[Advisory] Online Reporting in Schools
Jeff Wickham
onside@blueyonder.co.uk
Tue, 5 Jan 2010 11:30:38 -0000
Hi all
I couldn't agree more.
You can't fatten a pig by weighing it!
Regards
Jeff Wickham
Lotus Laser Education Consultant
07881 923542
Onside Consultants Ltd
www.onsideconsultants.co.uk
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alistair Goodwin" <sen.ict@ntlworld.com>
To: "Crispin Weston" <crispin.weston@alphalearning.co.uk>;
<Colin@revell.org.uk>; <advisory@talk.naace.org>; <secondary@talk.naace.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 11:18 AM
Subject: Re: [Advisory] Online Reporting in Schools
> Hi Crispin
>
> An extraordinarily good point and a useful analogy. Really powerful. I
> think
> the potential for us to miss what's really important as we work towards a
> future where software captures our abilities and reports to a central
> system
> is frightening though. I have to continuously question what the point in
> all
> this data really is. It makes pretty graphs, but I'm bored senseless of it
> all. It has nothing to do with my vision for the world.
>
> If teachers are expected not just to make these judgements and act
> intuitively on them right now, but to formalise, justify and evidence them
> to the same degree as a supermarket stock database (and you are right,
> this
> is increasingly the expectation) then I seriously fear for my children's
> future. A school I visited recently provides a reward system for
> attendance
> (following an Ofsted which highlighted this as the only real issue) but
> none
> on the same scale for behaviour or achievement. That to me is evidence of
> something horribly wrong on a human scale (and the longer you consider its
> ramifications from an individual to national scale the more enormous it
> becomes) and again you are right, it's important almost purely because you
> can measure it and, infact, effectively almost barscan it. I could run at
> least a day's useful training based entirely on 'unpacking' this one
> example. It is indicative of the terrible sickness in our nation.
>
> I would like my children to attend a school where they are recognised as
> individuals and where their actions and perspectives are shared and
> understood until all pupils in the school are able to understand where all
> the other pupils in the school are 'coming from'. I'd like them to grow in
> confidence and be increasingly engaging, happy and fun to be with. I'd
> like
> them to grow up in a world where people are able to look for solutions to
> real problems and not just made up ones which computers can easily appear
> to
> solve... I'll stop blah blah blahing etc ... the graphs ? I seriously do
> not
> understand where they fit in,
>
> Alistair Goodwin
> Hampshire ICT Consultant
>
> The views expressed in this email are RATHER ANNOYINGLY unlikely to be
> those
> of my employer. You work it out :-)
>
> ---
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Crispin Weston" <crispin.weston@alphalearning.co.uk>
> To: <Colin@revell.org.uk>; <advisory@talk.naace.org>;
> <secondary@talk.naace.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 9:48 AM
> Subject: RE: [Advisory] Online Reporting in Schools
>
>
>> It has always struck me that the real-time reporting agenda has a massive
>> missing piece: where is the data that you are meant to be reporting on?
>> I thought Chris Gerry (an innovative Head Teacher from Kent) made an
>> excellent presentation at the NAACE autumn conference, pointing out that
>> while Tesco analyses data on virtually every aspect of shoppers'
>> purchasing
>> preferences, schools are, in terms of business intelligence, still in a
>> sort
>> of Dickensian Dark Age of paper-based ledgers. Most schools have very
>> little
>> useful performance or competency data in their systems. There's a big
>> emphasis on attendance, I suspect, because it is about the only useful
>> real-time data that schools have.
>> The feet of clay of any business intelligence system is data input - and
>> manual input is never the answer. The revolution for the supermarkets lay
>> in
>> the bar-code reader. The revolution for schools will be when learning
>> software (really useful and compelling in its own right) can report
>> student
>> performance and competence straight into central systems, which must also
>> of
>> course be able to make sense of that data.
>> I think that until this kind of interoperable data flow is sorted out,
>> most
>> of the energy in real time reporting programme will go on covering up the
>> fact that schools will simply be unable to deliver what has been promised
>> by
>> the government.
>> Crispin.
>>
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: advisory-admin@talk.naace.org [mailto:advisory-
>>> admin@talk.naace.org] On Behalf Of Colin J Revell
>>> Sent: 31 December 2009 18:05
>>> To: advisory@talk.naace.org; secondary@talk.naace.org
>>> Subject: [Advisory] Online Reporting in Schools
>>>
>>> Some thought for comment;
>>>
>>> Being as I am in the process of rolling out secure online access to
>>> parents
>>> I find it interesting that there is very little "official"
>>> information about
>>> this that I have come across. If you search online for real time
>>> reporting
>>> to parents or similar, you mainly get references to the letter that
>>> Ed Balls
>>> released at BETT in Jan 2008.
>>>
>>> Where is the official guidance of exactly what has to be done, by
>>> whom and
>>> by when - as far as I can see there is more rumour than substance
>>> and I am
>>> wandering, in my more cynical moments, how much of the momentum for
>>> this
>>> change is coming from the MIS providers?
>>>
>>> Colin
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: secondary-admin@talk.naace.org [mailto:secondary-
>>> admin@talk.naace.org]
>>> On Behalf Of Tony Parkin
>>> Sent: 31 December 2009 14:22
>>> To: advisory@talk.naace.org; secondary@talk.naace.org
>>> Cc: Ray Tolley
>>> Subject: RE: [Secondary] FW: [Advisory] Online Reporting in Primary
>>> Schools
>>>
>>> Fergus
>>>
>>> ... and it may be worth a reminder to those schools exploring this
>>> journey
>>> of the 'expectations' in this area, as currently delineated on the
>>> Becta
>>> website.....?
>>> Ray might even like to ask suppliers in his calls how their
>>> offerings
>>> measure up against these requirements?
>>>
>>> "What is online reporting?
>>>
>>> Online reporting involves using ICT to enable parents to receive and
>>> access
>>> information about their children's work, progress, attendance and
>>> behaviour
>>> when and where they want, using secure, online access.
>>>
>>> What do I have to do and when?
>>>
>>> Secondary schools are expected to make the following information
>>> available
>>> to parents through secure online access by September 2010:
>>> * Attendance and behaviour (both positive and challenging)
>>> * Progress and attainment
>>> * Special needs
>>> All primary schools are expected to achieve this by September 2012."
>>>
>>> It is worth noting that not all these aspects are addressed in some
>>> of the
>>> solutions being promoted to schools as ideal ways of meeting these
>>> aspirations.
>>>
>>> Also perhaps that 'real-time reporting', though clearly invaluable
>>> and
>>> undoubtedly welcomed by parents, is NOT part of the specification?
>>>
>>> Tony
>>> --------------------------------------------
>>> Tony Parkin
>>> Head of ICT Development
>>> Specialist Schools & Academies Trust
>>> 17th Floor, Millbank Tower
>>> 21-24 Millbank
>>> London SW1P 4QP
>>>
>>> Email:tony.parkin@ssatrust.org.uk
>>> Tel: +44 20 7802 2306
>>> Mob:+44 07739 436073
>>> Skype: parkintony
>>> MSN: a.c.parkin@hotmail.co.uk
>>> --------------------------------------------
>>> ________________________________________
>>> From: secondary-admin@talk.naace.org [secondary-
>>> admin@talk.naace.org] On
>>> Behalf Of Ray Tolley [rjt@maximise-ict.co.uk]
>>> Sent: 31 December 2009 12:41
>>> To: advisory@talk.naace.org; secondary@talk.naace.org
>>> Subject: [Secondary] FW: [Advisory] Online Reporting in Primary
>>> Schools
>>>
>>> Hi, Fergus,
>>>
>>> I agree with Tony up to a point, but 'reports' are always about past
>>> experience and possibly previous teaching and learning styles. I
>>> did a
>>> quick phone-round of some of the suppliers but unfortunately they
>>> were all
>>> on holiday.
>>>
>>> I have my own ideas on the benefits of on-line reporting and will
>>> 'interrogate' leading known suppliers as to how they see on-line
>>> reporting
>>> moving in the near future. - I will report back shortly - probably
>>> next
>>> week.
>>>
>>> Meanwhile, I would suggest that there are three different aspects to
>>> this
>>> issue:
>>>
>>> 1. The appropriate access to real-time reporting of progress
>>> through
>>> activities completed using some form of assessment software like
>>> 'SmartAssess';
>>> 2. The reporting written by teachers, that can be reasonably up-to-
>>> date,
>>> such as provided by SERCO/CMIS/Facility;
>>> 3. The formative and possibly informal reporting available through
>>> a good
>>> e-Portfolio system.
>>>
>>> I'm sure that there are several other competitive products - but
>>> firstly it
>>> will depend on your present VLE provider.
>>>
>>> PS: BETT will be a good source of advice even if coloured by some
>>> degree of
>>> 'sales pitch'.
>>>
>>> Best Wishes,
>>>
>>> Ray Tolley FEIDCT, NAACE Fellow, ACQI, MBILD
>>> ICT Education Consultant
>>> Maximise ICT Ltd
>>> P: http://raytolley.v2efolioworld.mnscu.edu/
>>> B: http://www.efoliointheuk.blogspot.com/
>>> W: http://www.maximise-ict.co.uk/eFolio-01.htm
>>> Winner of the IMS 'Leadership Regional Award 2009'
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: advisory-admin@talk.naace.org [mailto:advisory-
>>> admin@talk.naace.org]
>>> On Behalf Of Fergus Reynolds
>>> Sent: 31 December 2009 09:18
>>> To: advisory@talk.naace.org
>>> Subject: [Advisory] Online Reporting in Primary Schools
>>>
>>> Colleagues,
>>>
>>> Does anybody have any advice, hints or tips on developing online
>>> reporting in Primary schools? I am interested in examples of good
>>> practice and any suggestions colleagues may have to help avoid
>>> pitfalls in getting going. I am also interested in any schools that
>>> colleagues could recommend as examples of good practice in this area
>>> -
>>> especially in the North West of England. Any help, comments, etc
>>> appreciated.
>>> I am happy to receive responses offline if colleagues prefer that. I
>>> would be happy to collate responses if anyone would be interested in
>>> receiving that. Thanks in anticipation.
>>>
>>> Best wishes for a Happy new Year
>>>
>>> Fergus Reynolds
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