How many staff support your MIS?

[pantscat]

Just wanted to get some idea of how many staff other schools dedicate to the day-to-day running of SIMS/Other MIS?

 

We've got:

 

- Admissions Sec

- Timetabler (part time role - as is also Head of IT Teaching)

- Curric coordinator (defines classes and pastoral structure)

- MIS blokey - (everything else... marksheets, gradesheets, reports, etc.)

 

It seems to me that we're increasingly reliant on MIS blokey to get a lot of stuff done in SIMS.net and I've noticed a fair few job adverts flying around for data-input type people and dedicated assessment staff.

 

I'm just curious to see what other schools do.

 

By the way - we're independent and have approx 1,400 pupils.

 

Thanks,

 

A

[vikpaw]

Registrar + assistant - manage all student / contact data from application to leaving

Accountant + assistant, Fees clerk + assistant - all fees / finance stuff in FMS

Timetabler (Dep. Head) / curriculum - NovaT6 and all course management and class allocations, with the help of admin staff

Cover (Dep. Head) + assistant

Personnel Officer

Moi (SIMS Manager / MIS blokey) - Manage Assessment system, Report creation, Assist all the above and train and fix problems and deal with all third party apps / links and the intranet, SLG. Timetable input (created by someone else) for lower and middle schools, curriculum management for lower and middle schools.

 

I could use an assistant. I think there is a real need for schools to have data assistants to help the MIS blokey, so they can design and support the system, but the day to day drone work can be done by someone else. For small schools/systems the roles can be combined but at some point there is too much work for one person.

[pantscat]

For small schools/systems the roles can be combined but at some point there is too much work for one person.

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

Thanks Vikpaw.

[Max_Power]

We are an independent school with around 1700 students and we have from what i can think of

Registrar and two assistants - manage all admissions of boys and applications

2x Timetabler - NovaT6 and all course management and class allocations (Both are teachers as well)

Cover / exams manager + 1 assistant

Personnel officer - adding staff details etc

Data Manager (2x part time) - 1 deals with marksheets and grades etc for reports, the other general data within SIMS.

Server engineer deals with update to database and patches as and when required.

Attandance officer + assistant - deals with attendance, contacting parents when student isnt in etc.

 

Hope that helps.

I think thats about it TBH.

[vikpaw]

Oh yes, forgot about that - i also maintain the server itself, from backups to upgrades. How could i forget that!

We're a 1500 student school from creche through IB level.

[pantscat]

I completely forgot about Cover - we've got a dedicated cover person.

 

I do all of the server side stuff... that's about as far as my involvement goes with MIS!

[JonWPS]

Too many to list, and we use both CMIS and SIMS.

[Sivadam]

1) Me - Super_User inc. Sysman and Timetabler

2) Exams/Cover Manager

3) Personnel Manager

4) Attendance Officer

5) Receptionist and SIMS User (Input of general SIMS Data, Mail Merge Letters, FSM etc etc)

6) Beh/Ach SIMs User (Input of general SIMS Data, Exclusions, Detentions etc) Part Receptionist

7) Data Manager (AM7)

8) Data Manager Assistant (Learning from above, who is trying to learn other roles from me!)

9) Finance Officer

10) Finance Assistant

11) ICT Services Manager - The guy who knows SIMS tekkie stuff inside out!

12) ICT Services 2

13) ICT Services 3 (Both capable of installing SIMS etc and learning the rest of the tekkie stuff from the ICT Services Manager)

 

Obviously some of the above, especially 4 to 6 input into other areas. I calculate that we are 1.5 bodies short for the sorts of jobs that are listed in those lines. Currently one of our other Support Staff who has other responsibilites is trawling through and editing details following the return of Y7 Data Check Sheets. Y8 to Y11 to follow!

ICT Services have many other duties to perform, obviously.

Other staff help out as and when required but all data (apart from general details) are input directly into SIMS via Teaching or Classroom Support Staff either via Classroom Workstations, LapTops or SLG!

 

On Roll = 1020 ...ish!

[elsiegee40]

To be honest every member of staff in the school maintains the MIS. We all input stuff whether it's registers and tracking data, or basic pupil information. Everything goes on the system

 

Our registrar does the donkey work work with getting the pupils set up. As we're a fee-paying school, the Bursar does a lot too. The Deputy Head is in charge of timetabling. The School secretary does all sorts and I'm the admin Super User (pulls on underpants over her trousers and opens jacket to reveal large letter S)

[Oaktech]

we are serco facility cmis here, and the structure is 1 of 4 technicians to look after back end/server, then a data manager, an attendance officer, and two assistants who also deal with other school admin tasks. we have about 1200 students and 300 staff.

[GeeHubb]

1) Finance Administrator - FMS

2) Finance Assistant (Part-Time) - Dinner Money & FMS

3) Me - Office Manager

- System Manager - Upgrades, backups etc.

- Admissions and transfers

- Pupil data - School Census

- Key Stage Assessments & FSP's (SIMS & Target Tracker)

- Attendance Officer - (marks input by me not in class) - Also Schoolcomms

- Personnel - input of personnel data, production of contracts, Workforce Census

 

300 pupils. Primary School

Edited October 13, 2011 by GeeHubb
Missed one!

[CAM]

Secondary here, about 1200 kids. I am the SIMS bloke and go to guy for a broken SIMS, marksheet setups and general queries. My boss does the timetable, Options and numerous high level managerial bits. In general, all members of admin staff support the system in one way or another, ranging from Census to Exams. If someone doesn't have a SIMS task, it won't take long for them to find one...

[pantscat]

Thanks to everyone for your replies - it's been really useful to get a feel for how many staff most people have to support SIMS.

 

Cheers and Merry Friday.

[vikpaw]

It seems that most schools have someone directly, or de facto MIS Manager, and some other people who use the system to a high degree and are involved in putting in / managing data for their area. This area often expands, as more people do things, and usage of the system expands. The MIS Manager may do technical duties or it may be a dedicated person.

 

I think what many schools forget is that at some critical point, based on the size of the school, number of users, and features used, this person needs an assistant, not just another mid-spec user, but an actual assistant whose sole task is to support the MIS manager.

 

There was a discussion similar to this some time ago on LinkedIn i think, usually, the MIS Manager role comes about through a need for assessment data and that is usually the biggest task, getting it set up and running, but people forget about the minor tweaks that need doing constantly, and how many hours of work that can be.

[PhilNeal]

I think the question should be around how many people's roles are served by the MIS.

[john]

School of around 500 here.

 

We have a Data Manager (term time only) whos the main data processing person, she does all assessments, reports, etc and assists with the timetable

Asst. Head responsible for Timetabling so she does the rest of it

Exams Officer - anything exams related

Myself as IT Manager - I look after the back end of the MIS and customise it, add new fields and tabs in records, deal with staff training and structure of the MIS, upgrades and installs, and everything ePortal based. I have a technician who helps where he can as well but he focuses on other areas.

[pantscat]

@PhilNeal - interesting comment... but what exactly do you mean? It's slightly ambiguous as it could be argued that the MIS "serves" every role in the school in some way or another.

[PhilNeal]

@pantscat - absolutely right.

 

I felt that the answers coming in were bluring the technical task of running the MIS (back-up, upgrade, add columns) with people's jobs such as exam officer using the MIS. I think its important that the data management role is shared widely to prevent things falling appart when the expert leaves. A secondary should ideally have more than one person involved in each major area i.e. exams, assessment, reporting.

[pantscat]

@PhilNeal - that's exactly my thoughts. I do find here though that anything beyond the normal teacher interaction with SIMS.net is seen as "technical" and thus should be under the remit of the ICT Support Team. There's also the assumption that the MIS manager should know every aspect of SIMS.net inside and out even though we don't have a program for CPD and training here. (Yeah... I'm having a moan).

 

My argument is that there is nothing in regard to using SIMS.net that is "technical" - it's merely a tool that should be used to get a job done.

 

You wouldn't expect an Architects' firm to get their ICT Support team to do all of their design work in whatever CAD/CAM package they use, would you?

...Or graphic designers instructing their IT Techs to knock them up a new logo in InDesign...

 

[PhilNeal]

I think its unrealistic to expect someone that has technical skills to have an understanding of say all finance and exam procedures.

[vikpaw]

I don't see any blurring, there are two sides to it, and the technical running of the software is a large part of it, including having an awareness of each available module. Not necessarily being an expert, but knowing how the overall system functions and seeing the links is a role in itself. It's not necessarily to include, running the server or backing it up, but often grows out of that role.

 

The IT team shouldn't be doing the work of the architects, but there should be an architect for the MIS, which i would call the MIS/Data Manager. This person doesn't need to have a definite role such as exams officer, or assessment co-ordinator.

 

It will always depend on the size of the organisation and to what level the system is being used. Once usage reaches a critical mass, you couldn't sustain the system if all minor issues had to be logged with a support desk and it just isn't practical to get each end user to go on a course or read the manual for every module they deal with.

 

I agree, that the people that are using an element of a the system, should learn to know it better and take ownership of that, but it's difficult. I've had that difficulty here, convincing the people responsible for assessments to make their own amendments to marksheets. They are both Deputy Heads, and merely don't have the time, they just want to use the system, not tweak it. This was their argument. This is where you need the data manager to step in or where i feel there is a need for a data assistant role.

 

It actually doubles the work, but that's how some places want to operate. I've had a few temps doing some tasks in the past, but you spend so long training them, and then getting the 'owner' of the job to check the work, they could have just done it in the first place!

 

It's partly to do with the way data is now being used, in a way it wasn't 5 years ago. I don't remember there being many Data Managers, it was probably just the bursar, even in a secondary school.

 

It's a really interesting topic, i see that the MIS along with helping schools manage data has driven an organic growth in the staff requirements. Throw in the needs for parental engagement and VLEs and suddenly you see the most advanced schools with 5,6,7 techs just to manage the system. We're in the age of the MIS boom.

[Sivadam]

I think its unrealistic to expect someone that has technical skills to have an understanding of say all finance and exam procedures.

I would go further than Phil!

 

I believe that the ICT Services Team (as it is know as here) should have nothing to do with any of the SIMS Software - apart from supporting it's use technically on the Server and on SLG etc. They have enough to do without getting involved in the SIMS functionality. And I am NOT decrying the value of this team. Ours are excellent and I could not manage SIMS without their excellent input!

 

Every single function in SIMS should be supported by at least two memebrs of staff. Here, the only single person is myself. This is why I am currently inservicing two members of staff re. Timetable/Academic Management. I am also the backup for a number of areas e.g. Exams, Cover, Data Management (AM7). We are currently inservicing another member of staff on AM7 and plans are afoot to train others how to use Exams and Cover.

 

However, I still firmly believe that one person should have an overall knowledge of all SIMS functionality - call them what you wish, but they need to have the knowledge to step in and support others, as and when necessary. Unfortunately this is a difficult requirement to meet as it takes considerable time to develop all the skills required! The current problem is that the role of such a person is not being fully appreciated in schools/LAs when job re-gradings are being considered! Hence a school is less likely to retain a member of staff to fulfill this vital role!

Edited October 17, 2011 by Sivadam