Ashdell is a small preparatory school. We were looking into getting an MIS system in order to fit with the expectations of The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) who expect all secondary schools to use ICT to engage with parents online by September 2010 and primary schools by 2012.

Ashdell already used a range on communication technologies including our website, twitter, text and email but decided against using a VLE due to the many disappointed reports from schools about the difficulty of maintaining and getting staff and children to use such a system. Instead Ashdell decided to look into a Management Information System which, as well as storing data digitally about the pupils, could also serve to engage with and report to parents, online. After much searching and many extortionate quotes, I, as the ICT coordinator, came across a name recommended by Becta and by another couple of educational ICT forums - Scholarpack.

Our progress has been slow and steady. Before we started we were visited by Garry who gave free staff training to the whole school. We started by adding all the pupil's personal data to the system. From there, teachers started adding their lesson plans. Timetables were then added so the secretary is able to locate classes and teachers easily. Clubs and extra curricular activities were then added and pupils assigned to these.

The weekly bulletin written by the head, along with the calendar, which all staff can add to, is a tremendous aid to a busy school with a lot of part-time staff.

More training was then supplied by Garry and Steve. We started reporting to parents online and opened the Parents' Portal. We are now able to report effort and attainment, pastoral and full reports. Previously this was done using mail merge and word and caused many hours of work for me each year! The parents online access has been very positively received - no chance of lost reports now! Our next step, starting in September, will be online registration and using the mark book to store (and report) online assessment data. This method should help us track pupil progress much more effectively. Again, school training has been offered to help us get to grips with this.

The front end of Scholarpack has changed dramatically since we started using the system. The newest interface is really simple to use and proving much easier for some of the staff who find new ICT technologies difficult.
The system is extremely reliable and has never gone down on us. The support from Scholarpack has been second to none. Any bugs or questions raised by e-mail are always answered extremely quickly (even late on Saturday nights!) and the staff have gone above and beyond in their work. Requests for extra configurability to suit the requirements of our school have always been carried out quickly and effectively.
I would have no hesitation in recommending ScholarPack to another school and wish them every success with this venture!