Xeba37 Posted February 13, 2015 Posted February 13, 2015 Good afternoon folks, My school is potentially in the market for a new tracking system to compliment what I have set up in our SIMS system for KS4 and if possible KS5. (Although there is talk of moving to Integris down the line but that is another issue entirely.) We already use a bought in system but it is not fulfilling our needs and we want to have something lined up to replace it when our contract ends in the summer. Does anyone have any recommendations for tracking software we can take a look at? I am not being idle, I can do my own research and I know who the big players, are but I was wanting real opinions from you people on the ground who have actually used these products and know their strengths and weaknesses (I have more expertise in primary, I have only worked with this one program in secondary). Ideally the product will work well with SIMS the data we hold in there, i.e. the export process won't be an absolute nightmare, which I know, for some software it can be! Cheers.
Steve21 Posted February 13, 2015 Posted February 13, 2015 (Ignore me if I'm off by what I think you mean) but used a few bits before, SISRA been dumped by most of the schools for 4Matrix nowadays as it's a bit snazzier and easier to get what you want. Discover doesn't seem detailed enough as everyone who's used it dropped it for SISRA/4matrix etc. Steve 1
Xeba37 Posted February 13, 2015 Author Posted February 13, 2015 (Ignore me if I'm off by what I think you mean) but used a few bits before, SISRA been dumped by most of the schools for 4Matrix nowadays as it's a bit snazzier and easier to get what you want. Discover doesn't seem detailed enough as everyone who's used it dropped it for SISRA/4matrix etc. Steve Discover is something that we can use along side a more complex tracking system but as a stand alone it is not enough. 4Matrix promotional video is not enough to go on alone as it did not seem to show comparison to national data and I couldn't see the effectiveness of filtering by groups. It doesn't mean it is not there, but it is why I am on here asking for advice.
Sylv3r Posted February 13, 2015 Posted February 13, 2015 We are a Sisra user and the staff and data people love it. We looked at 4Matrix too, but they went for Sisra in the end.
PhilNeal Posted February 13, 2015 Posted February 13, 2015 I'd recommend that someone goes on a course. Our product really doesn't need extra analysis software!
cct72 Posted February 16, 2015 Posted February 16, 2015 About 50% of the schools in Yorkshire and the Humber use SISRA Analytics, I think 4matrix is more widely used in the South and in London definitely. I'm sure another school would be happy for you to go in and see them both in action, that's a good way to find out.
cct72 Posted February 16, 2015 Posted February 16, 2015 (Ignore me if I'm off by what I think you mean) but used a few bits before, SISRA been dumped by most of the schools for 4Matrix nowadays as it's a bit snazzier and easier to get what you want. Discover doesn't seem detailed enough as everyone who's used it dropped it for SISRA/4matrix etc. Steve Not sure about the validity of that! I think it's just that more schools in the south use 4matrix and the north seem to be using SISRA Analytics. 4matrix have about 750 schools using it and SISRA have about 1400.
Bev Posted February 16, 2015 Posted February 16, 2015 We use Pupil Asset, it's web-based. It can import data from SIMS but it's more of a standalone as far as the tracking goes. I moved over from SIMS marksheets about a year ago and it's been brilliant for us. We are a middle rather than Primary or Secondary, and this was one of the few products that could cope with that.
Steven_Cleaver Posted February 18, 2015 Posted February 18, 2015 In essence probably overkill but we use SIM's Marksheets which are used at sort of Class\Subject level to track sort of modular and bespoke to department modules and works well for Departments and most Departments are now using these although. The Data from our six reporting points is automatically exported out of SIM's into our own Web abased Analysis system which is used by whole school so (SLT, Teachers, HOD's, TA's and Support staff) and does a more comprehensive automated Analysis of the data and allows all Staff to enter Intervention based on Analysis of data and Data can be viewed in various point of views, Student, Class, Subject, Teacher Reg\Form or whole school. We have also built in our own Deviation measures for example at Assessment Point 1, 2 can be on a Deviation of -4, Assessment Point 3 -2 etc so sort of shows although a Student maybe -4 Deviation for the time of the year they are on target. The whole system automatically runs over night so means all data is always up to date. We also use SIRA Analytics which is excellent and is used by HOD's, Teachers and SLT and is excellent at Exam times or the end of year as it gives an excellent view on where students are and saves a massive amount of time but just requires the data to be uploading. A rough Idea of what we use LHS although the systems have moved on considerably since this as I haven't updated this from last year so is over a year old.
Marci Posted February 18, 2015 Posted February 18, 2015 4Matrix doesn't handle Post16, requires installation on every (Windows) PC which needs to use it... SISRA Analytics does handle Post16, and is entirely web-based so accessible anywhere (on any platform)... SIMS' Assessment Toolkits handles Post16 & KS2-4, but aren't accessible enough imo (Excel based reports)... At the moment, SISRA is the only one on the right path for us - ie: web-based, platform independant, and handles KS5.
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