MIS to help your school prepare for next term and the new academic year

How will the best MIS help your key staff get ready for next term and the new academic year?

Independent schools don’t need us to tell them how much organising and planning goes into making sure the start of a new school year is as pain free as possible.

We do know it helps if most of your key staff is experienced in dealing with the intricacies of rolling over from term to term and the even bigger task of setting up for the new academic year.

But sometimes with either staff moving into new roles, or new staff to the school filling the shoes of those who have moved on, there is a certain amount of reassurance from having a checklist of where to go to make your life easier especially for those new to their role or to the school.

Identify the modules for better understanding

There are evolving sophisticated MIS that offer automated processes and over-arching sharing of information but of course there are still some important tasks for key staff to oversee at the very least.

Drawing up a checklist for your staff as to which modules will do the most work for you before a new term starts can really help to understand where involvement of key staff is needed and to pinpoint areas of training if necessary for new staff.

How to utilise cloud native EdTech to better manage the new term

HUBmis is packed with ways to help manage your school all year round – well, you should expect that; it’s been designed, built and constantly developed due to the agile environment of its cloud native technology in line with our roadmap to meet the evolving needs of independent and international schools.

Its strength can be particularly felt in preparation for every new term and especially for the new academic year.

The HUBmis modules are used throughout the school community and in this article we focus on which are the ‘go to’ modules for key staff preparing for the start of a new term or the new school year, and giving you a picture of the positive impact on the whole school community.

Key staff for this purpose with the modules that help the most are identified below. Then read further for more detailed module information.

School administrators – STUDENT • TIMETABLE • COMMUNICATION • BEHAVIOUR • SETTINGS • COVER

Teachers – STUDENT • TIMETABLE Admissions staff – STUDENT • ADMISSIONS HR Team – STAFF

STUDENT MODULE

Staff and parents gain insight into students’ involvement through access to their timetable, with a detailed overview of their classes and participation in extra-curricular activities.

The student record gives:

a summary of a student’s pastoral and academic information
an overview of their behaviour and attendance status.

Academic performance information, with assessment data and Progress Reports, is available in one place. There is also access to the more sensitive, personal data including the student’s medical information and learning support records.

School administrators Check all student records are up-to-date. Move all new students to ‘current’ and upload all medical, SEN, and contact information for them. Make sure students are correctly assigned to a year, form and class.

Teachers Use the Student Profile module to remind yourself of each student’s performance last term and plan ahead for the upcoming term’s reporting. Highlight birthdays ready for birthday banner

Admissions staff Set the status of all new students as ‘Current’, ensuring they’re placed in the correct Year, Form and House – with an enrolment date. Enter all necessary medical data for new students, including highlighting any important health concerns. Input all SEN details for new students, if known. Ensure all new students have their Census information completed, if known. Ensure all new students have a valid enrolment date recorded.

TIMETABLE MODULE

You can produce timetables by student, teacher and room, as well as a whole school timetable, with a simple, user-friendly interface (or choose to import one from your preferred third party timetable solution).

Build different types, from Prep through to Sixth Form; there is no limit to the number of structures and timetables you can create. Timetable clashes are highlighted, which can simply be accepted or amended. If you need to remove a block completely the drag and drop capability makes this quick and easy. You also have the ability to assign staff to break duty. Timetabling can be exported into iCalendar.

School administrators Ensure the new term has been accurately added to your MIS. Ensure timetables accurately reflect the new term, with additional availability added (e.g. part-time working hours and staff duties) and activity groups updated to reflect the summer term. Publish timetables to staff and students at least one day in advance of the day you will need registers.

Teachers Look through your new timetable, taking note of all the classes and students you’ll be teaching.

STAFF MODULE

This is where you store key information including contact details, addresses, phone numbers, emails, photographs, and next of kin. You can also view your employees’ working hours, timetable and any classes and extra-curricular activities in which they are involved.

You can manage checks including:

Identity • Overseas EEA Restrictions • Prohibition from Teaching • DBS • S128 Prohibition • Children Disqualification Regulations • Medical Fitness • References • Right to Work (where applicable)• Induction • Qualifications

Produce your Single Central Register (SCR) comprising record of DBS (formerly known as CRB) checks, as well as qualification checks, safeguarding training checks, eligibility to work in the UK, and identity checks, with just one click.

HR Team Set up all relevant accounts for new staff where possible. Check existing staff records have had contact details updated. Ensure appropriate processes have been followed for user accounts of staff who have left.

COMMUNICATION MODULE

Gain control of all your internal and external communications through HUBmis. You decide which methods to use, whether they are announcements, emails, letters, etc. Send targeted messages to students, parents, teachers and associated contacts from one centrally managed module.

An account of all communications is stored against the relevant individual’s records, making it easy to get up to date with previous events and messages.

School administrators Check templates for letters are updated and set up for new year and terms. Ensure new timetables and other important communications are sent out to parents through the preferred methods.

BEHAVIOUR MODULE

Manage all positive and negative incidents; merits and demerits, or rewards and sanctions. This module is fully customisable to support your school’s behaviour management policies and procedures.

Parents can be continually and automatically updated on their child’s progress to help support the school in managing behaviour and wellbeing.

A full account of incidents can be recorded with what occurred against your criteria. You can even set detentions via the system, of which details are automatically emailed or posted to the parents and your detention invigilator.

Rewards are recorded in a similar way to an incident, with the difference being around the types of rewards a student can receive.

School administrators Create all new detentions for the new term.

SETTINGS MODULE

Independent and International Schools need an MIS flexible enough that can be built around your specific terminology and characteristics.

The School Management module allows you to define the naming structure, i.e. “First name, Surname”, “Surname, First name, Middle name”, “Name in local language”, etc.

The Academic Structure holds the information for your key groups including:

Sections • Departments • Year Groups • Subjects • Forms • Subject Sets • Tutor Groups • Extra-curricular Activities

When you’re ready to start setting up your new academic year, you can simply transfer the entire structure, certain elements only, or start completely afresh.

School administrators Add new registration periods and delete any that fall on a weekend, ensuring that the registration rules you set contain new forms, houses and teaching sets.

ADMISSIONS MODULE

The Admissions module in HUBmis allows you to realise the power of your admissions data. You’ll be able to understand how applicants find your school and from where enquiries come, then make informed decisions about where to focus future efforts.

You can calculate how many enquiries you need to meet your enrolment goals and track success rates for converting enquiries to applications then enrolment, whilst learning common drop-off points to minimise these as you move forward. Furthermore, you can create personalised marketing campaigns based on stages in the applicant process to keep prospects engaged.

Admissions Team You can set up all your stuff ready for your open days etc

COVER MODULE

The Cover module allows you to identify the most suitable staff to provide cover where required. You can see staff who are unavailable, teaching or available for the selected time period, and send a communication to them requesting they cover the lesson.

Thinking ahead you can also record Cover required, to ensure planned absences are dealt with in advance, to minimise any disruption to your education provision.

School administrators Create a new cover rota if required, reflecting the availability of your teachers.