*Please note: This content was published during the COVID-19 pandemic
Following government advice surrounding school’s reopening, we’ve prepared the below Management Information System (MIS) back to school checklist for our schools to use and adapt as they wish. This contains some of the things you may want to consider ahead of you reopening your doors for all or some of your students.
The checklist is broken down by school area:
You can download a printable PDF here.
Academic
- Ensure access to online learning environments for teachers and students, where appropriate
- Create and share a timetabling structure that supports social distancing guidelines for each class and year group
- Be certain that students only have one lesson per period and double check there are no other potential clashes or issues
- Add staff meetings, tutorials and 1-2-1’s to the Timetable
- Ensure any year groups not in school or not currently being taught face-to-face can still access key school information through your MIS
- Consider how you’re going to replace assemblies and any other “whole school” events, and communicate this to students and staff
Administration
- Consider how many staff members will need to be on site if some of your students continue working remotely and set up facilities to record this in your MIS
- Review your school’s policies on visitors, communicating this to your Reception and School Office staff
- Upload any training details and documentation to HR Manager, assigning it to any staff members assuming different responsibilities
- Consider your timetable for extra-curricular activities and clubs, enabling their safe operation; either adding new activity groups and students, or extending the date of existing activity groups
- Make sure any new from groups have been created and that each student who will be on site is allocated to a form or tutor group
- Add all new staff members to HR Manager
- Correctly allocate staff members to their Division
- Create new MIS ‘User Accounts’ for new starters
- Check that registration rules contain any new Forms, Houses or Teaching Sets
- Set up multi-period registration so you can register lessons in bulk
- Set up self-registration so students working from home can register for lessons themselves
- Ensure the new COVID-19 Registration Codes are added in Registration Manager, to support the DFE when completing the daily Educational Setting Status reports.
- Update all previous attendance data with the ‘#’ if the school has been closed to students for a period of time (if applicable).
Health and Wellbeing
- Keep your staff and students fully informed of any changes to safeguarding and welfare staffing and procedures
- Ensure appropriate updates are made in Wellbeing Manager to accurately track the wellbeing of every student
- Ensure any students flagged as vulnerable are fully supported
- Integrate health and wellbeing into the curriculum as appropriate
- Ensure wellbeing procedures are extended to support staff members who need it
- Incorporate into Wellbeing Manager appropriate procedures for accidental or deliberate infringement of social distancing guidelines and any Covid-related bullying
- Ensure the availability of PPE as appropriate, recording your stock and distribution of these to students and staff
- Ensure COVID-19 symptoms and processes are included in your Medical Centre module, or MIS equivalent
- Review the medical conditions for your students to ensure you have the most up-to-date information and that the public health note has been updated to reflect any changes under COVID-19
- Create new Pastoral Tutors if required
Admissions
- Ensure appropriate arrangements for the induction of new students, accounting for these details in your MIS
- Set up online viewings or new procedures for parents and prospective students to view your school, capturing this data via the Admissions Portal or similar
- Amend registration forms where necessary to account for online schooling
Set up options for online payments for any relevant registration fees prospective parents might need to pay - Ensure all new students have a valid enrolment date recorded, accounting for school closures
Communication
- Display clear notices regarding expectations for parents and students under current circumstances
- Ensure all parents and pupils have access to Apps and Portals where appropriate, to keep a clear channel of communication with them
- Maintain communication with those students unable to return to school
- Agree and communicate appropriate procedures for parents and carers of all students dropping off and collecting pupils from school
Finance
- Update your Fixed Asset Register to account for any changes following school closures
- If you have new staff members joining your Finance Team, ensure the correct permissions are allocated for system access, and raising and approving POs etc.
- Edit the Fee amounts if Fees have changed due to remote schooling
- Add/check any discounts and/or credit notes for all new and existing students
Reporting
- Speak to our Reporting Services team ASAP if you require changes to your reporting structure
- Submit report requests a minimum of 4 weeks before they are due
- Ensure your reports coincide with government guidelines surrounding the structure of this year’s A-Level and GCSE exams
- Make sure teachers have access to the iReport App to help them complete school reports remotely on their mobile devices
