Parent Portal

[Sam_Brown]

School I work at needs a "parent portal" up and running by start of the next school year. I realise that we're in a similar position to a lot of other schools at the moment and I was just wondering what other peoples plans and experiences were with setting something up.

 

From what I can gather as I've not been given too much info on exactly what management are looking for. We are after someway parents can log in from home and acess their childs attendence, grades and behavior stats.

 

We use SIMS at the moment although upto today I've had little to no dealings with it whatsoever but I'm assuming there is technology availble which will enable parents to view the data on the net or possibly even better have it intergrated into the new VLE we're looking to get up and running some time in the future.

 

So meh... opinions, ideas, experiences? Better to keep two seperate systems or try and intergrate it with our new VLE? Or perhaps something else I'm missing.

 

Hope you guys can help a noob.

[kmount]

Two thoughts.

 

SLG2 from Capita 'just works' in this way, or the LP+ web parts may include this functionality now/future but you'd be better talking to Tony.

[Sylv3r]

We roll out to all of our parents after the October half term using the SLG2.

 

I am actually looking forward to it, just getting staff to ensure that they maintain the registers and behaviour referrals are "parent friendly". I've also got the Office Manager working on cleaning the student data held within SIMS so parents only receive one usernmame / password.

 

Its not an overnight fix just purchasing the solutions - theres a lot of spade working required before you should go live.

[GrumbleDook]

Yep, there are tools for the VLE to do this ... Has Chris been in yet to see you? If so and it wasn't mentioned it is mainly due to getting the ball rolling with the VLE first ... get it working internally with staff and then Parental Engagement later. Online reporting is only a part of Parental Engagement.

 

I'll let him know tomorrow you are interested in that side too as a priority. Even if it is just a look at what can be done further down the line.

[EduTech]

Yeah if you need a parents gateway up and running quickly, i would look at the SLG2 as like kmount said it just works and will work with your MIS nice and easy

 

James.

[GrumbleDook]

@eduTech : 'Parent Portal' does not = SLG2 aka SIMS Web Parts. You *know* there is far more to working with parents than shoving attendance data in their face. I know SLG2 can do a lot more that just the data but that is what most people focus on (even Capita to be honest) and it is *so* disappointing. You can get some really good parental engagement without even touching data.

 

There is also nothing to say that you only have to use one system though ... Parent access in Moodle is coming along from what I hear ... SLG2 ... LP+ with SIMS Web Parts ... Mahara ... the world is your shellfish! Just be careful of people spending heaps of money without thinking about it or discussing it with you (or you with them).

[EduTech]

@eduTech : 'Parent Portal' does not = SLG2 aka SIMS Web Parts. You *know* there is far more to working with parents than shoving attendance data in their face. I know SLG2 can do a lot more that just the data but that is what most people focus on (even Capita to be honest) and it is *so* disappointing. You can get some really good parental engagement without even touching data.

 

There is also nothing to say that you only have to use one system though ... Parent access in Moodle is coming along from what I hear ... SLG2 ... LP+ with SIMS Web Parts ... Mahara ... the world is your shellfish! Just be careful of people spending heaps of money without thinking about it or discussing it with you (or you with them).

 

Oh yeah i know that mate, sorry i probably should of expanded my post a little.

 

I say on our parent portal we have everything parents need:

 

- SIMS Data (For Children)

- Online Forms (Fill in and Send Back)

- Documents (School Related)

- Forums (Parental Discussions)

- Advice (Links, Information about events in local area etc / Training ...)

 

Quite alot actually.

 

Sorry i'm tired bare with me tiger hehe but yes i do get your point mate alot of people do think thats all it is. i said SLG because even though it down bring forward your webparts, you can create pages etc so you can also include the above. at least until you get your fully working Platform/Environment.

 

James.

[DaveMurphy]

Frog do this in their 3.0 package, the complete VLE. It's nice user dummy friendly... and their Promo Hoodies are really cool strongly recco.

[EduTech]

Frog do this in their 3.0 package, the complete VLE. It's nice user dummy friendly... and their Promo Hoodies are really cool strongly recco.

 

Promo Hoodies! Mmm lol! I need a new Ruckus T-Shirt i think i have worn that out now walking around in it LOL! Advertisment board me hehe

 

Yeah anyway.. sorry lol

[Quackers]

Tasc Software have a product called Insight which we pay £500 a year for, all it requires is you run SIMS. Its small, not expensive, easy to install, self hosted and support is excellent, and looks pritty.