In today’s world, a school MIS is responsible for much more than just managing data. While data management is the primary function, an MIS can also assist with student and staff development, resource management and most importantly, communication. Without trying to sound like a match of the day pundit, if you can’t communicate effectively, then you face an uphill battle before you even begin. In this blog, we will look at 3 essential aspects of MIS communication and how Bromcom currently meets these needs.
Communication between staff
Whether you are an infant school with 20 pupils, or an all through with 2000 pupils, it cannot be put into words how important it is to have clear and prompt communication internally. Clear communication allows for the quick resolution of situations and ideally, even the prevention of certain situations. An observant teacher may spot a student showing signs of distress and make support staff aware so they can intervene or assist. Good communication ensures that procedures are adhered to and important details are not missed, while prioritising the wellbeing of your students.
Bromcom streamlines communication between staff in many ways. Firstly, there are built in MIS alerts, which allow a staff member to raise an alert for security, medical, fire, safeguarding, or general events, with the option to request a response and state your location. Direct messages can also be sent to any other user on the system, allowing for private and quick communication where needed. Finally, staff on Bromcom can also send emails to other staff, teachers or supply staff, in the same way an email home to parents would be sent.
Communication with parents
Communication with parents is another vital part of daily life for schools, for obvious reasons. Parents and guardians are putting their children in your care, sometimes 9+ hours if wraparound care services are also offered, so everything must be done to ensure their wellbeing. On a day-to-day basis, maintaining healthy communication with parents could mean sending out school announcements, offering trips and services, or gathering up to date contact information. There will of course be times where the communication home is not positive, such as suspensions, medical incidents, or truancy. Either way, your MIS should be able to meet these needs at a moments notice to ensure transparency and that nothing is missed.
Similarly to internal communication, there are a few ways in which Bromcom users can communicate with Parents. The first being Quick Letters, which include a multitude of design options. There are also SMS messages and Emails, which do what they say on the tin and can be sent in bulk. The third feature, which is exclusive to Bromcom, is MyChildAtSchool. MyChildAtSchool (MCAS) is our parent portal platform which allows parents to see various aspects of their child’s performance, such as attendance, behaviour, and assessment. Bromcom users can harness MCAS to save paper and upload Reports/Communication to MCAS for parents to download, while Announcements and Push Notifications can be delivered straight to parent’s phones if they have notifications enabled.
Communication with governors/trustees
If you are part of a Multi Academy Trust or Local Authority, it is essential that communication is achieved between your central team (both ways). A MAT or LA may have central data or polices that they wish to cascade down to all their schools, to ensure consistency and compliance. They may also request data and reports to be submitted periodically to ensure performance, ROI and Ofsted are at the desired levels. This requires a system that not only allows for communication, but also offers a direct link where documents can be uploaded, distributed and provided. A system that large MATs and LAs across the country felt was best suited to help them reach maximum performance.
The most significant way Bromcom offers central communication, is through our Vision product. Imagine for a moment, you are an LA with 30 schools:
- Each school will have their own data base that they use daily.
- You can access that database, should you wish to log in at a user level.
- Through Vision however, each of your 30 schools will appear in a central dashboard, which you can use to compare, drill down and access data from above for any/all schools.
- This means instead of logging in separately 30 times, you can log in to Vision once, access what you need and amend any settings or permissions in a matter of seconds.
- Through the power of Vision, you can identify schools in need of support, allocate additional resources/staff, and locate data quickly.
Conclusion
With so many methods of communication available in the current world, any opportunity you get to combine multiple features and systems into a single system, should be strongly considered. Particularly an MIS like Bromcom, which provides emails, SMS messages, quick letters, reports, alerts and a bespoke parent portal platform, WHILE reducing costs. You will be lightyears ahead when it comes to communication.
