What’s the best time in the year to move your secondary to a cloud-based MIS?

What’s the best time in the year to move your secondary to a cloud-based MIS?

Rolling out a new MIS (Management Information System) at your secondary school can feel like a daunting task. That’s why we work hand-in-hand with schools to implement Arbor at the right time and pace.

There really is no best time to move – we work with schools throughout the school year and during holidays to fit your move to Arbor around your priorities, school calendar and staff commitments. During Covid-19 we’ve moved over 400 schools to Arbor.

You’ll have the support of your Arbor Project Manager who will ensure your staff have the right training they need to use Arbor confidently as soon as the system goes live. Find out more about how we help make Arbor a success at your school here.

If you’re wondering when would be a good time to move systems during the academic year, our Head of Professional Services, Emma, has some handy pointers below to help you decide:

If you want to ‘Go Live’ in September

If you want your Arbor site to go live in September, your implementation will begin after the Easter break.

What to bear in mind in your school calendar:  

• As September is the new school year, we know you’ll need to set up and be confident to use Arbor from day one, including transitioning to your new school timetable 
• Staff taking summer leave and having availability to support the roll out
• August Exam Results Day
• Any September timetable changes

How Arbor can help:

• If you already completed your school’s new year setup in your previous MIS, it will migrate automatically to Arbor, including your timetable
• Training will be available to your staff throughout the term before your ‘Go Live’ date and beyond, so staff won’t have to take time for their valuable holidays
• We’ll plan for priority operations such as exams, in advance of when you need to use this functionality. You’ll also have the option to use your existing MIS for processing your exam results on results day and add them to Arbor at a later date 
• We’ll make sure your staff have training on timetable management as a priority to support any amendments to make to classes, rooms, staff or enrolments for September

If you want to ‘Go Live’ in October Half-Term

If you want your Arbor site to go live in October Half-Term, your implementation will begin after May Half-Term.

What to bear in mind in your school calendar: 

• School and Workforce Census 
• Autumn term priorities, e.g. assessment data drops, parents’ evenings and reports
• Exams resits 

How Arbor can help:

• Our data migration process is fully compliant for census, and our data cleansing process will ensure your data is good quality 
• We run two ‘dummy data’ runs so you can check your data is accurate before Arbor goes live
• We can tailor your implementation and training plan to meet your school’s needs and availability
• We’ll plan ahead to make sure you can upload your assessment data into Arbor at the right time
• Your exam entries will migrate to Arbor and we will be on hand to make sure your Exams Officer has the right training and support during this time

If you want to ‘Go Live’ in January

If you want your Arbor site to go live in January, your implementation will begin in September. 

What to bear in mind in your school calendar: 

• September is a busy time to start onboarding a new system
• School census
• In-year assessment data drops
• School closure over the Christmas break

How Arbor can help:

• We can tailor your implementation and training plan to meet your school’s needs and availability
• Our data migration process is fully compliant which ensures you have everything you need to complete your census
• We’ll plan ahead to make sure you can upload your assessment data into Arbor at the right time

If you want to ‘Go Live’ in February Half-Term

If you want your Arbor site to go live in February Half-Term, your implementation will begin after October Half-Term. 

What to bear in mind in your school calendar: 

• Your in-year assessment data drops
• Exam entry deadline

How Arbor can help:

• We’ll plan ahead to make sure you have everything for assessment setup and can upload your assessment data into Arbor at the right time
• During implementation, we will work with you to identify your priorities such as exams. You have the option to either use Arbor or your previous MIS to complete entries, so you can make the transition in your own time

If you want to ‘Go Live’ in Easter

If you want your Arbor site to go live in Easter, your implementation will begin after Christmas. 

What to bear in mind in your school calendar: 

• Your in-year assessment data drops
• You’ll have done your exam entries

How Arbor can help:

• You’ll have nearly two terms’ worth of in-year assessment data to upload to Arbor. We can help plan for this in your implementation plan if you choose to use Arbor for assessments straight away
• We’ll migrate your exam entries to Arbor and we’ll make sure your team are trained on how to make amendments and complete access requirements/seating plans in Arbor if needed

If you want to ‘Go Live’ in May Half-Term

If you want your Arbor site to go live in May Half-Term, your implementation will begin after February Half-Term. 

What to bear in mind in your school calendar: 

• School census
• In-year assessment data drops
• New school year: including timetable and enrolments
• Exams administration

How Arbor can help:

• You’ll have nearly three terms’ worth of in-year assessment data to upload to Arbor. We can plan for this in your implementation plan to give you enough time. Alternatively you can continue to use your current assessment tracker until September, transitioning to Arbor gradually
• We’ll make sure you have enough time to set up your new school year in Arbor. We also have an integration with TimeTabler which allows you to import your timetable. 
• We’ll make sure your staff have the training they need to administer exams and prepare all access arrangements as required

Want to find out what your implementation journey to Arbor MIS could look like? Join our free webinar on 2nd February at 11am to hear from Rebecca all about the structure and process of moving your secondary school to Arbor’s cloud-based MIS – from data migration, training, to driving long-term improvements to the way you work. Sign up here for free.