30th September 2011
DRAFT – to be approved at next meeting
Presentations and supporting documents /
Present: Adrian Troake, Andrew Thelwell, David Hayward, Ian Gover, Jane Rosser, Julia Briggs, Lucinda Searle, Malcolm Riches, Matthew Jackson, Michael Hawkins, Naomi Pauley, Peter Moise, Phil Hill, Sharon Passmore, Simon Faull, Simon Wood, Steve Jackson, and Chris Woodgate
After item I - Andrew Baynes, Andrew Young, Gavin Richards, Ian Hotston, Paul Gibson, Suzanne Evans and Tom Knight,
Apologies: Alison Boulton, Carolyn Tommey, Harry Dicks, Heather Cunningham, Jacky MacKenzie, Kate Mythen, Melanie Marshall, Michael Morgan, Nicky Turner, Paul Sheehan, Richard Triggs, Tina Bacon, Tina Coles, Tony Bloxham, Vanessa Keyes,
Item / action1 / Coordinated Provision of data
Headline data, an agenda item at Compact Executive meeting, included a draft Early Years and Schools Improvement Strategy presenting the broad aims/principles of collaborative working between all institutions. The Compact Task Groups are tasked to undertake or request that other existing groups, such as LA ICT Working Group, to undertake specific tasks.
There is a large amount of data available for schools but it is not coordinated. SW outlined some sources of this data. The data falls into 3 categories centred around an individual student: school (MIS), local and national.
SW presented an illustrative, but not exhaustive, look at the MIS data available via Somerset Primary Tracking. Teacher assessment data/targets, entered by the teacher, are shown alongside Fischer Family Trust (FFT) targets and end of year projections. The detail behind this can be extracted.
Tracking Grid allows comparisons between national and school level data for specific age groups. Pupils appear in a grid matched against national targets making it easy to see which pupils are on target throughout the year.
The primary school version was demonstrated but is the available to all schools; secondary schools tend customise to meet their requirements.
Attainment pulls through data on targets and attainment.
The tracking package is not automatically upgraded with Capita upgrade; it is an add-on provided by eLIM with regular updates.
It was recognised that although there is a lot more available to schools it is not clear enough for all schools to pick up on the changes.
SF looked at FFT data and how value can be added to data from schools, at national and local levels. The data can be used to aid/facilitate school to school collaboration. The system showed group data from a number of schools over 3 years. The grid showed how well they were doing alongside expectations against specific measures and can be drilled down into for information against each individual school. It can highlight a school performing well in a specific measure that could then be encouraged to work collaboratively with those who are not performing as well.
(AThelwell arrived)
This is easy to set up via the LA or FFT once schools have agreed to share their data. The group of schools could be linked geographically (CLP) or by type. The group could agree to make all data available to each other of just to the LA. The LA could identify schools that are in trouble and offer support before formal intervention is needed.
FFT have changed how they charge for this; developing subscription levels for LA or individual schools (significantly more expensive for individual schools). Currently LA paying for schools through LA budget but will need to look at sharing cost with schools in future due to uncertainty around continued levels of funding.
There is a screen with data for aggregated information/ projections for the schools as a group. There are a significant number of schools where pupils are not making progress between key stages; with this data this could be identified early.
The development area shows what FFT are working on eg generating estimates from foundation stage to KS1. Looking at national figures there is a link even though the areas being measured are different; FFT is estimations - pupils with this attainment tend to...
Schools are unaware that this is available and therefore haven't asked for groups to be set up. This is an incredible data rich resource that is not used enough.
It is hard to quantify the impact the LA’s use of this data has had on schools in difficulty.
PMIT holds a large number of data sets and have been developing a Somerset Schools Information Dashboard (SSID) that will pull the information together making it as accessible as possible. These are only indicators of performance which could help identify where a school should be asking questions or celebrating success.
The gap between the best schools and those struggling is increasing.
The data to be included in SSID may increase in time. Currently it includes real-time data, annual data, some indicative thresholds, directional arrows and development at different levels (LA, School, Groups of schools). The data could be RAG rated.
The next steps are to agree the measures, thresholds and how to disseminate it.
If all schools signed up the data could be shared with all groups or provided for individual schools.
SSID could be used in conjunction with Somerset Comparative Information on Primary Schools (SCIPS).
HR data (long tern sickness, training etc) could be included if the source of the data was know; it may not be appropriate to share widely even though it may have affected school performance. There could be a facility for schools to make comments but it may not be appropriate to share these.
LA level data is compared to geographical/type of neighbouring LAs and is provided to elected members who may raise questions.
Some dynamic data could be updated termly or possibly more frequently eg exclusion data.
Different data sources give different information and will need to be combined effectively.
In order for all schools to sign up to sharing data the exact benefits for schools must be demonstrated.
Not all the data seen is in the public domain eg some dynamic data and FFT analysis.
An agreement is needed on what non-statutory data is shared (statutory data is in systems)
SW demonstrated how attainment data can be easily examined in SIMS Discover. Alerts could be set up to monitor groups of children and send notification if drop below a certain level. All data in SIMS can be transferred into Discovery but needs some configuration.
It was agreed that this group was the only one in a position to oversee this provision of data. The group’s decisions could be challenged but if upheld, after investigation then the school would need to decide whether to remain.
The data provision solution could be marketed beyond Somerset.
We should aim to create a ‘one stop shop’ for Data. A single page is needed signposting where all the data is with alerts when new data is available. There is a training requirement, particularly for new Heads, on the intelligent use of data. Schools need to know what is available and what can be done with it. Training/familiarisation will be a vital part of any initiative; make training bespoke and cover all areas.
The page needs to be in MIS pulling it all together and including all the links.
Looking at 5 sources could give understanding, enhancement and support not available in market place. Schools would need to be persuaded through quality of service not to go elsewhere and then the LA would benefit from the centralised data.
PRUs would benefit from data on their new pupils which is currently lacking.
(NP left)
It is planned to be populate SSID centrally from SIMS and other areas and then sent back to schools. SSID has agreed sets of data that the LA can use for monitoring and schools’ use.
Decisions are needed about the broad headings and where the thresholds should be; these could disadvantage some schools. It will then be trialled and rolled out to all schools. It should start simply and be able to evolve as needed.
It was agreed the pilot should include schools within this group and beyond as they may have different views/requirements.
The portal/front page bringing data together, training etc to be brought to the next meeting for an informed debate about how/when to rollout.
The SLP LA ICT Working Group discussion area could be used for comments; a central record of thoughts/feedback.
Next steps -
· It was agreed that SSID should be moved forward quickly. PMIT to scope under generic headings; exploring one place to click in for data, then look at 3 areas (school, local and national) and present at next meeting.
· The LA ICT Working Group accepted being the champion of this. A subgroup of LA staff involved with SSID will report back to this group; using it as a sounding board and direction.
· At the next meeting discuss which 3 data feeds are needed which may be different for different phases. (FFT data is cross-phase)
· Easy signposting to other sources. Look at what schools may want to do with data signpost to get to information needed. / MR
2 / Minutes of Previous meeting
Careers guidance – Whether data should be released or deleted has been discussed. Any data passed over must be up to date at the time but is not being maintained. What system the data is being release in to needs to be known and how it can be maintained needs to be addressed.
3 / Hardware and ICT Systems
Update on WAN Upgrade
Rollout of SomerNet 21CN – there are 5 schools that BT needs to complete; 2 are waiting for wayleave consent and 3 require road closures. Kingston St Mary requires a significant road closure; an alternative route is being sought.
Thurlbear has go out to a contractor but there is significant work involved.
The other schools currently with an interim solution should be migrated within the next 2 weeks. All sites with an interim solution are off the C&W circuit.
Quality of Service (QoS) will ensure that all critical applications continue at times of high utilisation. Qos policy has been implemented but only comes into effect when 100% of bandwidth is being used; we are nowhere near this point yet. The levels were based on best practice established with external organisations and the knowledge/experience of the NSD Team. Schools were going to be involved with devising QoS but as the core network is used by corporate and school sites SWOne decided to take it to a higher level. IG raised serious concerns about the lack of educational input. He had asked to be consulted as the future use of IT needs to be included rather than just looking at current use. Corporate use of the network is very different to that of schools eg schools may now want to encourage video streaming.
VOIP and VC require the % set down in order to work.
The Virtual Classroom is a statutory provision, educating exclusively over the Internet with streaming, text, chat etc.
The QoS policy is flexible but changes will apply to the whole network. Schools currently pay for 70% of the WAN and therefore should be consulted.
SWOne will discuss further with IG.
(AY arrived)
Utilisation on core links and top 10 sites by % bandwidth were shown. Utilisation on Core links is 17%. Concerns were raised at the significant difference between these figures and those previously circulated to some corporate colleagues. The statistics provided from RM concerns Internet traffic which is currently peaking at 70mb for corporate traffic and 330mb for schools traffic. The network is designed around average use not the peaks; QoS will manage the peaks.
Individual school statistics – the network is constantly monitored. It is a managed service with BT fixing issues. A monthly report will be sent from BT to SWOne and then on to the client team and eLIM.
Schools were originally told there would be a report from SWOne to schools and that there would be a mechanism for schools to monitor their own use. PG/TK will look at this
TK confirmed that, according to BT figures, schools are not coming anywhere close to maxing out on any part of the WAN.
SWOne update
The performance figures for July/August were shown. There were 28 severity 1’s in August; these were BT outages due to WAN which were quickly fixed.
MI – affected 8 sites in Yeovil area due to a faulty UPS on the core switch which was then replaced.
Planned outages 07/10/2011, 18.00-19.00 – email/OWA unavailable during server reboot.
updates:
ICT workshops – invitations are being sent to all schools for the workshop on Apple Technology, integrating products rather than their use in the curriculum. More, smaller workshops being planned; schools need to feed in if they have something specific they would like to look at. Future workshops planned - Server 2007 window 8 and how affect school.
Disaster recovery – looking to see if this will be available. ie provision of hardware replacement if a server is damage beyond to enable the school to get going again.
Screwdriver – in the process of being ordered; AB will check on the timescale. This critical bit of solution for the printing issues of Centrally Hosted schools has been long outstanding. Screwdriver was identified as the solution 6 months ago.
(TK/SE left)
The issues with email/SLP caused by RM earlier this month were raised. A meeting has been planned with SWOne/SWGfL to discuss how to get visibility around what is going on and communication. / IG
PG/
TK
AB
3 / School issues
Somerset ICT Website Update
There will be one landing page from which users will bounce to each eLIM service. The strategy will be included on the site.