Case Studies*
St. Joseph's RC Middle School
We were initially contacted by St. Joseph’s RC Middle School in Hexham, Northumberland by their head teacher Alan Hodgson and head of music Phil Rosier to enquire if we could improve their student reporting process.
Learning of their frustrations with their current reporting process we set about researching and working with them to develop a solution to their problem; an Online Student Report System (OSRS).
During initial meetings we planned out the information that would be required for the reports, how St. Joseph's wanted it to work for their school, then how we would link this information with the OSRS. The initial set up was straightforward and simple, getting everything live online and working within two weeks.
Once launched we presented the OSRS to all of the staff at St. Joseph's in the form of a training session along with answering any questions they had about usability. The response from the whole staff was extremely positive. One of the key pieces of feedback for us was that everyone viewed the system as being very user friendly and straightforward to use. This is something we had always intended as our research had revealed varying levels of I.T. literacy.
Once the staff had started using the OSRS we only had one support enquiry throughout the whole process of writing, reviewing, publishing and distributing the reports. Something we believe is testament to how user-friendly the OSRS is to implement.
Now that St. Joseph's have completed their reports for 08/09 we are working with them to further develop their OSRS in 2010 - moving towards creating a more comprehensive online education portal.
The OSRS meets all government requirements for online reporting which come in to force in 2010 for secondary schools and 2012 for primary schools. Feedback from staff and parents has been very positive indeed. Staff have found the OSRS to be extremely user-friendly and it has provided them with the flexibility to complete their reports either at home or school, at their own convenience.
Having a busy music schedule inside and outside of school OSRS has allowed me to write reports in my own time, wherever I can find an internet connection. Being able to quickly find students on the system has also speeded up the report writing process for me.
Feedback from staff and parents has been very positive indeed. Staff have found the OSRS to be extremely user-friendly and it has provided them with the flexibility to complete their reports either at home or school, at their own convenience.