Integris improving life at Kingswood Primary School

Positive change for a school in challenging circumstances

Kingswood Primary School is a diverse school that serves a disadvantaged area of London. A high proportion of their pupils don't have English as their first language, pupil mobility is very high and the attainment level of their pupils on entry is below the national average. These conditions present Head teacher Stephen Hall and his teaching staff with many challenges.

In the 2003 Ofsted inspection report, pupil assessment tracking was highlighted as an area requiring development. The school took the decision to switch MIS supplier and change to Integris^G2 to increase teacher access to vital assessment and attendance functionality.

Teachers' access to school MIS data had been limited for various reasons, one of which is the technology limitations of a more traditional school MIS. Integris^G2 is designed to be different. It is completely web-delivered which means that a separate administration network becomes a thing of the past.

Kingswood Primary School quickly saw the advantages this offered and have been using Integris^G2 for over two years now. One of their main motivations for moving was the flexible approach to data management Integris^G2 offered and the difference it would make to assessment analysis.

So how has Integris helped?

Wider access to data
Because Integris^G2 is completely web-based Kingswood Primary School has been able to develop a more flexible approach to data management. Access to the system is much easier - all you need is a secure log-in and a web browser - meaning teachers are able to manage assessment and attendance data in the classroom.

The flexibility of the system has even helped the school with recent Ofsted inspections. It's so easy to pull contextual information into a markbook that ad hoc information requests from the Ofsted Inspector were much more easily dealt with than before. 

Assessment analysis
The analysis tools within Integris^G2 have really made a difference to Kingswood Primary School. They are able to pull contextual data into the markbook from the central pupil details database which has allowed the teaching staff to analyse groups of pupils and compare them against the national average or other cohorts of pupils. For example, it has been useful to compare the attainment levels of pupils who don't have English as their first language against those who do. 

Low cost solution
Most significantly, Integris^G2 requires a lot less IT infrastructure to run. Kingswood Primary School no longer needs a dedicated administration server and they didn't need to install any client software for the system to run. The only thing they needed was a web browser on every computer, which they already had!  

Integrating data
When the school office updates the central database with new pupils this change ripples through to all the modules within the system, so the new pupil automatically appears in attendance registers and assessment markbooks. The ability to use the same data across all modules, including assessment, has meant that the senior management team can undertake whole school analysis quickly and easily.

Adaptability
Not every school is working under the same conditions so a school MIS needs to cater to those differences. Kingswood Primary School has used the flexibility within Integris^G2 to create their own personalised markbooks which have made it easier for their teachers to collect the relevant assessment data and work with this data in the classroom, office or home.

An "Outstanding" result

Ultimately, Integris^G2 put data into the hands of the teachers at Kingswood Primary School so that they could use that data to make informed decisions. Since the 2003 Ofsted report, the school have radically turned things around. In their latest Ofsted inspection the school was graded as Outstanding. They are now the top performing primary school in Lambeth for CVA, and one of the top 5 primary schools in the UK.