Contact
The day to day management of the Club is done by Chris Holroyd. Please contact Chris with any questions or issues you may have.
(01274 385644
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What happens next?
If you want to join the Club please contact Chris (details above). Chris will then get in touch with you. Agree the name of the contact person who will take this forward in your school and will arrange for ICT to get in touch to discuss the technical arrangement.
The potential of the Club
Like any Club, its real potential will be realised when its membership reaches a critical mass.
The capacity to explore assessment data, other than end of Key Stage data is something schools have wanted for a long to time. It is now possible.
The opportunity to track the attainment of individual pupils as they move between Bradford schools is now a practical proposition.
The opportunity for the Information Management Team to manage and support the end of phase transfer of assessment data is again a practical proposition as a consequence of this Club.
What we do and what we don’t do are decisions the Club has yet to make.
This service is provided by the Council’s Education Information Management Team
Assessment Club
The Termly Data Assessment Club has the potential to be a powerful school improvement tool for all Bradford schools, so it is hoped as many schools as possible will join as soon as possible.
This document explains how the Club works including what you need to do and what we will do.
Overview – what does the Club do for you?
Your termly assessment data is reported to you through Key Data and Deeper Data on Bradford Schools Online. Not only does this allow you to explore year group and vulnerable group issues, it allows you to compare your termly progress against that of other Bradford schools.
To achieve this all Club members make their termly teacher assessments available for collection on the last Friday of each term. The data is automatically collected by the Information Management Team (using an automated tool provided by GroupCall). Over the holidays your data is processed by the Information Management Team and reported back to you via Bradford Schools Online. You can access the reports via Key Data and Deeper Data tools.
As you will appreciate, to get the best from data you need something to compare against. The termly data collection is unique to Bradford and therefore the comparisons that are offered are against other Bradford schools.
Being part of the Club means you agree to share your data in this way. The sharing is done under the terms of the existing Data Sharing Protocol.
What is required of you?
· Enter and hold your assessment data for all year groups in the bespoke template provided by ICT: The template is part of SIMS Assessment Manager 7 (AM7) and is installed by ICT. If you subscribe to ICT services the installation can be done as part of your subscription visit, if not ICT charge £250 for the service.
We are aware that many schools use assessment tools other than AM7, but you can still be a Club member[1]. A reason why many schools do not use AM7 is that previous versions have not been fit for purpose. However there is now every confidence that AM7 can and does do the job. Of course all SIMS users get AM7 whether they use it or not, so it does not cost any extra. In fact several Club members have now chosen to drop their alternative to AM7 to use AM7 exclusively (and make an annual saving). However if you want to stay with your existing assessment tool please discuss how you can best link this with AM7 so that your data can be collected with the minimum effort in school.
· Ensure your assessment data is entered by the last Friday of each term: We will use the school holiday period to process your data and therefore it is essential we can collect it before your school closes at the end of term. To keep things simple we will collect the data on the last Friday of term, irrespective of when the last day of term might fall.
If, for some reason, your data is incomplete on the last Friday, it will still be collected, but we will collect it again on the following Friday, so any changes made in the interim will be picked up. For this reason it is important that all Club members leave their servers switched on over the school holidays. This is recommended in any case.
We have no way of checking the completeness or quality of your data and so whatever you submit will be processed and reported as correct.
· Request any updates to your data as needed: As we cannot check your data you may subsequently find errors. If you spot any errors please contact us as we can do an ad hoc collection, re-process your data and then provide an updated report.
· Check your reports to ensure they are what are expected: This again relates to our inability to check your data. Quality assurance must therefore rest with you.
What we will do:
· Provide all Club members with termly data analysis tools within Key Data and Deeper Data: Your data will be processed and added into Key Data and Deeper Data through tools we have developed in-house. We will seek to do this within 2 or 3 days of you submitting your data to us. The data tools allow you to explore your data from any year group for which you have submitted data and compare this against other Club members.
As with all other data, Key Data and Deeper Data are also available to LA Officers to facilitate discussion.
· Collect the termly data from all Club members on the last Friday of each term: We will liaise with GroupCall to ensure your data is collected securely and automatically. As long as your data is there and your server is on, there is nothing more for you to do.
· Provide and maintain the necessary school based templates: Every year brings small changes to the way assessment data is recorded. We will maintain the template and roll out the changes to ensure all Club members are working to the latest, agreed data formats.
· Trigger a re-collection of termly data from any school requesting such an update: We will help you to maintain your online data by running an update at your request.
· Develop the reports: It is in everyone’s interest to ensure the reports you receive are of maximum value. We will work with Club members to ensure they are developed appropriately.
· Manage and update the system as required: We will manage the overall system to ensure it continues to do what is expected of it by Club members.
· Deliver this service at no direct cost to Club members
S:\KAP\2009-10\Alan Smith\Projects\Termly Assessment Data\TDA Briefing leaflet - schools.doc Printed: 09/05/2011
[1] IMPORTANT: We are currently unable to support CMIS users.