CyBeRkId2002 Posted March 23, 2009 Posted March 23, 2009 Hi all, We are currently looking into purchasing software to carry out the following tasks: Lesson by Lesson Registration (currently looking at Lesson Monitor) Email/Text Messaging Parents (currently looking at SchoolComms) Online Reporting to Parents (currently looking at Sims Learning Gateway) Staff Entering Assesment Data Online (currently looking at Sims Learning Gateway) I have recently, however, found out about the PARs Classroom Management system which seems to fulfil most of the above and had a few main questions about the software: How easy is the email/texting side of the software? Can you send to SIMs groups? Can it be done over the internet or is it a locally installed app? Does it pull parent contact information directly from SIMs rather than a periodic import. Am I right in thinking the software would accompany Lesson Monitor for Lesson-by-Lesson registration rather than replace the need for it. I have read on the Tasc website that staff can enter grades for students online. Does this writeback to assesment manager or is it just information which is stored in the PARs software? Thanks for any help, Michael
SchoolITLackey Posted March 23, 2009 Posted March 23, 2009 SIMS should do pretty much everything you want (not sure about the SMS / texting to parents). A mixture of Lesson Monitor for lesson-by-lesson registration plus SIMS Assessment Manager plus Learning Gateway for the rest. Bromcom also can provide everything you are looking for, but the drawback is you would have to buy their full MIS solution (or at least Bromcom attendance module). Lesson by lesson registration tool is good, their eMarkBook system was a bit of a nightmare to be honest when we used, but I believe can link to SIMS Assessment Manager. Their online portal looked good at BETT this year ..... Not used PARs, but I know Jenny from PARs posts her so I am sure she can provide information on her company's product functionality.
pete Posted March 23, 2009 Posted March 23, 2009 How easy is the email/texting side of the software? Can you send to SIMs groups? Can it be done over the internet or is it a locally installed app? Does it pull parent contact information directly from SIMs rather than a periodic import. Am I right in thinking the software would accompany Lesson Monitor for Lesson-by-Lesson registration rather than replace the need for it. I have read on the Tasc website that staff can enter grades for students online. Does this writeback to assesment manager or is it just information which is stored in the PARs software? 1) Unsure - we're not using it atm. 2) It replaces it. Or rather, we use PARS for this functionality. 3) Everything you change is written back to SIMS (iirc) *waits to see if Jenny gets temp-banned again*
CyBeRkId2002 Posted March 23, 2009 Author Posted March 23, 2009 SchoolITLackey: I think ideally we would go down the Lesson Monitor/SLG route if it were not for the costs involved. From a quick look around PARs would be a much more cost effective system when Lesson Monitor Licencing, Sharepoint Licencing and Support are taken into account. Pete: Thanks for that. Are you able to record lesson by lesson attendance in PARs then without having the SIMs lesson monitor functionality. How is the reporting on attendance data? Do you just set two of the periods in PARs to write back to the Sims AM/PM registration periods?
Iain.Faulkner Posted March 23, 2009 Posted March 23, 2009 Hi, In my old school we used to use something called "Call Parent" which had a call, email and text function and integrated into Sims. Used to work realy well, unfortunately I can't find a URL to it. I'm sure as well it was a partner with Sims as well, so sims were reccomending it to schools at one time (but I could be wrong on this). Well worth a look, as it was really easy to use and was very reliable. For the other things you're after, Lesson Monitor and Learning Gateway are the obvious options to me, but I would say that having always worked in capita schools.
pete Posted March 23, 2009 Posted March 23, 2009 (edited) Pete: Thanks for that. Are you able to record lesson by lesson attendance in PARs then without having the SIMs lesson monitor functionality. How is the reporting on attendance data? Do you just set two of the periods in PARs to write back to the Sims AM/PM registration periods? Yup, PARS writes to attendance within SIMS. You can do just AM and PM, lesson-by-lesson or both - lesson-by-lesson is more of a chore for end-users, but can be handy for trend analysis. Regarding reporting - it's quite granular. You can use trending to identify things like joint absences / lateness (i.e regular group smoking in the bikesheds). Tasc have demos available that run for 30 days if you want to have a play. Edited March 23, 2009 by pete
krb548 Posted March 23, 2009 Posted March 23, 2009 We use Sims here for most thing apart from the reports which we then use a custom built application based around a filemaker database. For attendance we use a Sims gold partner called Vericool. This allow us to do biometrics based registration. This system works well and drops all marks into Sims. Also has modules for SMS message, late system for reception plus cashless catering.
GrumbleDook Posted March 23, 2009 Posted March 23, 2009 Jenny is on here somewhere and would probably be the best person to answer your questions directly ... and even give you some schools to chat with as well. If you don't get an answer on this thread (or a PM from her) then just give them a ring. They are a good bunch and happy to field questions.
jenny_urey Posted July 14, 2009 Posted July 14, 2009 Hi all, We are currently looking into purchasing software to carry out the following tasks: Lesson by Lesson Registration (currently looking at Lesson Monitor) Email/Text Messaging Parents (currently looking at SchoolComms) Online Reporting to Parents (currently looking at Sims Learning Gateway) Staff Entering Assesment Data Online (currently looking at Sims Learning Gateway) I have recently, however, found out about the PARs Classroom Management system which seems to fulfil most of the above and had a few main questions about the software: How easy is the email/texting side of the software? Can you send to SIMs groups? Can it be done over the internet or is it a locally installed app? Does it pull parent contact information directly from SIMs rather than a periodic import. Am I right in thinking the software would accompany Lesson Monitor for Lesson-by-Lesson registration rather than replace the need for it. I have read on the Tasc website that staff can enter grades for students online. Does this writeback to assesment manager or is it just information which is stored in the PARs software? Thanks for any help, Michael Hi Michael Yes I am on here ... Tony, I promise to be good so I dont get banned The answer is yes to al you have written and it is true realtime read/write so no updating every few hours. Not sure what school you are from; I know that a few schools who have been on here as recent have purchased so all I can say is give us a ring and we can arrange to come onsite and demo the product. Its fair to say that schools tend to be surprised when I do a demo as they dont realise how much is available and what a powerful system both for ease of inputting data for staff and reporting for pastoral/SLT so ..... if you have a demo, you then have options... if you dont purchase thats fine, If you do then I will look forward to working with you:) PM me if you want further details as I wont be able to give my details on this forum. By the way I love Edugeek and I wear my T-shirt with pride... you all look very nice today and I wish you all well - please dont ban me
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