Pupil data dazzles at BETT 2010 - Introducing a remarkable new tool

13/01/2010                                                                                                                                                                      Back to releases

SIMS from Capita (www.sims.co.uk) is at BETT 2010 on stand D20 to launch a new tool that will help unlock the power of the pupil information that school leaders and teachers record on their management information systems (MIS). SIMS Discover uses the very latest technology to aid teachers in their quest to raise pupil achievement by revealing which of their pupils needs help and why.

Phil Neal, managing director of SIMS for Capita Children’s Services, said: “SIMS Discover makes the job of interpreting the pupil information that sits in a school’s MIS simple as it presents the data in a highly visual way.  Teachers can flick through a carousel of colour-rich graphs and charts to choose how they want the data interpreted, much as they would flick through a carousel of their favourite music album covers on an Apple iPhone.”

With the software, teachers can scroll through a list of pupils’ subject results and select grades in English, for example, then simply drag and drop other criteria into a graph or diagram to analyse it. They could easily compare these results against pupils with English
as a second language, or those on free school meals, or against those with attendance issues, to understand the reasons behind individual pupil performance so that they can be addressed.

The information is displayed using Venn diagrams, student progression lines, bar charts and pie charts, making it far easier to spot where issues exist than it would be with a spreadsheet. Teachers are then able to click on the graphs to drill down to individual
student names that may fall below expected targets.

Phil Neal, managing director of SIMS for Capita Children’s Services, said: “Pupil data is an incredibly powerful tool for raising achievement in schools and for understanding when and why pupils fall below targets. Teachers often do not have the time or the expertise to interrogate the data on their MIS to access this goldmine. SIMS Discover will essentially make the experience of accessing information intuitive and quick so that teachers and school leaders can understand their teaching groups in much more detail.”

ENDS
Ref: CAP517A

Capita contact:
Graham Cooper, Head of Marketing, Capita Children’s Services, Franklin Court, Priory Business Park, Cardington, Bedford, MK44 3JZ. Tel: 01234 838 080 Email graham.cooper@capita.co.uk
Website: www.sims.co.uk

Press contact:
Rebecca Bremner, Catherine Lane PR, Floor, 145-157 St John Street, London, EC1V 4PY. Mobile: 07787 155 882 Email: rebecca@catherinelane.com

About Capita Children’s Services:
Capita Children’s Services is the leading supplier of information systems to the education sector, providing a range of software and services to schools and local authorities to help raise standards and reduce administration. Capita’s SIMS is the most popular management information system for schools and is used every day by more than 21,000 educational establishments in the UK.
www.sims.co.uk