MANAGING ICT
With Jim Knight
stressing the
need for parents
to be “fully on
In the know
board” in their children’s
have access to information about everything relating and when parents are brought in to discuss their child, however, the school is always in control and
to their child’s education, including attendance and they are fully up-to-date with what has happened and continual improvements make the system exactly what
education, assistant head
punctuality, personal data (though only for means of when. this enables the conversation to move straight to you want it to be. With a student population from an
ensuring everything is correct rather than for editing), how both we at school and parents at home can help to area such as cardinal Wiseman, we feel that if we can
John McGowan explains
an event log for good and bad behaviour at school, and improve a situation. do it, any school can. SecEd
assessment data. there have been occasions when the MIs has
how his school’s parents
Although all information about students’ education helped to resolve problems without the school needing • John McGowan is the assistant head of Cardinal
is accessible by parents, one of the most important areas to be involved. Despite leaving on time in the morning, Wiseman Catholic Technology College in Birmingham,
get up-to-date information
for both parents and teachers is the event log – also one mother came to discover that every day for three which uses the Serco Learning ePortal.
known as a conduct log in some schools. weeks her son had arrived late at school. It transpired
cardinal Wiseman takes behaviour very seriously that en route he had been stopping with friends.
Further information
about their children’s
and has a rewards and sanctions policy of which the she saw the punctuality report online and received • Becta (parental reporting):
online log has become an essential part. calls and texts from our truancy service, and so www.becta.org.uk
behaviour
It is important not just to condemn bad behaviour, but discussed the situation with her son and, needless to • cardinal Wiseman: www.
also to promote good work and positive performance in say, his punctuality improved without the school’s cardinalwiseman.bham.sch.uk
school. When pupils have submitted a good piece of participation.
s teAchers, we know that work, have helped out at school events such as parents’ Although important, behaviour is just one facet
A
some parents are frequent visitors evening, have participated in a sports activity or other of what opening up our ePortal has allowed us to
to their children’s schools and get extra-curricular events which deserve recognition, do. through the MIs, highlighting students
involved in every aspect of their teachers are required to send praise postcards home to who are falling behind has proved useful
education. however, with others, encourage parents to share in this. for teachers and the leadership team, who
there is neither sight nor sound of As well as sending home postcards, any event is have then been able to provide extra
them between parents’ evenings, so logged on the MIs, adding to a student’s ever-growing support. It also means that students
a teacher may only communicate with them for a matter record of school life. By sending postcards and updating themselves can keep track of what
of minutes each term. the log, achievements are celebrated and pupils are level they should be at, and how
Many of the parents at my school, cardinal Wiseman reminded that good behaviour does not go unnoticed. they are performing in comparison
catholic technology college, once attended the school We take a similar approach to problems or bad to this.
themselves and may not have had a particularly good behaviour in school. rather than simply being a way of this is great for student’s
experience – something that may influence their telling off pupils and ensuring that parents are aware of motivation, but also for allowing
reluctance to return. how their child is acting, by logging who is involved in parents to understand how their
Located in Kingstanding in Birmingham, what problems, where in school, and at what times, it child is progressing and what they
approximately 78 per cent of our 600 pupils live helps our management team to see if any patterns occur should be achieving.
in an area that falls into the bottom 20 per cent of so that such incidents can be reduced or eradicated having made such significant
deprivation in the country. these factors combined may entirely. headway with parental reporting,
mean that some of our pupils get little motivation or When we noticed that the last five minutes of we frequently have other schools
encouragement from home. lunchtime often saw a period of disruptive behaviour, and educational bodies visiting to see
One of my first decisions upon joining the team we looked specifically at solutions for this short period how the system works and the benefits
at cardinal Wiseman four years ago was to open up of time and took the appropriate action. to parents and students.
ePortal, the web-based interface of our already existing From regularly analysing the log and creating A common fear shared by some
management information system (MIs), which I knew reports, the way we deal with behavioural problems schools is that parents’ visits to school
would help us to communicate better with parents. has changed. students are no longer able to escape might significantly increase or that parents
By doing this, we allowed our students’ parents to their parents knowing about their behaviour in school, will know too much.
In association with
Asbestos
in Schools:
the silent killer
The scale of the problem, addressing
the risks and fi nding solutions
12 March 2009 n Institute of Physics, London
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n Do you have asbestos in your school?
n Do you know where it is?
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n Do you know what to do about it?
n Do you know it can cause potential
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harm to you and your pupils?
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Our conference brings together leading speakers,
There are 3 kits available, each aimed at a different age group (11-14, 14-16
medical specialists, MPs and government
or 16-19). Each kit contains everything teachers and students need to carry
representatives to give you an idea of the scale of
out the experiments in school. All the kits are designed to help young
the problems faced with asbestos in schools and
people see for themselves how Darwin’s ideas link to modern evolutionary
principles and contemporary biomedicine.
what YOU can do about them.
For more information or to book on line visit www.sec-ed.co.uk
03%&3:063'3&&,*54/08#:7*4*5*/(5)&8&#4*5&
and click on the advert, or call 01722 717035.
8884637*7"-3*7"-403(
TOMORROW’S THINKING TODAY
SecEd • February 12 2009 11
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