Parent-facing school management software has become an indispensable tool in today’s digital age, streamlining administrative tasks, improving communication, and enhancing overall efficiency.
In 2015, nearly a decade ago, St Leonard’s College in Brighton East, Melbourne, decided to switch to a new school management software provider. At that time, the decision was driven by one overarching consideration: continuous academic reporting.
Mr Tim Barlow is Director of Technology Innovation at St Leonard’s College and also currently teaches Year 11 VCE Biology. His role encompasses liaising with external companies and contractors including software developers, printing, telecommunications, and IT service providers.
“That all falls under my purview, as does leading staff in using all forms of technology, in both teaching and the operational side of the business, as well as helping teachers and students with devices in the classroom,” Mr Barlow says.
School management software is also his responsibility. “Our parent-facing school management software, which also links with other third-party platforms, is where everybody in our school community ‘goes’. Generally speaking, every teacher and every student accesses it every single day,” he says.
Mr Barlow says parents are also active on it, accessing it on a near daily basis. He led St Leonard’s College’s decision to switch school management software providers in 2015.
“The main impetus for us changing to a different software provider was because we wanted a system which could provide continuous reporting, so parents and students know how they’re going, not just at the end of the semester or the year but continuously, throughout each term,” he says.
“The growth of a human character doesn’t happen with a click of your fingers and cannot be captured only at a specific time of year. Every single day’s experience builds a person’s character. And so we wanted a system to show that student growth and development as it happened, to allow appropriate interventions at the moment of need.”
While access to continuous reporting drove the shift initially, there have been other significant benefits too, Mr Barlow says.
“Our school management software has a host of features which we use, such as digital news delivery. It’s more streamlined and goes straight into parent’s inboxes. Parents can choose how they get information; they can receive a weekly email, which contains their child’s weekly report, plus news and information relevant to them, or they can receive an instant push notification to their phone on the latest news or feedback on their child’s learning in a particular subject.”
St Leonard’s approach to technology has never been to follow a fad, Mr Barlow says, and newer tech, like AI, is no exception.
“AI could be seen as a potential fad, but it’s going to be immensely useful as it grows and develops. Our approach at St Leonard’s is always to try to maintain a broad overview of technology in terms of what there is and what is coming, and while we do not want to get caught up in a fad, we do want to use new technologies in appropriate ways,” he says.
“AI has already and will continue to introduce new efficiencies to the modern workforce. But where I think AI will most impact education is going to be elements of AI and big data coming together to enable far more efficient ways of targeting differentiated education to individual students.”
Anyone in the field of education, Mr Barlow says, knows that differentiation is increasingly important.
“We’ve moved away, over the decades, of delivering every single child the same lesson in the same way. Obviously, everybody’s different; everyone has their own passions and skill sets and abilities,” he says.
“Therefore, the tools of technology, in terms of storing and tracking a student’s progress and performance, is already enabling a level of differentiation. Take the NAPLAN test, for example. It used to be that everyone got the same test. But now, because it’s online, you can give a group of students the first set of questions, and then depending on how they went on those, you can then give them different follow-up questions”
He continues: “It gives you a better picture of exactly where each student is at. And if you apply that approach to learning, and you have well-designed learning platforms that can map out appropriate learning tasks for each individual student, that will enable students to get the most out of themselves – I can see that kind of technology slowly emerging.”
There are numerous school management software providers in the market, many with similar features, and new innovations on the horizon. How do schools make a decision?
“My advice to schools, when they ask, is that they need to decide what their aims and goals are. So, if they want to start continuous reporting, they need to ask if the platform they have can do it. If not, they need to investigate an alternative. Or it might be they want to introduce a level of academic analysis of their student cohort. There are tools you can add-on to your existing school management software which enable teachers to get broad and useful insights into their entire class at certain points of the year. Overall, the decision needs each individual school to establish their strategic aims and then use that lens to guide their choice.”
Connection and inclusion
Former teacher-turned-researcher Dr Matthew Harrison has hands-on experience of being a digital learning leader. Now a Senior Lecturer in Learning Intervention Education at the University of Melbourne, Dr Harrison has a passion for utilising technology to enhance social capacity building, belonging and inclusion in education. He finds one of the most interesting aspects of school management systems is the sense of belonging and community connection they can create.
“When these whole-school systems are set up with community buy in – when they’ve got parents and families and caregivers on side – they can be a really effective way of breaking down communication barriers,” he says.
“For example, some school management systems have automatic translation, which is vital for communities who don’t speak English as a first language. I worked at a special development school with a management system that could automatically translate announcements into 96 languages. Being a multicultural society, those sort of access and inclusion features are really important.”
Attendance data is another valuable asset of school management systems, in Dr Harrison’s view. He and his colleague, Associate Professor Lisa McKay-Brown, gave testimony to a Senate Inquiry into the national trend of school refusal.
“When set up correctly, school management systems can allow schools to get an accurate snapshot of the percentage of kids who are absent and be able to see why they’re away. This can help schools to communicate with parents around supports that can be put in place to help students return to school, to what we call ‘regular attendance’, which is over 95 per cent,” he says.
Dr Harrison recommends schools invite stakeholders to be involved in the decision-making process when selecting a school management system .
“I would set up a consultative committee and have parents and students discuss the multiple options of which system to use and which one is going to meet their community needs because they’re not all created equal in terms of functionality,” he says.
Schools should also consider how some apps interface with other management systems. When he was working in a special development school teaching 16-year-old students with intellectual disabilities, Dr Harrison used an app which allowed him to take photos and short videos of the students, so their parents could see their competencies and skills developing.
“A school management system with the capability for multimedia data collection for teachers – who can securely share it with parents – allows students with different skills to be able to show their learning,” he says.
Looking ahead, Dr Harrison predicts school management systems will increasingly incorporate AI in the form of virtual assistants for students, which will help kids with varying levels of executive function.
“AI is much less of a flash in the pan, and more of a game changer. It’s not going away. It’s being embedded into every tool. What is interesting is the technical capabilities of what may be possible versus what policy and politics allow,” he says.
“For example, the mobile phone ban in Victoria and New South Wales mean schools are less likely to have student integration with mobile phones. Parents are concerned about students being able to message each other.”
Dr Harrison thinks one of the big changes that will happen in the near future is the integration of school management systems with wearable devices.
“Wearable devices aren’t covered by the phone ban. They can be integrated with school systems and that way, parents can communicate with their student during certain times of the day, such as recess and lunchtime, but teachers can turn messaging off during class times.”
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