End of Year reports - software?

[Bev]

I am just wondering how everyone does their reports? I do ours using Assessment Manager in SIMS. On the surface, this is fine, it can collect the data and produce a nicely formatted report. However, the staff don't have access to SIMS, so I export marksheets which they complete and return to me, and then we go through a number of rounds of proofreading. It is really cumbersome to enter the corrections within SIMS, and if I correct the spreadsheets, I end up with multiple versions of everything and a complete version control mess. This is probably due to my organisational skills, but it's becoming a problem. I'm also the only person who can use Assessment Manager, so if I go off sick their is noone else who can use the system.

 

Anyway - the point of all this, is I am thinking we need a better way. I would really like something online, so anyone can enter their reports/proofread/edit from school or at home.

 

Does anyone know of any systems before I start googling?

[vikpaw]

Well you already have the right system. Why don't your staff have access to SIMS.

Give them that and it will solve your problems.

The proof reading isn't great, but i have many reports that will generate proof reading copies. For an online way, you'd need to use profiles, but that's a bit complex to set up, and people always seem to have problems with it, but that is designed to do exactly what you want. However, again, staff need access to it.

[number34]

Well you already have the right system. Why don't your staff have access to SIMS.

Give them that and it will solve your problems.

The proof reading isn't great, but i have many reports that will generate proof reading copies. For an online way, you'd need to use profiles, but that's a bit complex to set up, and people always seem to have problems with it, but that is designed to do exactly what you want. However, again, staff need access to it.

Have to agree with Vik, we gave all staff access to SIMS about 6 years ago and it got rid of the problem with different versions of the spreadsheets immediately. We are resigned to having at least 3 copies of the comments printed before the final version is produced for parents but it is difficult to read or proof read on screen. I set up various 'corrections' mark sheets to help with that side of things and it works well enough. I did investigate using profiles but as we use completely free text for our comments I decided that it was far too comples for staff to use.

[Bev]

Our staff have never had access to SIMS. The school secretary, the deputy head, and myself (ICT Technician and general data dogsbody) are the only ones. It's not something the staff have ever needed, and they charge £200 per logon so it's never been encouraged.

 

I can print out reports for proofreading, the problem lies in entering the corrections. I have a stack of reports on my desk with corrections on, but it takes me hours to do them. I've got a marksheet with every comment on it for each child, but it takes ages to open/save each marksheet. I just find the system completely unwieldy.

 

We also have issues with ' and - turning in to question marks when the marksheets are imported/exported. I spend many hours looking for question marks, and I can't simply do it in Excel with a search and replace, as they turn back into question marks when they are reimported.

 

And also comments over 1000 characters long get cut off.

[Bev]

Can you staff access SIMS from home, or do they write their reports at school?

[SYNACK]

As above you already have the solution, adding another system on top is just going to cause more issues. Just use the software you already have or swap mis to something less horrifically priced. EDIT: you can use something like remoteapp in server 2008 to offer windows apps over the internet. Edited July 2, 2012 by SYNACK

[Bev]

So, assuming SIMS isn't available to staff (since it isn't, and won't be)

 

 

Are there any alternatives? Just telling me to use SIMs isn't helpful, because we do that now and it doesn't work very well.

[FN-GM]

Why £200 per account? Im just curious?

[Bev]

Sims is provided by the LEA on a Citrix device, and logon's to Citrix are charged at £200, I have no idea why.

 

We all use dedicated machines for access to Citrix, so I actually have 3 machines connected to my monitor/keyboard, Citrix, Server, and a PC. It's not exactly a seamless solution!

 

The other problem is that you can't put a memory stick into the Citrix machine, so all data has to be emailed back and forth to the machine with SIMs on it. Staff submit spreadsheets via a shared folder on the server, then I email them to the citrix machine, download them onto that machine, and upload them to SIMs. At some point in that process I lose all my apostrophes and they turn into question marks!

 

 

As I was typing this, the head just appeared, so I mentioned getting all staff onto SIMS and he basically said no, it will never happen.

[vikpaw]

The thing is @Bev, you're not using SIMS to it's full potential. We're not trying to brush you off. Seriously, it shouldn't cost you extra to give the staff access. Worst case, each concurrent login may cost an extra £5 for a one-off licencing fee, but that depends on how your server is set up.

 

Giving staff access, even if it's only on a fixed bank of machines in the staff room, will seriously alleviate at least some of the problems and put the onus, e.g. character limit, question marks etc back on the staff.

 

There are not really any other systems out there that will do what you want without extra cost, well, not pretty ones anyway.

 

There are systems that link to SIMS such as PARS and TeachersWebFolder from Tasc / Bromcom, which are relatively cheap, maybe a few thou per year, that will give your staff access to SIMS from a web interface including from home, but it's still giving them access to SIMS. It's a nicer interface though and can be used for many other things such as taking attendance and looking at student info.

 

The proof reading issue will remain, but at least if they put the info in, you cut out a few problems with import / export, and if they can control data entry, they can proof read and make their own changes.

 

There are other report writing systems, some free, some at a charge, but you'll be having to sync data out of SIMS to provide class lists, and setting up all the various fields you want. Then generating them all in a separate system, with no guarantee the mechanism will be any better, somebody still has to proof read and make corrections. At the end once the report is made, you'll have no easy way to link it back to the server and keep it on file with the student records.

 

If you are going to give your staff access to some report writing software, it may as well be SIMS, either directly or via a third-party. That's my opinion.

 

Instead of googling for other solutions, try searching this MIS forum, as a few other systems have been mentioned in the past, along with the issues people have had, so you may get a heads up from those.

[Bev]

It's not on our server, I think that's the problem. It's on the LEAs server.

[FN-GM]

Personally i would move it in house. You can use it to its full potential and save a few quid.

[vikpaw]

Sims is provided by the LEA on a Citrix device, and logon's to Citrix are charged at £200, I have no idea why.

 

We all use dedicated machines for access to Citrix, so I actually have 3 machines connected to my monitor/keyboard, Citrix, Server, and a PC. It's not exactly a seamless solution!

 

The other problem is that you can't put a memory stick into the Citrix machine, so all data has to be emailed back and forth to the machine with SIMs on it. Staff submit spreadsheets via a shared folder on the server, then I email them to the citrix machine, download them onto that machine, and upload them to SIMs. At some point in that process I lose all my apostrophes and they turn into question marks!

 

 

As I was typing this, the head just appeared, so I mentioned getting all staff onto SIMS and he basically said no, it will never happen.

 

wow! That's a layer of complexity i didn't expect.

I'd have words with the LA, there have to be better ways of giving access. They cannot expect you to buy a citrix box for each user.

[zag]

Sims assessment manager.

Remote desktop for staff to do it from home.

TASC insight for parents to read the reports online.

[Bev]

You see my problem!

 

Exporting classlists once, and importing completed and signed off reports seems much easier.

 

I had better go and do some work on the corrections, rather than whining on here, but thanks for your comments, it has been interesting.

 

I am the sole ICT Technician/Data Technician in a middle school (which adds another layer of complexity, neither a Primary or Secondary solution fits neatly). There is a limit to how much I can change singlehandedly. I would have support for a system that solved the he/she problem and substituted names correctly as staff hate those issues. And they would absolutely have to be able to work at home, as many of them have to do 20+ sets and they don't have the time to do them at school.

[vikpaw]

Look into Tasc, as if they can get connected to the hosted server, then you just connect to that, your own way. Would solve a few issues.

[PhilNeal]

I'm not sure that I should contribute to this thread but through what ever route, your teachers should have access to the information on the pupils they teach. It is essential that teachers know about medical issues, unusal situations etc. Recording attendance as it happens saves huge amounts of clerical work and allows parents to be contacted within minutes of the start of the day if a child hasn't turned up - suppose something has happened to a child on their way to school? Assessment entered directly into the MIS is the only way forward - the school needs a holistic view of a child; its no good that being in a teacher's mark book.

 

I recently listened to an account from a parent (also a journalist) of what had happened to his children at school; they both had specfial needs. When he complained that no teacher knew about his children the head proudly pointed to a row of folders on a shelf saying "I know everything about your child". This parent could not believe that in this day information about his children wasn't available to their teachers - it should be like going to a doctor who can just call up your record.

 

If your school is in England the new Ofsted will look for evidence that SLT and teachers know about all the childrens' needs. Using the MIS should make that possible. If you can't do it don't expect to do well!

[GREED]

Possibly you shouldn't have, @PhilNeal

[Bev]

I think that's more of an issue in a larger school. We know our kids pretty well here.

[vikpaw]

I think it's a good point. The only hold back is the cost and the LEA should be shunned for 'providing' such an expensive 'solution'.

[PhilNeal]

Bev, I've been with Brian Lightman ASCL's General Secretary today who has been explaining the new inspection framework to us. His message to heads was crystal - whilst Ofsted inspections are not in themselves a reason to do something, it is clear that an evidence base is considered to be essential for any school. Inspectors give a day's notice and the school will be expected to provide evidence that every child is achieving their full potential. A school will fail if it takes the stance that "it knows it's pupils" if it cannot prove it.

 

We are in a new era and whilst I accept that it's my view that teachers should have direct access to the data, I can't see any other way of achieving it. Obviously access can be achieved through several routes.

Edited July 4, 2012 by PhilNeal

[PiqueABoo]

the school will be expected to provide evidence that every child is achieving their full potential

 

Oh the grandiose twaddle we all casually accept and regurgitate: First they'd have to figure out each child's "full potential" and that is clearly beyond the wit of man. Sprogette is God Empress of the Galaxy a few billion, trillion parallel universes away and they're not going to make that happen here are they? What it really means is something like: Achieve some reasonably safe prediction of their ability to surmount the extremely limited set of banal, slightly height-adjustable educational hurdles that we can afford right now.

 

I'm certainly not questioning schools having to produce documented predictions and outcomes etc., just our ready acceptance of political bulshytt[1]. All those years of civilisation and we're still doing this, in fact doing it more.

 

[1] It's very useful and has a different etymology ;b

[matt40k]

I think what Phil's trying to say, we're in the digital age, accept the fact your going to have a enter it an electronic system. It's more a question of covering one's rear then anything, like Bev said, in a small school in a small village, everyone knows everyone its completely pointless, but all it takes is one person to kick off and the system fails apart. At least with it all in MIS system, you can go, I know you know, because it's in the MIS system, which you use every day to mark the register.

 

If you want to blame anyone, blame society and it's "quick win" ideals - ie "where there's a blame there's a claim". If you want to have a rant about Capita, at least moan at them about the right thing... like this:

Capita publicity to show only UK staff - some of whom are being let go

[detjo]

We had a bit of an issue with reports last year, so i decided a change was needed this year. It gave me a year to write one - enter PHP + MySQL

It's been a dream compared to last year. All the students are populated from the school MIS and Teachers have web access from home. The final report is saved as pdf for archiving purposes and we print the parent copy from those, so printing is fast and efficient!

[matt40k]

My only problem with that, is if every school builts their own it's wasting a lot of money. Now if you make it open-source...