The benefits of IRIS Ed:gen MIS for school leadership

IRIS blog 1 | The benefits of IRIS Ed:gen MIS for school leadership
By Tim Cropper-Williams | 7th April 2021 | 2 min read

Senior leaders have highly pressurised roles. From staff resourcing to pupil wellbeing, safeguarding and attainment, planning for and managing inspections, and parental relationships, they are ultimately accountable for every facet of school life. 

School leadership teams want to focus on their school, so IRIS Ed:gen’s innovative interface enables them to do just that. IRIS Ed:gen is a powerful school management system that lets them delve deep into the data to better understand what is going on across a school. From finance to attendance to attainment, IRIS Ed:gen enables senior leaders and their department and year heads to use data to make better decisions for their school.  

From custom school reporting to attendance monitoring, automated workflows for behavioural management, and assessment data broken down by reporting cycle, the whole solution is designed to help. Even better, school leadership have a dedicated IRIS Ed:gen team to support their transition to the next generation MIS. 

Key use examples: 

IRIS Ed:gen is just as beneficial for headteachers as it is for MAT leadership, as these examples prove: 

Interventions  

Issues with attendance, attainment, and behaviour normally take far too long to identify. With IRIS Ed:gen, however, data is gathered and visualised in real time, making insights available at the touch of a button. There's no time-wasting number crunching; just clearly presented data that enables decisions and interventions to be made quickly and efficiently. In short, IRIS Ed:gen offers less investigation, more action.  

Star spotting 

IRIS Ed:gen isn’t just a tool to monitor and improve the lower end, but to also extend the understanding and measurement of middle to top-end pupil attainment and development. It makes it easier to identify gifted and talented pupils, as having a real-time view of attainment over time clearly shows whether a pupil is achieving the eligibility criteria to be a gifted and talented learner.  

Staff wellbeing and performance 

Real-time data dashboard features can monitor staff attendance and performance, identifying trends that can develop into problems. Regular absence can be an indication staff are struggling and need additional support and guidance. Real-time data provides leadership with the ability to quickly put support mechanisms in place.

Pupil absence 

Any student with attendance less than 86.2% is automatically flagged and the school can build this as a separate report. This can then be dealt with via escalations and interventions. 

Improving behaviour 

Workflows enable consistent application of rewards and discipline, rather than the current system where procedures vary between teachers, departments, and year groups. Workflows ensure everything from attainment merits, good work assemblies, and Student of the Year awards are delivered consistently to create a clearly defined merit-based system.  

Effective safeguarding 

When a pupil is marked absent from school, the absence is immediately escalated to the attendance officer, enabling them to make an immediate call or follow up text to the parent or primary carer. Automating this process cuts processing time from minutes to seconds, improving safeguarding dramatically.  

Preparedness for OFSTED 

IRIS Ed:gen lets headteachers use the same point systems as MAT leaders, meaning you know what OFSTED are expecting. It helps better understand data across key areas such as pupil attainment and achievements, quality of teaching, the behaviour and safety of children, and the effectiveness of leadership and management. 

Realise the benefits of IRIS Ed:gen for your school or MAT. Talk to our team today

About the author

Tim Cropper-Williams

Product Director

Tim Cropper-Williams is responsible for all communication and engagement products at IRIS, including PS Connect, ParentMail, +Pay, BioStore, Truancy Call, IRIS Looked After Call, IRIS Engage and Accountant Go. Tim has worked in the communication and engagement space for over 14 years in training, support, management, sales and product.