End of Year reports - software?

[Bev]

We have plenty of data, that's not an issue at all. I produce reports, spreadsheets, graphs, you name it. If anything, I think we possibly have too much data but that's another debate for another time.

 

We had Ofsted in January. We had an issue with the amount of progress made, but not with the amount of data we had to prove that lack of progress....

 

 

 

Our problem is primarily with the collation of the end of year comments. SIMS isn't designed to work well with text, that's not it's primary function, and I understand that, but we produce text heavy end of year reports, and we need a system that can cope well with those comments. SIMs isn't going away, we will continue to use it as the main repository for all our data, but it does not provide what we need to effectively enter the comment data.

[matt40k]

Sorry Bev for sounding dumb, but are you talking about the word limit on SIMS?

[Bev]

The word limit is a big problem. We also have a problem with ? appearing when we import comments containing dashes or apostrophes. You can't do a search and replace if a teacher has misspelled a word in 300 reports. It's not a 'text' editor - that's not it's function, which I understand, but for the quantity of text I deal with on these reports, it becomes a major issue.

 

320 pupils, 15 comments per pupil, that's over 4500 comments. They are all entered into Excel and spell checked but the bulk of the editing happens in SIMS as I've found if I export and reimport I introduce more mistakes (and more question marks)

[matt40k]

Personally this is a case of designed for the developer rather then the customer. IE it's more work for the user but it made it easier for the developer to create. I'll be interested in @PhilNeal reply, it's not a new feature and I know for a fact people have been moaning about it for years.

[vikpaw]

It's not great as a system, but Profiles is better and more geared towards report writing, proofing etc. However that will need even more user interaction with SIMS.

 

I think you've got two separate issues, one is getting the users access to SIMS, and the other is the features and functions within SIMS once they have access.

 

I'm pretty sure if you can find another way to give access to SIMS, loads of your problems will disappear. No export / import eradicates the '?'s. The end user (author) is responsible for their data entry, and accuracy, as well as making changes post proofing. The LA have to give a better / cheaper solution or at least assist you in getting a third party software to link in easily.

 

Otherwise, I don't advocate it, but it's what our Primary did here for 1st semester reports last year: Export an individual report from SIMS with the basic data in, i.e. student name, reg, the layout / logo etc. Then just let teachers write their report directly into that file. Tell them not to rename it, or change anything else. Proofing may take a bit longer, but can be done on paper and edit the original document. At the end upload the document manually to the student. It's a pain, but for the hassle you currently have, this could solve the issue. You get a report with no limits in the format you want, and it's stored in the MIS against each child as required. It's basically bypassing the whole technical function of the MIS, but it works.

 

In combo with that method you could employ some other report writing tools to handle comment banking easier. Look at some of these other threads:

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/how-do-you-do/44641-report-writing.html - i'd be interested to hear if @dhicks managed to get his system off the ground, he's a reliable chappie

 

Some links in this thread http://www.edugeek.net/forums/educational-software/53055-report-assist.html

 

Teachers Report Assistant - FREE time saving utility for teachers

 

came across this from a link from a link ReportComplete!

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/educational-software/8723-report-assist.html

 

and all that before you Google it

[CESIL]

This year I finally got around to building an online report system for our staff...

 

They can login from anywhere and fill in the reports which are laid out the same as our paper version.

Reports are locked so we don't get multiple edits at the same time.

Comment banks are displayed alongside the report and can be added to the report with a click and are context sensitive.

Comments are colour coded to indicate the attainment level they apply to.

All edits are stored in a history table so they can sort of "undo".

If they use a decent browser like chrome then they get a spellchecker and basic undo facility.

 

And my favourite bit is that if they copy and paste from Word and have used the correct placeholder for the pupil name then the name is inserted correctly and the text is corrected based on gender to read he or she where appropriate.

 

And finally a colour coded progress bar on the main screen shows how much of an individual report is complete...

[SYNACK]

This year I finally got around to building an online report system for our staff...

 

They can login from anywhere and fill in the reports which are laid out the same as our paper version.

Reports are locked so we don't get multiple edits at the same time.

Comment banks are displayed alongside the report and can be added to the report with a click and are context sensitive.

Comments are colour coded to indicate the attainment level they apply to.

All edits are stored in a history table so they can sort of "undo".

If they use a decent browser like chrome then they get a spellchecker and basic undo facility.

 

And my favourite bit is that if they copy and paste from Word and have used the correct placeholder for the pupil name then the name is inserted correctly and the text is corrected based on gender to read he or she where appropriate.

 

And finally a colour coded progress bar on the main screen shows how much of an individual report is complete...

Sounds good but no Xbox achievements

[dhicks]

'd be interested to hear if @dhicks managed to get his system off the ground

 

Not yet - I moved schools a few months after that post, and the project got rather lost on the way, but the concept is still one that looks as though it should work so I'm planning to give it a go this summer if I get the chance.

[jenny_urey]

Sounds good but no Xbox achievements

......