Any recommendations for split site MIS

[katie.lawe]

Hi

We have a joint sixth form (approx 300 on roll) that is split over two schools, teaching is carried out on both sites (2.5 days for each year on each site). At present we have a MIS which is less than effective.

 

Does anyone have any experience/comments about the following solutions we have found and are investigation

 

SIMS Partnership Exchange

Serco Progresso

Scholar Pack

 

We need to have we access from both sites (not bothered on who hosts, or remote hosting at present),

It needs to be at a reasonable cost

The support needs to be proven to be good and responsive.

Reporting to parents would be an advantage (or the ability to link into Moodle or equivalent)

Reporting to the authority for census purposes would also be good.

 

Thanks for any comments in advance

 

Many thanks in advance

[vikpaw]

From what i've heard, SIMS Partnership Exchange does the job well, so long as you warn the timetablers to take care with any edits. Not sure about the costs, or feasibility of hosting.

Which MIS do you have now? Are you proposing a complete change of MIS or just to farm off the sixth form? Both are rather major.

Support is going to vary depending on your location / local support team / arrangement with LA.

I would try to speak to someone at scholarpack as they may be able to tailor a bespoke solution for you, as they're a small outfit, costs should be cheap, and it includes parental report, via the web interface. It should be easy to host too.

[katie.lawe]

Both schools are on different MIS at the moment, boys appear as guests on the girls schools system and vice versa. We dont have a plan at the moment so just looking for any ideas which could be from continuing as we are and using something to marry them up or using a completely different third party MIS just for the sixth form.

[vikpaw]

If both schools are open to it, it would be nice to use a separate one to combine the sixth form, but you'll get issues if each school has it's own MIS. Even just between one MIS and another, timetabling would be a pain.

 

It could be the first steps for both schools to look at migrating to a different system though. So you could run it in parallel. Each school do what they normally do, manually in terms of scheduling and student info, then copy the lot for sixth form only into the third system, or one linked to either school's MIS, so it could be SIMS PX, scholarpack etc. It's extra work keeping sixth form side updated but could be easier to manage things like attendance etc.

 

I'm not sure on what you have to do in terms of CENSUS and other returns, which may become complicated if you pick up a third system, and start segregating data. Some of the knowledgeable UK folks will be back soon, and probably have some insider know-how on that front.

[katie.lawe]

Im thinking that having a third system to keep the 6th form separate would be the best idea. It has its own dfes number so wouldn't be an issue. The main issue which we are trying to resolve is the inconsistency of the data as it is being transferred from 2 MIS systems, to a small third party MIS (which doesn't do what we want it to) and spreadsheets on both sites! total nightmare!!!.

 

Scholarpack don't have an exams module so would need to think how that could be managed but I think that that would be fairly easy to do on one of our current system? Does anyone else use Scholar pack and have this issue?

[ntm1275]

Our LA have been using RM's Integris G2 in Primary and Secondary schools for the last four years, and it is used successfully over split sites as it is fully web based

 

It is also very reasonably priced compared to other MIS systems

 

Is has all the Secondary functionality that would be used in an MIS - Assessment, Behaviour, AM/PM Attendance, Lesson by Lesson Attendance, Census, Exams, Reporting to Parents, Staff Absence Cover, Timetable, etc

[featured_spectre]

The last place I worked at used a hosted schoolbase to do the job, they have 4 sites, 1 school base covers them very very well. As much as I moan about any MIS, it did the job fine, as would the SIMS partnership Exchange - seen that in federated schools and it works reasonably well.

[LosOjos]

One thing I will say about SIMS Exams module - it does not support multiple DfE numbers and we were told by Capita that attempting to use multiple numbers we did at our own risk... I did create a program to help out with that issue though if you do go with SIMS (details here: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/64415-mis-doesnt-support-multiple-centres-try-exam-file-split.html)

[katie.lawe]

Thats Ok, we have a seperate DfE number for the Joint Sixth Form, and it has been managed on one of the schools MIS systems like this for a few years now.

[babugs]

Hi Katie,

 

You can also explore ENGAGE - Student Management Solution, product from UK. I am using the product for almost 2 years. I think it should cater to your needs. The system has a good parents portal.

[john]

Serco Progresso hasn't launched yet to market so comments on that will be from people like me who have been to preview events (which have been open to existing Serco Facility Customers before people start thinking I've had sneaky peeks of it and bombard me with questions!).

 

However existing Serco customers will have had emails this last couple of weeks about the launch events around the UK to sign up for (which I have and will be at the Leeds event) as the time is nearly here

 

From my point of view, everything I have seen and heard about Progresso is well worth it and certainly is worth looking at as it will wipe the floor with anything else currently on the market (who knows what the others have hidden away in there dev towers!). I would expect demand to be high to migrate across to it and move to it so best talk to Serco early if you are interested in it. We should, fingers crossed, be on it by September 2012 ready for the opening of our enlarged multi-campus school and myself and the data manager are looking forward to the benefits of Progresso