude of sources. We can also authorise who can input new data, so we know we can rely on the information being correct.”

Pre-Prep School – Continuity of information

“With 70% of pupils that attend our Pre-Prep school, The Walled Garden, moving up into the Prep School, the 3Sys system gives us on-going information that can move with the pupil. This is really helpful when a teacher has a new class and they can simply look back on past records to support the child’s on-going learning and development.”

Academic progress communication with parents

“We use the Parent Portal to communicate all academic progress to our parents. Sandroyd has been able to stop sending paper copies of reports home. The Parent Portal is also used by parents to check their contact information we hold on the school database. If the information is not correct an email can be generated via the Parent Portal to the school passing on the correct information.”

Future

The school has also recently added the ‘Activities’ Module to the system so that they can store information for extra-curricular activities such as sports. Sandroyd is currently working with WCBS to link the school website to PASS so that up-to-date information with reference to sports teams, clubs and activities can be directly communicated to parents via email or text message. Within the next year, staff will also be able to access information via mobile devices.

On WCBS

“In the six years of working with WCBS I have never had a call left unanswered. Staff are always polite and helpful and all enquiries are typically responded to within an hour.

“I find the user group meetings invaluable. They are a great way of keeping up to date with the latest software and learning about how other schools use the system.”

WCBS will be attending BETT 2014. You can visit them on stand no. C477. To book an appointment please email information@wcbs.co.uk

www.wcbs.co.uk