"FileMaker has dramatically improved Information Management at Croxteth Community Comprehensive School, and four years on the SMART School system is as strong as ever."

Croxteth Community Comprehensive School, Liverpool

FileMaker Takes Croxteth Comprehensive in to the Digital Age

Croxteth Community Comprehensive School, a medium-sized, co-educational school situated on the outskirts of Liverpool, has improved pupil attendance, introduced pupil data management, implemented electronic data transfers, reduced the workload involved in managing supply cover, and generally improved its entire approach to information management through the deployment of FileMaker.

Marsh believes that there is an ever-increasing demand on schools to analyse and evaluate data in a meaningful context, coupled with an increasing level of e-Government legislation designed to move the education sector into the digital age. However, the mountain of data that Croxteth generated pre-FileMaker was not necessarily being used to best effect. Staff often duplicated data across the school. The quality and usefulness of documents produced and the way staff used data had to be improved. A bespoke solution was required, one that could be customised to fit the individual needs of Croxteth. Staff also needed to access data without needing to go through a third party to get it, such as phoning the central office for a student's telephone number.

More specifically, electronic registration needed to be rolled out across the school. This would provide staff with a powerful tool to combat lateness, spot truancy, record attendance, aid with fire regulations, automate letter sending and trigger phone calls to parents of absent students. The implemented system actively encourages parental involvement, tackling problems before they become serious. It also dramatically improves communication with parents; phone calls, absence letters and even text messages to a parent's mobile phone are all options for informing a parent about their child's absence.

Marsh stated, "The school established a demanding set of criteria for the required database solution. There was a broad range of factors to consider when evaluating which solutions to deploy. We needed the applications to be easy to use and install, as well as being fast, stable, networkable and accessible to staff from any location, including their own homes. Not only that but we needed to be able to customise it to our specific needs. We wanted to be able to publish to the web if necessary as well as import data from our existing database (SIMS) and export to XML. To round off our specification list, the solution had to have robust security and cross-platform compatibility. Last but not least, we were acutely aware of cost. We had to ensure that we would get best value for every penny spent."

During the evaluation process, Croxteth looked at a number of potential solutions including FileMaker Pro, Bromcom, Phoenix Gold, Microsoft Access and Capita SIMS.

The existing database system being used at the school was DOS-based, not very stable, required regular upgrading and was very inflexible with regard to customisation. Furthermore, it was not Mac compatible and very expensive.

A major problem with the existing system surrounded the inputting of information for the School Census. All schools have to provide information on every pupil, exclusions, staffing and classes three times a year in a format prescribed by DfES. Pre-FileMaker, if information was missing, the administrator had to physically print off a report for each pupil before they could add additional data. It was taking a fortnight to complete the census – with Croxteth's FileMaker student data module it now takes a matter of minutes. Croxteth have recently been complimented on the accuracy and reliability of attendance data sent to the local authority from the FileMaker system, data that other systems are currently struggling to successfully deliver.

Marsh continues, "In the end, our decision was quite simple. FileMaker Pro combined with FileMaker Server Advanced met all of our criteria. For the past four years staff have been operating with data at their fingertips accessible from anywhere in the school. Student attendance is easily tracked and truancy quickly spotted. Users have picked up the system extremely easily. After the introduction of the attendance module, we had teachers, most with little or no computer experience, taking registers in minutes. Implementing FileMaker has cost us a third of what other systems would and as an added bonus we can also use the software to teach the pupils how to create databases for their coursework."

Absence can be tracked and highlighted using the attendance system's reporting functionality. Cost and time has been saved by centralising the printing and sending of absence letters. Staff can see the benefits of using the system and have been very quick to learn and embrace it. This has been another major time saver for the school. Staff literally pick up the fundamentals in a matter of minutes and are quite competent using modules within a few hours. Training has been conducted in a cost effective and time efficient manner with a single whole school and focused year team introduction sessions. An external training company quoted Croxteth £2,100 for a three day training course. Time has also been saved by only having to input data once and in respect of calculating attendance averages, etc. these are now calculated automatically. IT administration staff have observed that FileMaker has to be one of the most robust applications ever used, with the FileMaker Server only crashing once in eight years.

Richard Baker, Croxteth's Head teacher, explains that, "developing our own management system has enabled the school to dovetail its own needs and requirements with the need for good statistical data."

Croxteth has saved a considerable amount of money by developing and deploying several FileMaker databases in-house and with some outside help from FileMaker experts and FileMaker Business Alliance members 3 Square Associates Ltd. (www.3squareassociates.com) Over the past four years the school has enhanced the Management Information System with software updates, each one improving the functionality of the application. Recent additions to the system include: census submissions, key stage reporting, lesson planning, lesson registration, library lending, professional development tracking, report writing, school trip management, supply cover and timetable modules. The workload of the school's cover manager has been reduced by half because FileMaker now automatically shows free staff available for cover from the FileMaker timetable module and inserts group, room and teacher info ready for display in the staff room.

The quality of the system has been recognised by DfES and the school is now an approved MIS supplier alongside big names like Capita and the rest. Andy Marsh explains more; "we had to make sure that the system was up to the rigorous standards imposed by DfES for submission of census returns and data exchange. We're very proud of the fact that we're the only FileMaker system to achieve such recognition."

Marsh concludes, "For the future, we are planning to expand the system, working with 3 Square, to include other modules and new technologies such as instant SMS text sending to parents, Flash charting of data, behaviour management, tackling bullying, assessment for learning, online report writing and pupil tracking. We will also be looking at publishing data on the web using FileMaker and enabling access using Pocket PCs. We're currently trialling individual lesson electronic registration. This means that we will be able to electronically track student's attendance throughout the entire day, not just during registered form periods. Longer term, interest in the Management Information System has been shown by other local schools currently running Capita SIMS and CMIS systems. Ultimately, it would be great to see other schools take advantage of the SMART School system."