School management systems - the information seekers

Every school has a management information system (MIS) that handles key attendance and performance grade data on the students. What heads and teachers want to know, though, is how easy it is to access the data and use it.

It is something that MIS market leader and 2010 Bett award finalist Capita is addressing with Sims Discover, launching at Bett. It is a friendly face to the familiar Sims MIS, with graphics, diagrams, drag and drop features.

"Sims Discover will make accessing information intuitive and quick so teachers and school leaders can understand their teaching groups in much more detail," says Sims managing director Phil Neal.

Providing parents with online access to their children's grades and attendance is another area where MIS has a key part to play. Sims achieves it with its Learning Gateway while Serco does it with ePortal.

"E-portal is geared to providing information so that staff, students and parents can see exactly what they have to do to make progress in the school," says Gavin Brookes, an assistant head at DaVinci community college in Derby.

Educational computer and software supplier RM has taken to the web with its system IntegrisG2, which is used in 1,500 schools. At Bett, RM will be launching Stakeholder View and G2 Controller which gives a local authority easy access to a school's data.

As well as the main MIS suppliers, there are others whose products use MIS data to provide additional functions. Another Bett award finalist, ParentPay, for example, enables parents to pay online for school lunches and trips. In Croydon, where it is used across the authority, it has cut administration, removed any "free meal children" stigma, and significantly improved take-up of school meals.

ParentPay picks up students' names from the MIS, as do other add-on systems such as Groupcall and Truancy Call, which provide automatic text and phone calls to parents whose children have not arrived in school. Both use this basic connectivity to offer more services, and buyers should compare features and prices.

Among other suppliers that aim to make MIS data work harder are Prime Principle, whose Classroom Monitor is an online pupil tracking tool, and Tasc Software, whose Pars and Target packages dig into the MIS to show patterns and trends in achievement and attendance.

The whole field can seem bewildering so it is useful to keep some basic principles in mind. First, compare like with like - cheaper may mean fewer features. Remember that the supplier may be keen to get the product into your school, so be ready to bargain. Your existing management software will probably do more than you know. Before buying another product, be sure that you're fully using what you already have. Last, take your time, visit other schools to see how their systems are working and do your research.