3 reasons to switch your secondary school to a cloud-based MIS this year

Maddie Kilminster - 11 January, 2021

Popular | School Operations

Category : Blog

3 reasons to switch your secondary school to a cloud-based MIS this year

In busy secondary schools with so much information in different places, it’s often difficult for staff to find what they need. With the added demands of Covid-19 and staff and students working remotely, now is the time to switch to a cloud-based system that you can rely on to support your daily tasks.

Arbor’s Secondary School MIS is designed to make a measurable improvement to the way you work by bringing all your systems, data and communications under one roof. This gives everyone at your school a single source of information so you can support the students and staff who need it the most.

Over 209 secondary schools have chosen Arbor MIS for a better working life, joining the UK’s fastest-growing MIS community of over 1,800 schools and MATs.

Moving your school to a new system might seem daunting, but over 600 schools moved to Arbor remotely during Covid-19. Below are three of the top reasons you should consider a switch this term:

1. Your current systems can’t meet the demands of Covid-19

Schools are working in totally new ways right now and older school software simply can’t keep up. Because Arbor MIS is cloud-based, you can stay connected to your school community and maintain all your administrative tasks wherever you need to work – with fast, secure online access.

During Covid-19, we’ve also developed market-leading tools to help free staff up to focus on supporting students and staff:

• Covid-19 Dashboard – Gives you all the data you need for DfE reporting and helps you track attendance and absence across your student body including vulnerable and key status groups. Follow up with parents directly from the dashboard.
• Flexible timetabling and cover – We’ll automatically show you which teachers are isolating or sick so you can arrange cover easily, adjusting school timetables flexibly to accommodate bubbles.
• Built-in communications – Keep in touch with your community by email, SMS, and in-app message from wherever you are in Arbor. The office can send communications in bulk using mail-merge and use templates to save time. Teachers can contact their students directly from the Lesson Dashboard.

“I just wanted to say how impressed I have been with Arbor during the COVID crisis. What you guys have implemented has made my job so much easier.” Josh Pearce, Marches School

2. Arbor MIS works for secondary schools of all shapes and sizes

Arbor is designed to meet the needs of secondary schools of all shapes and sizes. With so much going on, Arbor helps you create a more joined-up school, with a shared view of progress and purpose for all staff.

With accessible, flexible reporting at every level, Arbor gives you a holistic view of your students’ progress across all areas of school – completely out-of-the-box – so you can direct the right support to the right students. Plus, Arbor’s powerful integrations with data analysis platforms including Power BI, SISRA and 4Matrix mean you can dig into your data exactly how you need to. 

Arbor’s fast, intuitive tools, like timetabling, communications and end-to-end exams management, cut down on repetitive manual work and help make life easier for everyone, from Support Staff, to SLT, to Teachers. 

92% of school staff say they save time with Arbor compared to their previous MIS, and 81% say Arbor has improved how they analyse and understand data.

3. We’ll make sure Arbor is a success at your secondary school in the long-term

When you join Arbor we’ll take the time to truly understand your school and your goals – then help you meet them, year after year. Our friendly, expert team of consultants and former educators will work with you to provide the training and services you need to drive impact with Arbor at your secondary school. 

Being part of Arbor, you’ll share best practice with a growing community of like-minded schools learning from each other and sharing best practice. What’s more, we’re always keen to hear your feedback on Arbor and work hand-in-hand with schools to shape the new features we develop. 

We’re proud of our 97% customer satisfaction rate for support and 99% customer retention rate. 

Want to discover more about Arbor MIS and see the system in action? Join one of our free webinars this term to find out how Arbor could help you work faster, smarter and collaborate more at your organisation. See all the sessions that are coming up here. 

Alternatively, get in touch with us directly – we’d love to hear from you! tellmemore@arbor-education.com | 0208 050 1028