Remind Teachers to Take Register

[Boredguy]

I agree with the sentiment that technology shuoldn't be required in these situations, but the Head has asked and I'm obliged to comply.

Its also fair to point out that it's not a technology issue but a procedural issue. Maybe the SLT should be going around and reminding staff.

[clareq]

A quick google gave this:

 

https://support.arbor-education.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000324325-Completing-incomplete-attendance-registers#admins-sending-reminders-to-complete-registers-or-completing-them-for-teachers-0-0

[jmak]

I was asked to look at something like this. I refused. I said it the teachers job to make sure they do the register, they shouldn't need a reminder for it. It's literally their job to make sure the children are safe and accounted for. This was agreed. Now, if staff miss a register, they receive an email from the head and they have to explain themselves. 2 weeks later, we only have the odd one missed.

This was one thing I did get strong unquestioned backing on. It was pointed out it was a pupil safety issue. Not having completed registers (including evidence they were taken in a timely fashion) would be a potential Ofsted fail (a local college did fail on pupil safety and this was one of the reasons cited) and would therefore be treated as a disciplinary offence. Things sharpened up after that!

Office had complained they weren't being reliably completed, I proposed technical solutions, HT said teachers are grown ups and need to sort it out.

Which MIS do you use? SIMS has a missing registers notification - the attendance officer has to chose which alerts to send, but it's a simple tick box:

https://faq.scomis.org/kb23337/

Can work but depends on teachers having SIMS open - the teachers who were failing to complete the register often hadn't bothered to open SIMS...

[Davit2005]

Thanks everyone for all the replies so far.

 

I agree with the sentiment that technology shuoldn't be required in these situations, but the Head has asked and I'm obliged to comply.

 

The school's MIS is Arbor. I will ask if they offer any sort of reminder, but I'm not sure what form this would take which wouldn't require staff to either have the website open or an active Outlook session, neither of which are guaranteed, which is why I have been trying to use Windows popup messages.

 

I assumed there would be something readily used and free for this and similar scenarios, but apparently not!

 

That is fair enough. But bear in mind if what ever you setup for some reason breaks, and a register is not taken you can bet it will be used as an excuse and the blame will be attempted to be pointed to you that is why I always say keep thinks simple. Don't over engineer and if you design something in house make sure it is fully documented for the next guy that may come along.

[mavhc]

Browsers have notifications that work when you've not even opened them these days, so that should solve the email notification problem

[paulkerton]

But bear in mind if what ever you setup for some reason breaks, and a register is not taken you can bet it will be used as an excuse and the blame will be attempted to be pointed to you

This! One million times this.

Its procedural failure, not technology. You say you want something that doesn't require the website or calendar to be open, but you can't guarantee the computer will be on and logged in either.

So unless you install a flashing red light, or use a tannoy then whatever you put in, someone will come up with a reason as to why it won't work as the procedure needs fixing, ultimately.

[Katy]

We just get the MIS to open as a tab in the browser on logon as a reminder, although this only really works with fixed PCs and teachers not staying in the same room for 2 lessons in a row.

[ITGuyNW]

It's always boggled the mind how Teachers don't get disciplinaries for the simplest of actions, especially as its safeguarding. We have the same teachers doing not registers over and over again and they never get pulled up on it even when we catch them lying by saying SIMS isn't working when it is.

[Edu-IT]

It's always boggled the mind how Teachers don't get disciplinaries for the simplest of actions, especially as its safeguarding. We have the same teachers doing not registers over and over again and they never get pulled up on it even when we catch them lying by saying SIMS isn't working when it is.

Surely if SIMS isn't working (even it is is) there's a process for doing a paper register?