looking for a pupil and staff attendance/registration style solution

[KK20]

We currently use isams for registration, one AM and one PM, opens at 08:30, closes 09:15 opens again 13:30 closes 14:15 form tutors take the register, late pupils to either go to reception for them to update the codes accordingly. We are looking for something for our 6th formers, they are allowed onsite much earlier and dont have to go to after school clubs but can stay onsite studying. Currently they go to reception, sign in a book and sign out of a book both before and after school. Ideally they would have a self service sign in option for a "before registration club" or similar.

 

Im looking to make this electronic. We dont have the activity module in isams. Ideally I would like to link the solution to isams for a single "press fire register here" but accept that it might be a two system due to isams limitations. Ideally the following:

 

08:00 pupil comes onsite, "signs in" self service

08:40 pupil goes to form room and is marked present by form tutor.

09:00 FIRE! the register printed off shows pupil was marked present by form tutor (but may also show they are in an "early arrive club" and signed in at 08:00)

 

This solution could also be rolled out so staff "sign in" and "sign out" (some cleaners are in very early and very late, currently they manually sign in and out via a book)

 

ideas?

[RLR]

I don't know how granular it can go but sounds like Inventry might be the system you're looking for. They have an app that you can use for the fire register also.

[slugshead]

I'd be warey about using Inventry for anything other than visitor management, it's very clunky when it's outside of it's comfort zone. I had performance issues in mind when we purchased Inventry, so virtualised the backend on much higher spec hardware than their units and it still runs like a dog. They have an app, that's very slow though and each user needs to be granted permission to use the app.

 

That being said, Inventry can PULL users from iSAMS, so it populated the database and has the ability to writeback to AM and PM registration sessions only, so could work with classmark.

[TechMonkey]

We have iSAMS and Inventry and roughly do this. Pupils can sign in and out and a member of the office staff runs the process to write the marks back. It is not an automated process, for obvious reasons, but is quite painless. You can also build rules, so we have pupils can not use the system to sign in until 08:30, from then until 08:40 they are marked as late, then after that they are marked as later after register.

 

As slugshead said, the app is a bit clunky. The fire register is pretty good in my view, multiple people can use it at once and it updates across the board. The only thing it doesn't do is a full pupil evac register, this is only available for SIMS for some reason. So it will show late pupils or early leavers. Which is annoying. I do still have a ticket open with them about how to update their version of Windows, as it is LTSB and will have to buy their hardware again if we want to update it.

[KK20]

TechMonkey - do you have multiple "other" registration periods other than your AM/PM registration periods in isams? I.e. Early (say 8:00 open till 8:40) and AM (8:41 till 9:10) then PM (13:30 till 14:10) and "after school" (16:00 till 18:00)? My thinking is simply separate reg periods to split the groups.

 

I was reading https://support.isams.com/hc/en-us/articles/224860288-Ad-Hoc-or-Activity-Registers reference adhoc registers (we dont use the activities module) so would be stuck with either multiple registration slots (clunky and prone to killing isams stats) or hijacking "one of the other groups" which im not familiar with (we dont use tutor groups as suggested in the web page)

Edited November 23, 2021 by KK20

[TechMonkey]

In iSAMS we do, but I think in Inventry you just set up rules to match what you want. It's been a while since I've had to touch it.

[KK20]

Cheers, that was going to be the approach I suggested. Adding "other" periods mid term is generally not a good idea in isams though.....

 

Another IT admin has emailed me with "sign in app" who I had never heard of. They only use it as a standalone system though, no MIS integration.

Edited November 23, 2021 by KK20

[TechMonkey]

It may have changed but when we looked a few could pull data out, only Inventry wrote back.

 

So just had a poke around and I think it may do what you want. It is pretty simplistic in that it just has an AM and PM session start time option. No closing time.

[ALA68]

Hello everyone, not sure if I should start a new thread... but maybe someone could help here! I am struggling with attendance on isams as I can only run reports (thus stats) monthly!? I want to run termly stats, spot poor attendance and send letters home. Any guidance on this?

Thanks!

[MatthewL]

My first thoughts here would be Inventry especially with MIS link.

 

The mention about "sign in app" we use that where we work now, the app on phones is create to use, its web based, staff who are fire wardens are given permission for evac list so can check people off. As regards to the education side not seen that work as I am not in education anymore. They are all much of the same, Osborne Technologies so EntrySign, I've worked with their IT team before, they had a good product too but their hardware let it down a few years ago, again they are all similar, see if the product offers what you have and what the disadvantages/advantages are over each one.

[soapyfish]

We are looking at something very similar and I am currently pretty impressed with this

 

https://www.osbornetechnologies.co.uk/entrysign/

[Danp]

Cheers, that was going to be the approach I suggested. Adding "other" periods mid term is generally not a good idea in isams though.....

 

Another IT admin has emailed me with "sign in app" who I had never heard of. They only use it as a standalone system though, no MIS integration.

 

I was about to suggest Sign in App, we've been using it since May although only for staff