When are your busy times? And do you get quiet periods?

[ICTLady]

I'm 9 months into my first year as a Data Manager and still getting sideswiped by unexpected busy periods, jobs I hadn't anticipated etc. I've been pretty much flat out since doing the June progress reports as we moved through academic promotion, setting up all the new marksheets (still an ongoing task!), results days, reams of exam analysis, then all the unanticipated jobs that come in the new school year such as updating our FFT and ALPS targets, updating SEN, G&T and Pupil Premium lists, analysis of our new intake's CATS scores etc. We're about to do progress reports for every year group in the school simultaneously, after which I am hoping (maybe foolishly) that things may settle down a bit.

 

I'd be interested to know when are your busiest times and when, if ever, it gets quiet enough to look at those little projects that you keep meaning to get round to.

[NormalDistribution]

I find there is a lull between 2am and 4am in the morning.

 

Seriously - I guess February, March can be the quieter months.

 

Mid August to Christmas is always the busiest.

[gazskeltz]

Hi,

 

There never seems to be a slack time here, especially at the end of terms. Whilst everyone seems to wind down, I usually wind up...

 

We report progress to all year groups every term now and profile reports are sent to at least one year group every term. Even when these are all set up, they invariably need to be redesigned somewhat because of Course changes and changes to design.

 

There are two phrases that are the bane of my life:

 

'If OFSTED came in tomorrow...'

'I'm sure you can just press a button and...'

 

It's often assumed that things happen as if by magic - FFT, ALPS, 4Matrix, marksheets etc. etc.

 

I'm lucky that my Boss, although demanding, understands how long some things take to design and set up - I take great pains to show exactly what a 'simple' request takes in time and effort.

 

I'm also considered the Excel 'guru' in the school, so often have to help out staff with their spreadsheet designs and problems. Unfortunately, they quite oftem come to me with a self-made spreadsheet that simply has initial design flaws...

 

 

Having said that - I still love the job!

 

 

Gary

[Seb1780]

I've just completed my first year having started last October. A lot of the work done setting things up as I wanted them is now paying dividends as we start going through the cycle again, so now I'm at a quiet time and looking forward to some projects (data cleansing on SIMS being No1!).

 

I expect this year it will be quieter from Novemeber to Easter with only the odd exam result coming in and all the reports planned and set up ready to run. From Easter onwards it is, as you said, a whirl of new admissions, exams, results and fresh data.

 

So make your first priority a thorough examination of the best holiday destinations in winter months - I'm off to Cuba in a few weeks for my first holiday since I started here.

 

Steve

[ICTLady]

Thanks all (so far - would be interested to hear from more of you).

 

Lots of what Gary says rings a real bell. Especially the things happening by magic - it means that (when you're new), no-one asks you for things until they realise that they haven't magically appeared, so you're always fire-fighting. Looking forward to being a bit more on top of things next year!

 

No term-time holidays here, and I also have two children at school themselves so holidays are strictly school holidays only. Shame as a couple of weeks in Cuba would just do me nicely right now.

[jrma91]

I am year 3 into the DM role, and there is never a quiet period for me! It is either busy or manic! We report to parents 4 times a year, every 9 weeks, and reports 2-4 have staff comments! Also SLT come up with these bright ideas from time to time, and expect them to be done yesterday! Thankfully my line manager is currently educating the rest of them as to how difficult (time consuming) it is to change and implement new things!

One of the things that I am lucky with is that I don't have to do admissions, we have an admissions officer who does that, as well as dealing with the entry of CTF's! Otherwise I think I would go crazy! ( Or crazier than I already am:tinfoil3:)

[vikpaw]

All of the above and more.

There are lots of times, when i'll say, i'll look into something, so if there is a hint of it going quiet, there are plenty of things i have to try, test, re-jig in the background. They will never be happy.

I've had a nearly finished assessment system many times, then someone will decide, let's swap the first term (short reports) for the second term (long reports), that's easy right? just switch two words. Almost always last minute. It ended up taking the whole year of my quiet bits to get the changes made! Every template, marksheet, summary marksheet and report definition had to be redone.

There's always a spreadsheet i want to tweak a formula in to save 2 columns or a bit of code or a script i want to create. Save these 'fun' jobs for anything that resembles a quiet period and it might just keep you sane, albeit overworked.

[LosOjos]

As others have said, "quiet" periods are relative. I do tend to get a bit of time mid-summer term where everything is running smoothly so I can do some more development, but that inevitably causes me more work in the long run! The problem with this job is, the better you are at it and the more quickly/efficiently you get things done, the more demanding it becomes because any time you manage to save soon gets filled with other things.

 

I dread to think how stressed my successor will be... this job has developed so much since I started it I simply cannot imagine walking in to it fresh now, I think I'd run swiftly in the other direction!

[number34]

Busiest times of the year for me are September - new timetables, October census, November start next academic year options TT etc, January Census, February y10, 12 options, April new intake, June next year TT, July curriculum transfer, August exam results and analyses. Every week there seems to be a new tracking or assessment or Raiseonline or FFT or progression (at KS3, KS4 and KS5) report or mark sheet or analysis to be completed or, more often the case, completely reconfigured because of a bright idea from SLT or a stupid idea from Mr Gove.

I do seem to have difficulty finding a time that is not busy....

[CaterinaAnna]

I used to be able to take a week off around now - initial target setting and stuff done, everything set up for first batch of reports, go away while people fill in the mark sheets, come back to chase, collate and analyse.

This year, as last, performance table changes mean lots of new courses (some changing well after term's started) and having to count things differently, so looks like February half term will be the next pause ... except our reports contract runs out in April, so we'll probably be setting up a new system for them then.

I will get a decent break over Christmas itself, of course, but if your family's anything like mine, that's not a rest!

[chrisateen]

This is why I am really upset about the new job as they are expecting me to do data, cover, exams, put students onto SIMS, take students off SIMS and update student information (and possibly do timetabling) all by myself.

 

Schools don't really understand who time consuming it is just making small changes in Assessment Manager never mind having to clean up the whole off assessment manger because the SLT set it up completely wrong by using dates as results set and calling marksheets with dates and had to fight to change all of that as he insisted that he is right

[CAM]

Between late August and about now. Enjoying a quiet period to get everything set up for Christmas assessments, would have been earlier but OFSTED interfered.

[CarpeDiem]

Sorry, late to the party. I recently amused myself by giving HT a business plan for a data assistant. The document had my JD with what I do get paid for, don't have time for and do but outside of my remit, along with what I would do if I had an assistant to do all the time consuming but repetitive stuff for me. It is good to know we are all in the same boat. One of our new senior leaders asked me to put the NNT/NNPT/NNRT data on all of our subject and tracking marksheets asap. Sure, I said. Five mintes a marksheet times about 300 templates..... Unless there is a magic button I have not yet found to apply one aspect to every template and put it in the right place?

[Jenis]

I had a data assistant, it was great! Once trained up she helped me out with the half termly data collections, reports, setting up marksheets/templates/individual reports, processing set changes, posting letters home, emailing teachers, etc.

 

Then she left. Probably because all those repetitive tasks were a bit boring.

 

"No worries" thought I. I'd made sure that everything was all set up for this year, to minimise my workload.

 

Then SLT decided they wanted to change the format and formula colours of the data collection marksheets and reports.

 

Then I acquired another school to data manage at the same time.

 

Good luck getting your data assistant!

[WayTooTricky]

No quiet periods here - none never, ever, ever, ever.

 

I'm the Exams Officer and am acting Assessment manager.

 

Should never have shown them those excel skills picked up in a previous life.

[CarpeDiem]

Haha @Jenis, I had an assistant in a past life who actually became my brother in law, but yes he did find the tasks somewhat repetitive! Managing two schools must be interesting, though....! Ours is split site with c. 1800 pupils so not an easy job, but at least we're all the same school.

[Scotbynature]

Quiet times, what is this term you talk about?

 

I have been doing the data here for almost a year now and have yet to have a quiet period, probably because I also do the timetable and also look after the IT as well. I tend to do most of my data stuff at home in the evenings and at weekends as I am that busy. I do have an assistant to handle a lot of the mundane tasks and she also helps me proof read all of the reports that have comments in as well.

[CAM]

It all depends on my assessment calendar. Sept to now is mad, expecting a lull mid-November then all hell breaking loose again in Dec with another batch of reports. Not even thought of the rest of the year yet!

[Jenis]

@CarpeDiem Hahaha, it's not so bad - one school is tiny, so combined we're probably about the same number of pupils as you! Anyway, it gets me out of the office (to a different office) twice a week and it's by the sea, so I can't complain! Plus, both schools have completely different timetable cycles, so it can be really interesting to try and solve any problems that arise.

 

No lulls or quiet time now. I used to, but the longer I've been here and the more work I've taken on it's just constant. There is always something that needs doing urgently - usually timetable changes... Everyone who had any connection with my job has left now, so my nickname for myself is 'last idiot left standing'.

[Stricnine]

Quiet time... you'll need to explain that .. I don't understand the work quiet ! ...

I'm in Scotland so probably my schedule will be slightly different from most of you.. but never a dull moment... we recently 'lost' Pearson e1, so what with the migration of data ("but that's just copying data"), along with setting up the new system (WCBS) ... whew... i don't even get quiet time between 12am and 4am as someone suggested - I dream about the dam report builder!

 

I guess once a years gone by and I'm into repeating it will be better, but I fear all the tricks I'm learning as I progress through the setup means I'll want to redo stuff next year...

 

it's good to hear that you're all in the same boat though