Reducing Teacher Workload and Tackling Behaviour in Schools

Added: (Mon Jul 08 2002)

Pressbox (Press Release) - Innovative Oxfordshire school chooses sleuth to reduce teacher workload and improve behaviour.

sleuth to help transform working practices as part of government Pathfinder Project.

Icknield Community School have selected sleuth to minimise the day-to-day burden of paperwork involved in pastoral care and to help them provide timely support to pupils showing signs of disaffection.
The school is at the forefront of the £4million DfES funded School Workforce Pathfinder Project, demonstrating innovative classroom practice as a model to other schools. Every teacher has their own laptop and sleuth gives them immediate and up-to-date access to pupils’ behaviour records.
“We have been looking at innovative ways to reduce the paper mountain and sleuth is definitely our favourite,” explains Icknield Headteacher Paula Taylor-Moore. “It does not purport to do everything, it just does the behaviour management bit really well. We had been using a paper-based system to track each incident with a child, using forms in triplicate. We then filed the paper in the child's school file and in the head of year file. We had no central record and no ability to obtain clear management information without a huge search through mounds of paper.
“With sleuth we are able to not only track individual pupil's behaviour but also to see clear patterns for individuals and across the whole school. It has enabled us to improve behaviour because we can be proactive, it reduces our paperwork and saves us time. Importantly it is also very easy to use and does not frighten even the most luddite of computer user.”
sleuth analyses and tracks incidents of challenging behaviour in schools to identify trends in behaviour. It provides instant incident profiles for individuals or class groups and generates letters to parents. Mainstream primary, secondary and special schools are using the detailed analysis of behaviour that sleuth provides to develop their stategies for improving behaviour and to highlight when and where pupils and staff require support.
Tom Vodden, educational consultant and a director of The School Software Company, said, “It is important that schools are as proactive as possible in their response to behaviour management. Fire-fighting is rarely effective long-term and sleuth has the potential to contribute to behaviour management at all levels in school. The system has been designed to improve decision making and as importantly inform practise”
About The School Software Company.
The School Software Company combines expertise in ICT with experience in education to produce software that improves the quality and availability of information in schools. Our aim is to meet the needs of teachers and staff by designing systems that are flexible, easy to use, cost effective and time efficient. Our solutions are supported by a consultancy and training team specialising in the areas of behaviour management, disaffection and social inclusion.
For further information: www.schoolsoftwarecompany.com
Or contact:
Tom Vodden
The School Software Company
196 Milton Road
Cambridge
CB4 1LF
Tel: 0117 9394343

E-mail: tom@schoolsoftwarecompany.com