[SIMS] So a couple questions on AM, well, more on how you use your pulled data

[tombry]

ok, first off, I'm behind the ball here, as when I started I was put on behaviour, and then at the start of this year got AM dropped in my lap (I knew it was coming, but not nearly the mess it was in).

So I'm trying to pull together data for all of our departments over the past 4 years - which is not uniform at all because of various people working on it, various systems, naming, etc. I decided to pull it all into Excel, and run from it from there.

now, the first issue I'm having is I made these lovely pivot charts and all the tables are on one page - I change the filters, all my charts change, and I can print that out all nice (to PDF) and email each HOD their dept data. I now need to use that to provide a more timely PDF to SLT showing projections based on our most current TAs. Ideally I could set up a word document, populate my main two tables (GCSE/VI Form) and all my charts in the word doc would auto-update. Yet for the life of me I can't figure this out - whenever I change my charts in the Excel file, they all change in the word doc - including the edits I make to resize the charts to be more representative. I don't really want to copy my main sheet 17 times and change the data 17 times - I'm probably being really dumb, but it's driving me nuts.

secondly, we obviously track 3 levels of progress in English and Maths, but are trying to figure out a way to track it for all departments. I've suggested that I use the TAs from Year 9 Autumn (first assessments) and compare that to the Estimated GCSEs, and finally to the GCSE Result at end of Year 11. SLT doesn't want that, as the TA from Year 9 might not be right, and isn't representative of the students' KS2 APS. I just don't see how we can extrapolate 3 levels of progress in subjects that aren't English and Maths from the KS2 APS - anyone got anything there?

I realize I ask quite a few questions, but I am completely new to schools, and how they try to use the data they have just seems backwards to me at times.

[kiran]

ok, first off, I'm behind the ball here, as when I started I was put on behaviour, and then at the start of this year got AM dropped in my lap (I knew it was coming, but not nearly the mess it was in).

So I'm trying to pull together data for all of our departments over the past 4 years - which is not uniform at all because of various people working on it, various systems, naming, etc. I decided to pull it all into Excel, and run from it from there.

now, the first issue I'm having is I made these lovely pivot charts and all the tables are on one page - I change the filters, all my charts change, and I can print that out all nice (to PDF) and email each HOD their dept data. I now need to use that to provide a more timely PDF to SLT showing projections based on our most current TAs. Ideally I could set up a word document, populate my main two tables (GCSE/VI Form) and all my charts in the word doc would auto-update. Yet for the life of me I can't figure this out - whenever I change my charts in the Excel file, they all change in the word doc - including the edits I make to resize the charts to be more representative. I don't really want to copy my main sheet 17 times and change the data 17 times - I'm probably being really dumb, but it's driving me nuts.

secondly, we obviously track 3 levels of progress in English and Maths, but are trying to figure out a way to track it for all departments. I've suggested that I use the TAs from Year 9 Autumn (first assessments) and compare that to the Estimated GCSEs, and finally to the GCSE Result at end of Year 11. SLT doesn't want that, as the TA from Year 9 might not be right, and isn't representative of the students' KS2 APS. I just don't see how we can extrapolate 3 levels of progress in subjects that aren't English and Maths from the KS2 APS - anyone got anything there?

I realize I ask quite a few questions, but I am completely new to schools, and how they try to use the data they have just seems backwards to me at times.

Why don't you start fresh in Assessment Manager and use the built in systems from there to performance analyse? You could start your own naming convention to indicate the aspects you will be using from now on...!

[tombry]

well that's the plan, but I need to wrap my head around it a bit more before I do that, and that doesn't lend itself to getting the stuff out that SLT wants now.

I think I solved it for now, wasn't easy, but it should buy me enough time to get AM cleaned up somewhat, and start with a new plan going forward.