Assessment & Reporting Software PARS/4Matrix/Go4School

[E-STAR]

Hi

 

Does anyone use the following software packages listed below for Assessment & Reporting? Would you be able to comment on useful they have been for you.

We have arranged a demos for each them tomorrow morning and want to know how you find using them.

 

• Go4Schools

• Pars

• 4Matrix

 

 

Esther

[pcstru]

4Matrix. It does a few things very well but doesn't do everything we want. It's a bit of a pain to map and update data, rolling it out to multiple staff is a pain and mobile access is a problem (people want to be able to access it while at home). Our very senior managers use it.

[Steven_Cleaver]

We use PARs for Registers, Behaviour etc and staff enter Grades in here which links back into SIM's Aspects so it feeds into Assessment Manager in SIM's I did look at using PAR's more for this where I was before but we had a diffren't system at the time. We also use Insight from Tasc Software for parental Portal both these products are excellent and the support provided by Tasc Software second to none both in with any issues or helping to develop the use of the system the way you want, Excellent company.

[Edu-IT]

We use PARs for Registers, Behaviour etc and staff enter Grades in here which links back into SIM's Aspects so it feeds into Assessment Manager in SIM's I did look at using PAR's more for this where I was before but we had a diffren't system at the time. We also use Insight from Tasc Software for parental Portal both these products are excellent and the support provided by Tasc Software second to none both in with any issues or helping to develop the use of the system the way you want, Excellent company.

I'd echo that entirely.

[number34]

I agree with both Stephen and Edu-It. (Although I do find the grades feedback awkward to configure it does work)

[jenny_urey]

I agree with both Stephen and Edu-It. (Although I do find the grades feedback awkward to configure it does work)

 

Would like further feedback on this. Please can you PM me. Grade config should be easy :-/. Won't give my email out here. Thanks.

[dawsonz]

We have just recently purchased both 4Matrix and Go4Schools.

 

4Matrix

We use 4Matrix to analyse KS4 data that has been taken from student reports. We analyse a students current grade, predicted grade and target grade.

 

We import the report data, FFTD and SATS data as three separate spreadsheets.

 

4Matrix does seem more geared towards SIMS and appears to be easier to import data via SIMS. As we use CMIS a lot of the data has to be imported on a spreadsheet.

 

The tool does work very well once setup correctly (setting up the maps for subjects and all other columns takes a while) - we recently rolled it out to SL and they liked it and the fact it's easy to navigate and everything is displayed clearly.

 

We have setup access so that staff can use it both here and at school as it is installed on our Citrix servers.

 

The only downside so far is setting up research groups, it would be nice to be able to import things like pupil premium and IMD within the spreadsheet - however you can't do this and you then have to select all the IMD students and add them to a 'research group'.

 

Go4Schools

We have literally just this week setup Go4Schools so it is still very new. However, so far so good.

 

At a recent training session staff were impressed with Go4Schools - from what I can see at the moment it is VERY important to set it up correctly before staff start using it to input data.

 

At the moment we're just importing data into Go4Schools as the system isn't live - once it does become live and we have started using it more I will be happy to add any further feedback.

 

Richard

[timetableman]

We use 4Matrix and SISRA, (we are a Facility/CMIS school).

 

4Matrix

As has been mentioned using CMIS we have to do a lot of importing via spreadsheets, but that is the nature of many connectors to CMIS. The support is primarily by email, or remote support once an issue has been raised, it isn't ideal it is nice to speak to people straight away, but many of the issues are user error! The development is coming on well and there is an automatic update each month or so. The latest version includes target setting for students. This is helping us to try ensure that all students achieve a positive VA - Something we haven't seen in other products.

 

If you have your data head on then it becomes very quick to use and informative, it paid for itself easily during OFSTED being able to beat down questions by inspectors. I admit the research groups take a bit of putting together, but once they are in, it is an extremely powerful tool.

 

The ability to birng up a classgroup and show "this teaching group is underacheiving AND here the evidence A, B, C and D" that 4Matrix provides is an extremely valueable tool. We provide all staff with data, so they can perform their own self analysis of their class.

 

4Matrix is currently only KS4 only, which is a shame, though they are currently working on KS3 and KS5 versions.

 

 

SISRA

SISRA is a web based product that covers all 3 key stages, the layout once "in the data" is good and easy to drill through, however find the right data-set (the year in which a year 7 students in year 11 i.e. "2016-2017" is more difficult for the teachers, but these can be annotated to help find the correct data-set.

 

Support for SISRA is by their on-screen chat window, again limited telephone support, but once it is up and running, I have only used the support window 3 times in 2 years.

SISRA calculates levels of progress for core and for all subjects at both KS3 and KS4. A really good feature.

 

We use both SISRA and 4Matrix together, as 4matrix provides a much greater depth at KS4, whilst SISRA covers all the "extra" elements. I would recommend using both, it does double your inputs, but the outputs are much greater!

 

I wouldn't rely on the MIS alone! ... I woudn't rely on the MIS.