Irish fee-paying schools have unique demands from their software. While it’s important to have all the usual features of an MIS, there are specific needs that the right system must meet.
From compliance with GDPR, the Irish Data Protection Act, child safeguarding and protection requirements, and more – it's important that your IT systems can deliver seamless and efficient processes for every department.
Learn more about the full range of solutions available within iSAMS
A robust MIS also plays a critical role in reducing the administrative burden that comes with operating a fee-paying school, and has the power to enhance insight into the daily functions and performance of your establishment.
When considering the right MIS for your school, you need to begin your search with your primary goals in mind. Generating a key list of features to prepare you for your discussions ensures that you get the most out of your demos and meetings. Here are five initial important features that you should consider for your potential new school management system.
- Compliance and data protection built-in
- Admissions and fee billing integration
- Real-time analysis and custom reports
- Wellbeing, pastoral, and safeguarding as a priority
- Whole-school ecosystem to optimise communication
- iSAMS meets the needs of Independent schools in Ireland
Compliance and data protection built-in
You are already well aware that compliance with data protection legislations, like GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, is critical to student safety and school compliance. The Department of Education standards and requirements are mandatory. This means ensuring student safety, privacy, and regulatory confidence is a vital step in your school system assessments.
Your potential new software should be built with compliance at its heart. Cloud hosting is a necessary component of any modern software. But your system should also offer unique data protection and compliance functionality, proving that it understands the unique needs of the education industry – and your needs as an Independent school.
The iSAMS MIS was built with cloud technology from the very start. It also fully adheres to GDPR and Data Protection Act requirements, while also offering robust attendance tracking and built-in child protection workflows.
Additional modules also bolster the functionality offering, including a dedicated Data Protection module for managing consents and DSARs, and a completely customisable pastoral system – Wellbeing Manager.
Admissions and fee billing integration
The seamless handling of the full admissions process, fee collection, bulling and deposit processing is crucial for the parent-school relationship. This is the very foundation of your parent’s impression with your school, from the beginning of the application process, through to termly or yearly fee payments.
Offering a premium experience is an expectation, not just a nice-to-have. That’s why it’s vital to consider implementing a system that recognises the need for bespoke systems in Irish Independent schools. Unique challenges mean that systems must be built with these issues in mind, rather than implementing workarounds.
The iSAMS ecosystem offers a range of dedicated solutions for Irish fee-paying schools, beyond just a comprehensive MIS. The customisable online admissions system can be fully integrated with the school website, enabling enrolment, fee payments, and real-time application and admissions tracking. This enables you to keep on top of the full parent-school experience, and understand where your process is performing – and where improvements can be made to support the whole school community.
Not only that, but integration with iFinance offers tailored functionality for school bursars and accounting departments. This comprehensive budgeting system covers fee invoicing, multi-currency payments, recurring billing, prepayments, BI-driven dashboards for reporting, and more.
When considering a new MIS, ensure you’re taking stock of all school departments and choosing a provider that can support your entire workforce for maximum impact and value.
Real-time analysis and custom reports
While the priority for any school is academic performance and student care, it’s also important to recognise that fee-paying schools are more than just educational institutions – they're also businesses with financial targets.
Growth is just as important as achievement in many cases, particularly in the current challenging financial landscape. That’s why leadership teams in Independent schools require actionable insights across all school departments, including finances, wellbeing, academics, admissions, and more. Reporting and analysis enable teams to make informed decisions that can drive real growth and process improvement.
Real-time dashboards and reporting, like iSAMS Central, should cover key data points for your school. Central is driven by Power BI and offers insight into key school departments, such as behaviour and welfare, attendance, academic performance, and more.
Functionality also extends into the academic department, with a dedicated feature for school report designing and generation. iSAMS Reports Designer enables schools to customise and update reports easily, without in-depth technical knowledge – ensuring all areas of the school can benefit from the technology within iSAMS at one of the busiest times of year.
Wellbeing, pastoral, and safeguarding as a priority
A holistic approach to student care and safeguarding are core to all schools’ values. This is particularly key for fee-paying institutions as they are recognised for their pastoral ethos within the community.
A truly powerful wellbeing and pastoral strategy requires a powerful wellbeing management system. At iSAMS, the integrated Wellbeing Manager and Rewards and Conduct modules enable pastoral and academic teams to monitor concerns, house points, behavioural records, and send instant notifications to those that need to know about a student’s care. They were built with the needs of Independent school students in mind.
This data can then be utilised by iSAMS Central, a Power BI solution that offers palatable dashboards and visualisations to highlight behavioural trends and wellbeing indicators in real time. This vital information can be used to inform decision-making, both on a micro and macro level.
Additionally, extensive modules like Medical Centre, Discipline Manager, Activities Manager, Student Profiles, and more strengthen the potential of pastoral tracking within the MIS.
Whole-school ecosystem to optimise communication
Independent schools can truly perform when the entire school community is engaged with student performance. This includes leaders and teachers, but also parents and students. The high expectations on fee-paying schools and their students demand smooth communication and digital access to functional tools.
Effective community-wide communication and information management requires seamless and comprehensive integration. Disparate systems cause errors and a disjointed experience for all school departments. Consider implementing a solution that recognises the nuances of each user, offering portals, apps, and partner integrations for a truly custom fit.
iSAMS already boasts a range of apps and portals for the entire school community, including parent and student portals, iTeacher app, and admissions portal for an easy application experience.
Similarly, third-party integrations are at the heart of iSAMS. Work with cashless payment providers, LMS’, extra-curricular partners, and more – according to your individual processes and school offering. APIs are a powerful solution to rigid off-the-shelf school software.
Cloud-based architecture and security make this possible, as core data is accessible anywhere, securely, and in real-time.
iSAMS meets the needs of Independent schools in Ireland
At iSAMS, we know that no two schools are the same. That’s why our core MIS is so comprehensive, while also being entirely buildable and mouldable to your needs.
We are a trusted partner of a wide community of schools in more than 90 countries worldwide. For schools aiming for excellence, the customisability of iSAMS is truly vital to optimised daily operation.
With solutions for wellbeing, academics, finance, admissions, administration, and more – it's easier than ever to build a school management system that is unique to your school. If you’re interested in learning more about what iSAMS can offer, you can see us in action with a key features demo below: