Our guest blog today is from Dan Morrow, CEO at Dartmoor MAT. Dan has worked as a Senior Leader in education for 15 years, in both Primary and Secondary settings, as well as acting as a trustee for a number of other charitable organisations and third-sector bodies. He is currently completing an MBA to facilitate a strategic focus on national policy and he advises widely at the Department of Education. Dan recognises the most valuable and valued resource under his leadership – his staff.

It’s really important that we take flexible working in the education sector seriously. We need to accept that for graduates coming into the profession, teaching and working in education is less attractive than it used to be. Comparably, other sectors are able to offer far more flexibility and agility. School recruitment to both primary and secondary hasn’t hit targets this year, and didn’t hit targets last year. We’re in a continual churn of not having enough people entering the profession and far too many leaving. 

So I’m always in favour of looking at how this can work. How do we ensure that we give that flexibility to our colleagues without decreasing the experience of our young people and therefore going against our core mission? That’s an issue to solve rather than a problem to be had.

You’ll often hear the timetabler say that flexible working is difficult. The answer to that is, yes, it is. However, it’s still worth the time and investment. And the phrase I use quite often on this is ‘the tail can’t wag the dog’. The timetable is there to efficiently enact your teaching curriculum model and your expectations. They can’t come at the cost of the flexibility we must put in place.

Why is flexible working important for teachers?

Flexibility is particularly important for female colleagues in this space, to ensure that their lives aren’t a choice between parenthood and career. It isn’t an expectation that if you’re not in for all five days, your contribution is valued less. In an increasingly agile workforce across all sectors, if we try to maintain some of the paradigms we’ve always had on this, then that’s where we make it a less attractive proposition. And so if we know that female colleagues in their thirties in particular are the most likely to leave a profession, then this tells us something about our approach as a profession. 

Furthermore, our responsibility is to ensure that if someone does take advantage of flexible working, that if they are working three days, they work three days. We’ve got to be really conscious of when we put our meeting times. What are the opportunities to contribute to communication in a way that doesn’t disenfranchise? What I don’t want to do is create a circumstance in which any colleague feels like they’re not doing anything to their best and it becomes an overwhelm. There’s some cultural aspects that are wider than any school or trust, frankly, that we need to be thinking about.

How do we make flexible working succeed in the timetable?

We’ve been training our timetablers in order to get more flexible. In fact, when we brought Arbor into the trust, that was one of the core aspects that I asked for. How can we be supported to make sure that actually, this isn’t a new timetable system, this is a new timetable approach? Even in language, we’ve adapted how we’re talking. Often a timetabler will talk about flexible staff as a constraint. And the reason it’s a constraint is because, well, they want to work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, which means? Which means? Which means it’s not a constraint, it’s a condition, and therefore it’s a condition and expectation of employment. So it doesn’t constrain the timetable, it merely gives some parameters in which we need to meet those conditions without taking away from a balance for our young people to experience. You don’t want a child to have five periods of Maths in one day, for example. However, that really rarely happens.  

I say this as a timetabler myself, we can be a tad precious in this space and we almost treat it as if it is an aspect removed from the humans actually involved in it. A timetable is an organisation of human labour and endeavour. It isn’t just a set of pretty colours with some initials on it, which therefore takes us away from what we’re trying to achieve. What we’re trying to achieve is delivering a balanced and rich curriculum that meets the needs of the adults delivering it. And that second part is a really critical aspect of how we reframe discussion.

Flexible working pinchpoints

Of course, flexible working isn’t without its pinchpoints. One classic example is that in one of the secondaries on Fridays, there are significantly less adults in the building. That provides a challenge to us as leaders to solve. That shouldn’t be the responsibility of our colleagues who are making really valid requests. It’s about being more flexible about how we treat that day. In particular, what do we do in terms of looking at the senior leader timetables, what do we do at looking at our support staff and their ability to support more broadly? How do we look at duties? How do we look at other aspects of an ecosystem that ensure that we don’t take away?

Many of our staff who are on a 0.8 fraction will tend to go for a Friday or a Monday as the day they’re off, because it gives them a greater ability to basically do what they wish to do. One school of thought is: that’s really difficult because that means I’ve barely got anyone in on a Friday. Another school of thought is: I’ve got a really exceptional teacher for four days of a week and I have an issue to process and I have an issue to solve. I’m not going to make it their issue. There can be a bit of guilting or emotional blackmail in this space for female colleagues in particular. And since there’s already that really strong sense of responsibility versus balance, I just think that it’s not just inappropriate. It goes against wellbeing and it goes against what we should be trying to achieve for all of our staff, which is that they can be their best selves and do their best work.

Secondly, there is something to be said for how we can put some flexibility into the days that staff have. So, for example, for those where it’s not about flexible working, that is being on a 0.8, 0.6 or a different FTE, because I have looked at this, it could be really quite easy to rotate so that in one half term you do get the Friday, the next half term you get a Wednesday. There’s space for agility there. 

Innovating thinking around the timetable

In our primary schools, our young people have a very agile and flexible experience of when curriculum is delivered. Suddenly in secondary, you set a timetable for September and then schools are fairly set in this belief that it can’t change or move, because it would be too complicated. That’s utter nonsense. It’s just the way it’s always been. 

At Dartmoor, we’re starting to see timetabling as a group endeavour. So instead of it being one person sitting in a room in the dark, getting headaches, trying to make it all work, it’s actually six to eight people sitting around a table, collectively solving, challenging each other and starting to think, well, could this work? How could it work? What will this look like in practice? Timetabling really is the biggest aspect that will affect the lived experience of our children and our adults. It’s therefore the most important proceduralisation of strategy we have.

In any school, we don’t ever allow single points of failure where one person is responsible for just one really specific aspect. And yet, when it comes to timetable, we do. We talk about the timetabler. Well, how about the Timetable Team? One of the things we’ve done around timetabling is put in a playbook. The first thing it starts with is, what are our cultural norms? What are we trying to achieve? It’s really important that middle leaders and senior leaders and class teachers and support staff are really involved in the process of timetable. That way, we don’t get to a point where we just say, here’s the timetable and that’s that. 

Championing flexible working in education

In sum, flexible working in schools is not something that we can, or should, shy away from. In fact, there’s no reason whatsoever that we as a sector can’t lead the way in this. We are one of the most female dominated professions there is. We should be the ones holding up a way of doing this which is perhaps more innovative, more inclusive and more radical, dare I say, than we have in the past.

The post Is flexible working in schools necessary for recruitment and retention? appeared first on Arbor.

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1. Schools are realising the real potential of MIS

Cloud-based MIS systems are no longer just pupil databases – they can help with everything from planning interventions, tracking attendance patterns and monitoring behaviour, to booking parents evenings and paying for meals. 

In busy Primary Schools where staff wear many hats, we know how important it is that everyone has the right tools for their roles. We’ve designed Arbor with features tailored to office staff, teachers and SLT  – so you can work together in one, shared system.

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2. With most contracts up for renewal, the time is right!

But why have so many Primary Schools chosen to move MIS over the past year or are looking to move now? 

Most SIMS contracts are ending in 2025 or 2026, so lots of schools are starting to research different providers now. 

It might seem quite early to start looking at your options, but there are lots of reasons we would recommend beginning your research as soon as possible:

• SIMS contracts for most UK schools will be ending at the same time. Opening conversations with different MIS suppliers now will mean you will have more choice over your preferred migration and onboarding slots
• Moving to a cloud MIS saves time and money – so why wait?

It’s important to take the time to find the best MIS for your school. Starting now means you won’t rush the process.

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3. Consolidating systems = saving money 

Most cloud-based MIS systems give you the choice to bring many of the third-party apps you use for things like comms, assessments and payments under one roof. That means you can save money when you move! In our recent report, we found that, on average, most schools save up to £5000 a year by moving to Arbor.

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4. Greater flexibility for all your staff

With a cloud-based MIS, you’ll be able to access key pupil, parent and staff information from any device with a browser. Give staff the flexibility to work remotely, or have access to key information when on the playground or moving around the classroom.  

Plus, it means no more patches or waiting around for time-consuming updates. At Arbor, we update our MIS fortnightly, based on feedback from our schools.

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5. Reduce admin, save time and improve staff wellbeing

As well as saving on costs, an MIS can and should save your school staff time. By empowering everyone with direct access to the tools and information they need, you can break bottlenecks, let staff be self-sufficient and rely on your MIS to do the heavy lifting when it comes to administrative tasks. This means your staff get the time back to focus on what matters most. 

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If you know that now is the right #TimeToSwitch for your school, but aren’t sure where to start, download our free, step-by-step guide here.

The post The top five reasons schools are reviewing their MIS options this term appeared first on Arbor.

AI is astounding, controversial, and here to stay. In this blog, I look at how it is already being used by schools, and what it might mean in the longer term.

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AI in the classroom

Teachers have proven to be early adopters of ChatGPT as a tool for generating lesson resources.

English teachers quickly spotted the opportunity to create model texts. One of the earliest examples was using ChatGPT to draft similar content in various styles – like three versions of the same news story, one written by a journalist, one by Shakespeare, and one in the style of a song lyric.

Another of my favourite examples was hearing from a teacher who uses ChatGPT to generate distractors (wrong answers) for their multiple-choice quizzes. It turns out this is very useful as it can be surprisingly tricky to come up with convincing but incorrect answers.

AI can also be used to create a more personalised experience for students – even if that’s just including a student’s name in an example text, or quickly generating a quiz that specifically suits a group of pupils or a topic.

These approaches save time for teachers and allow them to be creative, using AI in a relatively low-risk way.

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AI for homework and research

As soon as ChatGPT arrived there was a debate about whether it should be allowed in schools. Some schools and trusts took the cautious approach, and banned it from their networks.

This is similar to the debate about mobile phones, and before that calculators – and the truth is it’s too early to know which of those technologies AI is more akin to when it comes to the impact and use in the classroom.

But whatever you do in school, you can’t stop students from having access to ChatGPT and other AI tools at home.

One idea I liked is telling students that they have to use ChatGPT for a piece of homework. This gives them the opportunity to try it, and see the pros and cons. That’s a great way of engaging with a new technology, and having a productive and open conversation about it. The truth is there are lots of things that ChatGPT is not great at, and students need to learn about that too.

ChatGPT can also be an excellent research tool for students. There’s a lot of benefit to learning through conversation (as we know from teaching and learning in the classroom). I’ve personally found it really useful when I’ve got a specific question about a topic. It can be much more useful than reading through a wikipedia article or searching for answers via Google. Of course you have to be mindful of AI hallucinations and bias, and think carefully about the types of topics to use it for.

My daughter has learnt a lot at her primary school about using Google search effectively and safely. I’d love to hear from schools that have taught similar skills for ChatGPT, as part of encouraging students to then use it for research.

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AI in the school office

School leaders and administrators have also seen the potential of AI.

Tools like ChatGPT, Bard, Office Co-pilot and Copy.ai are a great way to create a first draft of something – like a letter to parents or a piece of newsletter content. Schools have to produce a lot of writing – for lessons, for stakeholders, for their community, for governors… the list never ends.

Another example is student reports. Lots of schools use comment banks for this, and that exercise can be quite a copy-paste process. With AI the teacher can enter a summary set of bullets about the student, and get the system to draft a full report which they can then edit.

It’s very hard to write well at pace, so these tools can really help.

We’re also seeing these features added to the tools that schools already use – with Ask Arbor being a great example. It allows schools to draft communications and student reports, based on their input and the data already held in the MIS.

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What is the future of AI in schools?

I like these smart and pragmatic examples, where the generated text is time-saving and very useful, and where there is always a person reviewing and adapting the output.

It is very early days for tools like ChatGPT, and over the coming months and years we’re going to see rapid improvement in the technology itself, along with better understanding and regulation.

We’re also going to see lots of new AI-powered products and features across all areas of education and work. We’ll probably look back nostalgically at the simpler days when all we spoke of was “ChatGPT”.

What might that future look like? A few idea that interest me are:

Increasingly sophisticated personalised tutoring

Duolingo already offers an AI chatbot that helps learners by discussing incorrect answers and doing roleplays. And teachers are already experimenting with tools that allow students to have a conversation with an AI version of a subject expert or a historical figure.

How sophisticated could this become? It’s going to be fascinating to see. Imagine a student being able to have a 1-to-1 conversation with Albert Einstein about GCSE Physics. Being able to bring learning to life is exciting for both students and teachers.

Moving beyond the written word

Almost all of the focus over the last year has been on ChatGPT and the use of AI to understand and generate writing. But the same technology can also be applied to other content. Indeed, ChatGPT itself has just been updated so that it can both understand and generate images. AI is also already being used to generate music, and edit photographs, So while lots of the early use cases have been for subjects like English and the humanities, it is worth remembering that all the same opportunities and questions will come along for the other subjects too.

School operations

I think some of the most exciting opportunities for AI lie in the back office and in the operational running of schools and trusts. This technology is going to revolutionise the ways schools work with data, complete administrative tasks, and communicate. Schools will see lots of really useful features coming to their existing platforms like Microsoft Office and Google Workspace. And this is exactly what we’re thinking about across The Key Group too – in Arbor, GovernorHub, The Key, and beyond.

The post Three ways schools are using AI to transform the way they work appeared first on Arbor.

As a school MIS manages data around all aspects of school life, it’s used by lots of different people. By teachers to take the register or log behaviour incidents, the headteacher to see cross-school statistics, and the office staff/data team to analyse information and contact parents. 

At Arbor, we believe that a moving MIS is a real chance to change the way you work for the better – but more on that later…

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What are the benefits of having my school MIS in the cloud?

Over the past five years, more and more schools are moving away from legacy, server-based MIS and are instead choosing to move to a cloud-based MIS. As of October 2023, this number stands at over 9,000 schools. And, according to the latest DfE census data, 3 out of 4 schools who make the switch choose Arbor.

A recent survey of over 1,000 schools by The Key showed that these trends are set to continue:

So what are the benefits of a cloud MIS?

• Having your MIS in the cloud means school staff to work from anywhere. This became pivotal for many schools during the pandemic
• A cloud MIS should help consolidate all core student and staff data, including attainment, progress, behaviour, payments and messages into one system, improving reporting and giving schools a truly holistic view of their organisation
• Our recent report (free to download here) also showed that schools who use Arbor, the UK’s most popular cloud MIS, save time and money every year by moving away from legacy school MIS

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The UK’s most popular cloud MIS for schools

Arbor MIS helps schools of all sizes work better, with intuitive tools designed to make a difference. Chosen by over 5,500 schools and 450 trusts, we’re proud to be the UK’s most popular cloud MIS. 

Given the impact that switching can have on everything from workload, to staff happiness, parental engagement and school collaboration, we believe that choosing the right MIS is a real opportunity to change the way you work for the better.

But just don’t take it from us, hear below from one Assistant Principal sharing his experience after choosing Arbor MIS for his secondary school of over 2,000 students.

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How do I move school MIS?

We know that switching MIS can be a daunting process. If you’re thinking about moving MIS, but aren’t sure where to start, there are a couple of ways you can find out if Arbor is a good fit for your school:

1. Get in touch with us here. We’ll find out more about your school and go through your options.
2. Watch a demo! All our demos are on-demand so you can see Arbor in your own time.

The post What is a school MIS? appeared first on Arbor.

With the pressures on schools and trusts across the country, it goes without saying how important it is that School IT Managers are able to save time and drive efficiency across their organisation. Based on our years of experience and conversations with IT Managers at EduLife, we’ve put together some top tips on efficient school IT administration and how you can save time in your role. 

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Importance of efficient school IT administration

There are many reasons why efficient school IT administration is the backbone of a well-functioning school or multi-academy trust:

Smooth operations: Efficient school IT administration keeps everything running smoothly, from network connectivity to software applications. It means fewer interruptions and more focus on teaching and learning.

Enhanced productivity: Being able to rely on smooth-running systems, means that students can access resources seamlessly and teachers can focus solely on their role in the classroom, thus boosting productivity for everyone involved.

Optimal resource allocation: Efficient IT administration makes sure that resources are used effectively, preventing wasteful spending and allowing for strategic investments in technology infrastructure.

Seamless communication and collaboration: With efficient IT administration, communication channels work seamlessly. Teachers, administrators, students, and parents can connect, collaborate, and share information effortlessly, creating a supportive learning environment.

Data Security and privacy: Efficient IT administration prioritises data security and privacy by implementing robust security measures, updating systems and educating users to protect sensitive information. This means that trust is maintained and compliance with privacy regulations is upheld.

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Challenges faced by School IT Administrators

Despite the great importance put on the output of IT Administrators, we know it’s not always plain sailing:

Spinning many plates: From managing networks and systems to troubleshooting tech issues, there’s always a lot to manage in schools. 

Keeping up with technological Advancements: Technology moves at lightning speed, and as IT Managers, it can be tough to keep up! New devices, software updates, and emerging trends require continuous learning.

Limited resources and budget: As is often the case in schools, budgets can be tight, meaning teams have to be creative with their investments to make sure they’re as effective as possible. 

Balancing security and accessibility: Striking the right balance between security and accessibility is a challenge IT managers know all too well. You want to protect sensitive data and keep networks secure, but you also need to give seamless access to educational resources for students and staff. 

User support and training: With varying degrees of technological ability in schools, it can be a challenge to address differing tech skill levels and ensure everyone feels supported.

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Time-saving  tips for School IT Managers

With all that in mind, here are some strategies and technology-driven solutions to help you overcome those challenges and boost productivity at your school.

Automated provisioning: Invest in tools that integrate various administrative functions like student records, scheduling, communication and classroom set-up. Tools like EduLife’s data synchronisation feature simplify processes and eliminate the need for manual data entry across multiple systems.

Master digital communication: Use instant messaging, collaboration platforms, and email automation to streamline communication among staff, parents, and students. These tools make information sharing quick, reduce delays, and enhance collaboration.

Go cloud-based: Storing your documents and information in the cloudgives you easy access, real-time collaboration, and seamless file sharing – plus, it’s a step closer to going paperless! 

Give Users the Power: Empower your users with self-service password reset solutions like LastPass or Azure Password Reset. They can reset their passwords independently, freeing you up for more exciting IT projects. 

Let the machines do the heavy lifting: Find those repetitive tasks that zap all your time and automate them. Whether it’s updating software, backing up systems, or managing user accounts, use nifty tools such as EduLife to save yourself some serious time when trying to simplify school management.

Make best use of your MIS: Use data analytics and reporting in Arbor to generate insightful reports and analyse trends in student performance, attendance, or resource allocation. These tools provide quick access to data-driven insights, making decision-making easier and reducing the effort spent on manual data collection.

Keep it organised with a ticketing system: Say goodbye to chaos! Get yourself a cool ticketing system like Zendesk to manage all those support requests. It’ll help you stay on top of things, prioritise tasks, and get stuff done faster. Plus, no more lost sticky notes!

Say goodbye to the mystery of missing equipment: Asset management solutions like Fleet Management are your superhero helpers. They’ll keep track of your Chromebooks. You can easily know what’s where, schedule maintenance tasks, and stay on top of warranties. It’s like having a trusty sidekick that keeps things organised and saves you from endless searching.

Embrace your inner tech wizard: Take advantage of remote management tools like TeamViewer. They’ll give you the power to access and fix devices from afar. No need to teleport to every corner of the school or multi-academy trust for routine tasks or minor issues.

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The round-up

Efficient school administration is the key to optimising resources, boosting productivity, and creating a fantastic learning environment. As an IT manager, you have the power to implement time-saving strategies that empower your team and educators. By embracing technology solutions you can make your school or multi-academy trust more productive and efficient for everyone involved. 

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About EduLife

Edulife is a dynamic synchronisation engine that automates and maintains user management across Google Workspace for Education, Microsoft Active Directory and Apple School Manager by harmonising and provisioning data from your school MIS.

The post Top time-saving tips for School IT Managers appeared first on Arbor.

Now as we know every single staff member that works in a school, only do so for the perks, the salary, job satisfaction, good work-life balance.

I’m smiling as I write that, but apparently, those people exist?!

Joking aside, I think I can confidently say that we all work in a school because for some crazy reason we want to make a real difference in this world and mould the future generation.

I’ve worked alongside many incredible people, who work their magic and are just incredible but they can’t work their magic on those that are simply not there. That’s why keeping an eye on your student’s attendance is crucial in improving the outcomes for our young people!

Now you will be glad to hear that Arbor is full of wonderful built-in Attendance reporting tools and I’m going to explain some really useful ones that can be used on a daily basis and reports that can be shared with others.

So we’ve all taken part in staff meetings,  where we sit and learn that Year 11’s have decided that what they are wearing to prom, is far more important than focusing on their GCSEs.

….Or that the Year 8s think that harmlessly flipping bottles onto tables is no longer fun and have now started throwing them from balconies….

In a strange way, I looked forward to the meetings. It was a nice change speaking to actual human beings older than 16 after your day of having conversations with Year 9 students that turning up to school 15 minute late, just really isn’t acceptable.

(Spoiler! They obviously listened and decided to make a change, that change being turning up 30 minutes late instead.)

As an attendance officer, you can sometimes feel like a one-man band, so it’s useful to have an opportunity to share your data/concerns with other members of staff such as Head of Years, Senior Leadership Team, Pastoral staff etc…

I found it useful during my time as an attendance officer, to run reports and distribute the data. I have created an article on our help centre that details all the reports I liked to use, you can find the article here – Common Attendance Reports

Below I have listed the top 4 reports that I found most useful and why:

Attendance breakdown for the week

You can use attendance statistics to get this information. In the article above take a look at the Percentage Attendance Report with steps on how to do this. You will need to amend the dates to show a Monday, then re-run the report with dates for Tuesday etc…

I find this particularly useful as you begin to see if there are any days in which attendance drops.

Students that have been absent this week 

You can view this information by the Absentees by date page in Arbor, take a look at the Session absences report in the article above.

As attendance officers our sole purpose is to monitor attendance. Whereas this is not the focus for other members of staff, it is useful for them to be reminded of students that were absent.

Students that have been late to school this week

In the attendance reporting article, take a look at the Minutes Late Report section.

Now ten minutes late here and there, we can overlook and forgive. However if a student is late every school day by 30 minutes, that’s 2.5 hours a week. if this was to continue for a month, that would amount to 10 hours, equivalent to 2 school days. It is useful to monitor this as minutes late, that build up, can amount to a significant amount of missed learning.

List of students that are currently a persistent absentee

To view a list of students that are currently persistent absentees, head to Students > Attendance > Absentees (on the left) > Persistent Absentees

It’s good practice to constantly be familiar with our students that are persistently absent. Even though teachers are incredible at their jobs, ultimately they can’t teach those that are absent. Sharing this data with other members of staff allows you to put in place interventions in a bid to improve attendance.

The post School attendance analysis in Arbor appeared first on Arbor.

Everybody who has worked in a school knows that no two days are the same. However, my experience of being an Attendance Officer is that we will tend to have a routine/structure to our morning that we try to stick to.

I thought it would be fun to share my experience of being an Attendance Officer and how that would look whilst using Arbor. So here goes…

Let’s set the scene, it’s a dark gloomy winter morning. I’m already late as I didn’t factor in the extra ten minutes to defrost my car. I roll up to the empty car park, usually I was always the first person in!

I unlock my office door and turn on the lights and can see the phone blinking red with the voicemails from my parents. My first port of call – turn the kettle on!

Now armed with caffeine, I start my day.

The majority of Parents & Guardians would contact the school prior to the school day starting. They would get in touch via email, telephone, SMS. I would always add these reasons onto the system.  There are a couple of ways you can do this.

First Method – Bulk Edit Marks

This is useful for one-off absences such as a headache or other minor ailments.

Second Method – Record a Planned Absence

This is useful for documenting long-term absences such as an injury where they won’t be back for a week. Or future absences such as a medical appointment or a holiday.

I would then refresh my memory from the day before and see who was absent and who I need to keep an eye on today. You can do this using the Absentee’s by Date page:

1. Go to Students > Attendance > Absentee’s > Absentee’s by Date
2. Change the date to the previous day

Then the school day starts and there is a buzz of chatter that fills the hallway. There is a year 11 student in the corner that is crying because they’ve broken up for the twelfth time this week with their significant other (it’s Tuesday).

Amongst the crowd, you see a student that is radiating a pale green colour and is making a beeline to your office to tell you they do not feel well. You ask the student, “Who’s sent you?”, to which they reply “Miss Smith”. You make a mental note to thank Miss Smith later for sending a student to your shoebox office.

You call home for this student, someone’s on their way to collect them and you ask the student to wait in main reception. You say, “hope you feel better soon” as they are leaving, before lunging for the disinfectant.

Then all went quiet, the students are in lessons, time for the dreaded late duty!

I make a note of all the students coming in late and what time they arrive. I would like to tell you that I was kept entertained by an array of elaborate excuses.  Unfortunately, when working in a secondary all you get is “slept in” or “you should be glad I even came” and well, we can’t argue with their honesty!

I then add the late marks via Bulk Edit Marks and I can then monitor/report on these students via Latecomers!

Now that the late duty has been done, time to see who is in and who isn’t!

Of course, Mr Andrews is yet to complete his register, let’s send him his first reminder of the day. (Sending reminders to complete registers or completing them for teachers)

Now to chase all the students that have been marked absent and we don’t know why. In Arbor you can do this on the Absentee’s by Date page:

1. Go to Students > Attendance > Absentee’s > Absentee’s by Date
2. Press the Change (green pencil) button
3. Set Specific Mark to No Reason (N)

 I tick all the students and then use the Blue Pencil tool and select Follow-up with Guardians.

 For most, receiving an SMS/Email will prompt them to call the school and explain the absence. For others, I need to initiate that phone call, so I look back at my list of absent students and identify who will need that phone call.

I can see that Lucy is off today, something is ringing a bell with this student. So, I go to her profile and look at her attendance record.  You can do this by:

1. Heading to the student’s profile and select Attendance on the left.

Looking at the Marks (by Date) section I can see clearly that Lucy has had the last 5 Tuesdays off and that a pattern is forming, I can also see she has double science on a Tuesday afternoon… interesting.

I called home and was told Lucy had a headache, but I also explained my concerns. Feeling rumbled, Lucy made a sudden recovery and will be coming in this afternoon! I also log this telephone call along with all the other calls I made this morning.

Once I’ve followed up with all my guardians, I then like to have a quick skim over my absent students from today regardless of what absence code they have. I can see this overview via the Absentees by date page:

1. Go to Students > Attendance > Absentee’s > Absentee’s by Date
2. Press the Change (green pencil) button
3. Remove any mark in the Specific Mark so that it is empty.

 I do this just to ensure that I always have a clear idea of who is absent and make sure I have accounted for everyone. I also like to check my students that are accumulating consecutive days of absence. I can view this from the Continuous Absence page. This will then allow me to identify those who may benefit from a home visit.

Oh and of course, one of the students that lives 5 miles from the school is off today and we have chased a reason for absence, but no joy! Home visit it is.

So, there it is, a morning as an Arbor Attendance Officer! Let me know what you think and what other Attendance topics you would like me to cover.

The post What does a school Attendance Officer do? appeared first on Arbor.

The interview was part of a wider research project into how Arbor saves schools money and time. Part of the project involved surveying over 300 SBMs and COOs about how they’re making sure their MIS is doing exactly that – you can download the report for free and hear from more SBMs here.

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How did your school cut down on costs through digital transformation?

During lockdown, our school realised the underinvestment we’d made into our ICT systems – we were reliant on legacy systems and antiquated manual processes. I was asked to lead a digital transformation project, creating a strategy that overhauled our systems from a core teaching and learning point of view, from an internal systems perspective and how we interface with stakeholders. All of those things that we need to do effectively to continue the popularity of our school, filling our pan and being funded appropriately. 

In February 2022, we kickstarted this project and began to do away with the legacy systems and on prem solutions that we had. Servers were taking up lots of room, consuming lots of energy (particularly as kept air conditioned) and didn’t give staff flexibility – I lost count of the number of times I had to come onsite to get access to something stored beyond the system. We carried out detailed system analysis and realised we were buying into an unnecessary amount of additional systems, simply because our previous MIS didn’t support those functions that were necessary to school life: things like assessment of children’s progress, school meals, receiving payments from parents, school club provision etc. Back in February 2022, we were having to interface all these additional apps into our MIS, sometimes having to export and import continually to allow for the most up-to-date information. Not only were the additional subscriptions and applications costly, but also labour intensive from an administrative and organisational point of view.

Another significant cost was the MIS maintenance and support costs which we had to buy into from our Local Authority, when our previous MIS had to be upgraded or tweaked in the form of rolling out patches and updates, in order to support the specialist support team there. 

When we looked at what we currently bought into, there was almost £19,000 worth of additional subscriptions and costs that we could effectively eliminate by moving to Arbor. 

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How did you pick the right cloud MIS for your school?

We did thorough market research, looking at other cloud providers to make sure we found the right fit for our school. What we liked about Arbor was the deep functionality – and that it joined up our processes across the school. Just having those elements talking to each other and connecting the dots is what makes the difference to the efficiency and effectiveness of the school as a whole. It’s logical thinking, and it seems evident, at least to me, that those building the system really understand education in terms of the administrative functions around it and the impact it will have on staff and students. 

One good example was a previous pain point of ours, which was parents pre-ordering school meals for their children, but if the student was absent on the day, the kitchen wouldn’t be informed – this led to parents still wanting a refund and food waste, as well as the manual work this creates in order to smooth these external relationships. In Arbor, because the system is interconnected and all the different elements speak to each other, this updates automatically. 

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How is Arbor helping to reduce admin? 

We used to spend almost £1000 a year on generating booklets to manage admissions, with parents expected to fill them out, and then our admin team manually inputting this information into the MIS. That process of transposing that information took our office team two weeks in the summer, and had an impact on data accuracy where things weren’t clearly written down. And when September would come around, there would be a mad rush of trying to correct these details when the office is already busy dealing with lots of queries that the new academic year brings. 

Not only that, but I previously had to bring in an agency temp to help my office team with a volume of paperwork that was received on the admissions side. We hadn’t received everything we needed, resulting in phonecalls and chasing outstanding paperwork. Now we just click a button and send automatic reminders. 

Having the Parent Portal is a massive step forward for us, then, in terms of both cost and time-saving. You’re improving data not only data accuracy, saving paper and the environment, reducing cost and relieving administrative burden on the office staff. The team then has more time to give a more personalised approach for those that do need it that way, e.g. for parents with less digital capability or those with EASL. 

Having an MIS with deeper functionality, and connecting those dots across the system, relieves the administrative burden on school staff, which in my opinion, gives staff the capacity to concentrate on those higher value activities. Those things you might not always have the day-to-day bandwidth to support. 

For instance, last term, we had an external organisation come in to run some financial management workshops for parents, as we wanted to recognise that some of our families are facing challenges in today’s economic climate and work with them to develop skills which help them back into the workforce or to manage their day-to-day home finances better. In the past, we wouldn’t have necessarily had the time or bandwidth to organise that in terms of administration, marketing, facilitation etc, but now that is  a real example where we can say we have made a difference by and added value

We can put more of our energy into doing those kinds of things that benefit our wider community, help our families, or even simple things, like increasing our tours and marketing to make sure we receive the maximum amount of funding that we are eligible for. Because if your numbers are below pan, you’ve still got to staff the same classrooms, which puts the students at a disadvantage. So for me, marketing and lettings and generating additional income to supplement the school budget is critical, because it impacts student outcomes. With the right MIS, you should be able to free up some of the administrative capacity to manage that. 

And that’s not only good for budgeting reasons – you also want to keep things interesting for people, which supports staff engagement too. Certain things have to happen at certain times in schools, and some of the more labour intensive work can be more monotonous, which causes peaks and troughs in terms of individual workload, particularly when we were dependent on lots of manual processes. Arbor is helping us to level off those peaks effectively. Of course, we’re still busy, but not to the point where people are completely overwhelmed and where work is more interesting that supports staff development, recruitment and retention.

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Anything else you’d like to add?

• I get quite excited about the Arbor updates. I love the responsiveness of the organisation, where they recognise that schools have requested this or this is a common theme amongst users. We’re keen to keep abreast of the developments and make sure we are always on that front foot.
• Teachers love Arbor’s user-friendliness – they feel like they know their pupils better because of it, and that comes down to the information they need being right there in front of them, in one place. 
• The data that’s surfaced in Arbor, in terms of attendance, progress and attainment data, is accessible, digestible and allows you to make data-driven decisions. You’ve got a more accurate and up to date understanding of your data, which helps you determine what the next steps are in terms of moving a child’s learning forward. 
• It’s evident Arbor’s developers have a real understanding of education. That’s one of the overriding benefits of the system – you understand what we need to make our lives easier, and that seems to naturally fall into the cycle of development. For me, it has to be one of the best decisions we’ve made. –

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Total cost-saving (as a result of moving to Arbor)

Third party applications and support contracts: £19,638 annually

Server, warranties and maintenance: £4,000 annually

Other savings e.g. admission booklets: £1,000 annually

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Don’t yet use Arbor? Find out more about our school MIS here.

The post Saving time and money with Arbor MIS appeared first on Arbor.

What is operational efficiency?

Operational efficiency can sometimes feel like a bit of a dirty word. It smacks of budget cuts, of the prioritisation of KPIs over people and of poor quality.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, I argue many of the associations above come from people not taking into account actual efficiency when making their decisions. If carried out thoughtfully and carefully, a strive for true operational efficiency should result in a happier workforce and a reduced workload.

For me, operation efficiency is defined by the amount of administrative overhead required to carry out your work. In an ideal world, everyone would spend most of their time on their core role, with a small amount of time dedicated to the admin around that. This might seem obvious, but how many of us could truthfully say that we spend less than 10% of our time on admin?

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Why is achieving operational efficiency so hard?

• Operational efficiency takes time

Going from an inefficient workplace to an efficient workplace takes time, investment and people, all of which are usually already earmarked for work that relates more directly to what your workplace does. If you’re a school, that might be teaching, for a company like Arbor, that’s the work of delivering a reliable platform to our customers. Taking time and people away from that work feels incredibly counter-intuitive – after all, it’s already hard enough to get everything done without giving away a load of time to some work on systems and processes.

• It’s kind of boring

I love working through systems and reviewing processes to find areas where they’re overcomplicated, but even I’ll admit that most people don’t find that thrilling. That can make it even harder to choose to give your (already stretched) attention to the work needed for a more efficient workplace, when there are so many exciting and new things to be looking at.

• …but it’s worth it

I’ve been working in this area for most of my career and I have never considered the time invested in improving efficiency wasted. From halving the workload of an analytics team, thus allowing them to carry out more complex and bespoke analyses, to reducing the errors in school migrations onto our platform by 90%, the results speak for themselves. But the benefits of increased efficiency go beyond simply improving the work produced. I’ve seen happier, more productive teams, better relationships between departments and improved flexibility, as people are able to step away from mundane, repetitive tasks and truly focus on their work.

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So how do we do it?

• Pick your battles

Before diving into creating a new system or process, it’s always worth a quick sense check to make sure it’s worth the time. Will you be doing this task on a regular basis? How long does it take? How long will it take to automate/create a system? For instance, if the task takes two hours and automating it takes six hours, it’s only worth it if you know you’ll be doing that task at least four times.

• Keep it simple

A colleague of mine used to say he aimed for ‘minimum viable bureaucracy’ and that’s stuck with me ever since. It can be really tempting to try to address all possible scenarios once you’ve decided to commit to making a large-scale change, but that can slow you up more than it’s worth. While some systems will be difficult to change after the fact (and it’s always worth checking that with the provider), many will be easy to adjust as new circumstances come up. 

• Listen to the experts

So many people in my role come in with the view that they know more than the rest of the business about managing their workload. I don’t believe that should ever be the case. At the end of the day, no one knows your workplace better than the people who work there. Before getting into any large change, I do my best to speak to representatives from all areas of the company, so that I can make sure my perception reflects the actual experience of the people working there.

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Operational efficiency in my school – where do I start?

Even bearing all of this in mind, it can feel quite daunting to start a project like this. To help, there are a few exercises I like to go through. Firstly, you’ll need to decide how much resource (time or money) you’re willing to invest. This will help you keep everything on track and on budget as you go. Next, decide on the single biggest outcome you’re hoping for. Once you have that, you can work backwards to understand everything you need to allow you to achieve that outcome. If any external systems are involved in your work, it can be a good idea to speak directly with the providers, as they may be able to help you find the most efficient way to achieve your goals.

Most importantly, don’t forget to keep reminding yourself on why it’s worth it. Keep going back to those key points of why you started your project in the first place, celebrate the small wins, and look forward to a (hopefully!) reduced workload and happier workforce. 

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At Arbor, we believe your MIS should be doing the heavy lifting for you when it comes to laborious and manual admin. Find out more about our time-saving cloud MIS here so that you can spend your time on what matters most. 

The post How to increase operational efficiency in your school or trust appeared first on Arbor.

Staff in schools working in lots of new ways right now (and harder than ever before), with School Business Managers and Leaders especially feeling the strain. The upside is that we’re seeing more and more awareness of wellbeing and ways to prevent overload.

We asked School Business Leaders within the SBL Connect network to share their top three tips for managing their workload on Twitter. There were some fantastic pieces of advice around reducing screen time, prioritising tasks and delegating to colleagues. 

We’ve gathered some of the best tips below:

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Star advice: Clare Payne, SBM at South Lake Primary

1. monthly tasks as soon as possible, leaving the rest of the month for project work
2. Set specific times of the day for emails and try to ignore them the rest of the time
3. Set two tasks that will be completed each day, and make sure they (even if nothing else) get done

We thought Clare Payne’s top three tips were pretty smart and practical, so we awarded her first place in our competition and sent her some brownies to share with her colleagues!

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Rebecca Goddard, SBM at single form entry primary school in Swindon

1. Keep a to do list
2. Know when you contracts are up for renewal so you have time to look around for new ones
3. Keep talking to your HT/colleagues and let them know if it’s all becoming too much

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Jonny Coates, SBL and Business and Finance Director in MAT

1. Empower your teams through delegation, trust and saying thanks!
2. Use digital technologies to unlock efficiencies to YOUR time
3. Shift your mindset. Prioritise key deadlines first. Take the time to do things in a considered way

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@SBMWestSussex, Primary School Business Manager

1. Automate emails as much as you can to save time and move from your inbox to a task list
2. Take a break. Coming back fresh is more productive than just slogging away
3. Prioritise and ditch non-essentials if necessary

How do you manage your workload? We’d love to hear from you – join the conversation: #WorkloadTopTips

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If you’d like to discover how Arbor’s cloud-based MIS could transform the way you work and reduce your workload, why not join a free webinar. With sessions tailored to primary, secondary, special schools and MATs, find out what’s on and book your place here.

The post Top tips for managing your workload from School Business Leaders appeared first on Arbor.