School Reporting Suite

Saving Teachers Time

Month: September 2015

Mobile Apps & Innovation Boosting the Value of Education Tech Market

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Over the past decade, the education tech market has expanded rapidly.

Education technology is big business, with technology being embedded into even the simplest learning processes. Companies large and small are providing a range of different services to the public and private sectors, and to the individual learner.

With technology developing rapidly, forward thinking companies are working with governments, schools, and learners to find innovative education solutions.

These range from those focussed on the learning experience, to those – such as our School Reporting Suite – that are focused on improving the internal learning infrastructure.

The industry is estimated to be worth more than $8bn in the United States alone, with UK companies leading the way across the world.

Surge in Mobile App Popularity

From an education perspective, the widespread use of technology has fuelled development. Beginning with software for traditional computers, the adoption of mobile devices by students and educators has made educational apps a powerful route to market.

These apps typically range from practical learning tools to blended products, such as those being developed by companies like JumpingPages in the United States.

Focus on Innovation and Saving Time

Aside from the user experience, technology is also being implemented into schools in order to save teachers time and to reduce costs.

These services range from specialist IT infrastructures, to reporting suites like ours that allow information to flow freely through schools, whilst enabling progress tracking and reporting in real time.

These solutions may face initial resistance due to the fundamental change that they represent to traditional education methods, but they are becoming increasingly popular due to the wide range of applications that they can have.

Budgets in education are often under pressure, especially in economies still under the influence of the 2008 recession. Therefore, successful technology implementations must deliver genuine value and deliver stakeholder value.

Successful implementations are popular across the board, as they deliver value to a wide range of stakeholders including teachers, parents and senior management.

The Six Week Summer Holiday Myth

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We work with many different schools operating on different models and curricula and they all tell us that the most stressful and important times in the school calendar is the end of year exam and reporting period.

Thankfully this is now at an end and schools up and down the country have been coming to the end of their school year and starting the long summer break.

Yet as the children leave and the school gates are locked behind them, teachers, management and administrative staff are already thinking of next year.

Whilst we do not want to ruin the first weeks of holiday for the teachers reading, we acknowledge that whilst there is time to relax and recharge. We all know the “six week summer holiday” for teachers is a myth, some of you may even be reading this from your school or classroom as you opt to do as much as you can at the start of your holiday.

The changing curricula means that time saving planning from years gone by may need tweaking or rewriting entirely. In a rapidly changing and high pressure education system, There is planning, preparation and action to be taken to get ready for another physically and mentally demanding school year.

The ongoing pressures on teachers are something we are aware of at School Reporting System and we are working hard to ensure that where possible we can make the bit after the summer as easy to manage as possible from a reporting perspective.

We know that when implemented our solutions can save administrators and teachers alike time by making the reporting process easier and increasing the ease of performance tracking and report generation.

Giving teachers more time and less admin is our goal and in the meantime we wish the hardworking educators of Britain happy holidays.