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Available Systems

The systems that we generally install in schools contain a mixture of popular open source software that we think are particularly suitable for education and our own systems that are designed to be easily modified to suit a school or colleges particular needs. A typical full server install would contain the following elements:

Moodle

This is an excellent on line learning system that allows teachers to set and mark work on line and monitor student progress. It also allows students to work together, use on line discussion forums for their subjects etc.

MediaWiki

We install this software as a place where students can write articles and upload pictures etc. It is the software that is the basis of the famous WikiPedia site. Basically it is a large encyclopedia that the students or staff themselves write. It is extremely popular and well used in the schools we have it running and prepares the students well for writing their own websites.

TWiki

This is a communication suite that allows teachers to take control of a website. It works like a noticeboard and white-board in a staff room and is an excellent tool for distributing information. It is so flexible that it's use is really only limited by your imagination. We see it used for collaborative work such as authoring schemes of work, keeping on line schedules, distributing documents without paper etc.

Reports System

This is one of our own systems; it allows reports for pupils to be written on line by teachers either from inside the school/college or elsewhere using the Internet. The system is very flexible in that it allows you to choose exactly what you report on and in what form.

Behaviour Management System

Another of our own systems; many schools have a system in place to log behaviour problem incidents. This is often a paper based system where staff fill in a form and pass it to someone else for it to be logged. Where action is taken this is filled in on the same form and eventually the incident is logged somewhere for analysis. Our system provides an Internet based version of this so all logging is done electronically. This massively improves communication and makes it easy to pick up problems in students behaviour across subjects. The system handles all the paperwork involved in behaviour management and allows for different levels of incident to be acted upon and logged.

Survey

This is a very flexible on line questionnaire system. It is designed to allow staff to set up questionnaires and then parents, staff or students access it and fill in forms. The results of the questionnaire are analysed automatically and a document summarising them is produced. The system also produces an on line version of the results for presentations that don't depend on such software as powerpoint etc. This is one of our own systems and is extremely popular with schools.

Reference System

This system allows teachers to write references for their student using text boxes and drop down menus. The system is completely configurable allowing you to decide what elements go on your references and teachers to store statements for others to use. This can greatly increase the speed with which teachers are able to write references. A reference stays with a pupil through all the years they are at the school enabling future references to simply be updates to existing ones.

Millennium Volunteers System

Written specifically for the Millennium Volunteers scheme, this system allows students to go on line and record the hours they have spent on each of their registered projects. Teachers also go onto the system at review points to view the students hours and write a reference. It allows teachers to monitor the progress of all the participants easily.

Peer mentor appointment system

This system allows students who are mentors on the Peer Mentor Scheme to record appointments. This allows staff to monitor when meetings are taking place and get anonymous feedback about what is being discussed which is analysed by the system. Students can print out appointment sheets to pass on to their mentees with permission slips at the bottom.

Drupal

Drupal is a web content management system. It is a website that is managed by the users. We think it is ideal for schools and colleges where teachers and other staff need to add things to a website quickly. It is very easy to use and fully customisable by the school. Most schools that we install this in use it as their school website since all staff can contribute to it without having to go via one website administrator.

Grade Book

The grade book allows teachers to store important assessment data, such as module exam marks and coursework grades on a central system. This cuts down the repetition of work across many faculties or individuals by allowing teacher to input grades directly and giving them the ability to retrieve this information in any form at any time. It also allows managers to be able to get up to date assessment data for the whole school or college without going through heads of department.

Kronophobia

This is a calendar and organiser system developed with schools and colleges in mind. It is very powerful and is very feature rich. It has facilities to manage resources at the school and is accessible to all users. We often set this up as the main calendar for a school as a communication tool.

eGroupware

This is also an organiser and calendar system but it is more geared towards businesses and project management. We install this for use by management teams in schools and colleges. It allows for planning of meetings and projects easily on line and is an excellent communication tool for any team of managers.