INSIGHT fully integrates with your SIMS Management Information System
Communication between schools and parents is seen as the key for the successful engagement of parents in their child’s education. Parents comprise a diverse group with differing aspirations but all need timely, accurate, relevant information delivered at times to suit them.
INSIGHT has a live link to your school's SIMS.net database giving parents a secure two-factor authenticated online access to view their children's data, ensuring schools meet the DCSF deadline and Becta guidelines for parental engagement.
Access is 24 hours a day via PC, laptop, Pocket PC and some mobile devices with internet connection.
Schools have the flexibility to manage the essence and style of their own reporting to parents. Once the school has decided the data to be shared, INSIGHT displays this in a selection of easy to understand charts, tables and reports.
Parents can view their child's progress in school and see:
- If they are in school today
- Their attendance for the week
- Their attendance over longer periods of time
- Any lateness in arriving at school or to any lesson
- Their behaviour in school including achievements, awards and commendations
- If their behaviour has placed them “on report” and see the contents of their report card
- If they have received any detentions and if so, whether they have attended
- Their grades from Assessment Manager
- Teacher targets set and progress made to date
- Their homework with dates set and for return
- Their examination results and key stage scores
- Their examination timetables
- SEN data and other relevant information
- All usual school reports as from Assessment Manager, Profiles, PARS or other source
- Current or historical reports such as tracking, progress and end of year
Additional On-line Information
A fully featured Forum is available for parents and teachers to have a voice within the parental engagement framework. Complete management and moderation is included for the control of the forum, allowing schools to set topics and parents to post to topics, test opinions, encourage parental dialogue, set up FAQ’s. The Forums can also be used for announcements or other useful information for parents.
Parents get school notices, share the diary events in SIMS.net, and can see dates and times for parents’ evenings, school clubs, sporting events and PTA meetings.
They also get a list of adults and agencies associated with their child, comprising a contact list of a pupil’s form and lesson tutors, subjects taught and pastoral contacts in school.
Documents that are not specifically linked to pupils such as Newsletters, school policy documents and reports from the Local Authority or Ofsted, can be shared with parents.
Public linked documents can also be shared with parents.
The DCSF Family Information Directory is in our software enabling parents to search for any help support and advice in their local area.
Certain cashless catering databases can be linked to INSIGHT for parents to see their child’s menu choices, transactions and cash balances.
Parents’ Communications to School
Personal details can be kept up to date by Parents: changes to addresses, contact details, telephone and mobile numbers can be submitted to school online for approval.
Parents can report reasons for their child’s absence from school.
Parents can contact staff members from within INSIGHT, and messages are delivered to the staff member’s email in-box.
Optional components:
INSIGHT has an optional component to allow parents to book appointments for themselves at Parents’ Evenings. Staff can also book appointments with parents and a range of reports are available.
If required, students can be given access to INSIGHT to let them view information such as their attendance, behaviour records and assessments.
How does it work?
INSIGHT is a web application hosted in school on an IIS server using standard Microsoft technologies and works on all the most popular browsers and on Windows mobile devices.
INSIGHT conforms to W3C standards and is interoperable with various browsers.
Access for Parents is normally via a link on the school’s web site.
