The previous system, still used across almost all of Wales, has been in place for more than 30 years. Having won the contract for supplying MIS for 1,100 schools in Northern Ireland, this opportunity to serve schools in Wales puts Bromcom in a unique position in the broader UK market landscape.

Wrexham’s 71 schools will move to Bromcom’s MIS by Spring term 2025. Five pilot schools are already engaged in the partnership and will go live by the end of September this year. The remaining 66 schools will begin their implementation towards the end of the Autumn term.

The pilot school programme will help the local authority to complete the migration process at a smaller scale initially and allow the remaining schools to make the switch seamlessly in the following months.

Bromcom MIS provides a powerful suite of administration, analysis and communication tools in one intuitive interface. It includes a parent portal, clubs/trips management and student/parent/teacher apps.

Parents and students will be able to use the app and portals in both English and Welsh, a function that was important to Wrexham, and is a first for Welsh MIS.

Richard Hatwood, Headteacher at Ysgol yr Holl Saint – All Saints’ School, one of the Council’s pilot schools, said: “With Bromcom, we’ll be able to do more with less work. Not only does the MIS system enable us to do what we need to do today, but its flexible and adaptable functionality means that it will be able to cater to our requirements in the future too.

“Bromcom’s look and feel is very user friendly, which is really important to us. Changing MIS is significant to any school, so having a system that is so easy to use, as well as highly functional will reassure our staff and parents and support in a smooth transition.”

Ali Guryel, Managing Director of Bromcom Computers, added: “We are thrilled to partner with our first ever Welsh local authority, Wrexham. We’re excited to be working shoulder to shoulder to roll out our cloud MIS to 71 schools.

“Our commitment to excellence means that we will continually refine and improve our software based on feedback from our Welsh schools, and we are dedicated to making our platform available in Welsh as an option for all Welsh local authorities, schools and families.”

The latest key addition is Warren Porter (pictured), who joins the company as MAT Product Specialist. Warren was previously Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Nottinghamshire-based Esteem Multi-Academy Trust. A qualified accountant, he has also worked as a Management Accountant at the Transform Trust and Finance Consultant at SAAF Education, a leading provider of business support services in education. Warren will utilise his vast MAT experience to help shape the IMP roadmap whilst also providing support to the product and sales teams within IMP.

“I am really excited about the opportunity to join IMP Software and am looking forward to supporting the next phase of its growth,” Warren said. “As a former MAT Finance Director, and a qualified accountant, this is the perfect role for me as I have always had a keen interest in systems and software. Having previously been an IMP customer I have never used another piece of software that has delivered so much value to the sector. It transformed finance within my trust overnight. The support and implementation team was the best support from a provider, software and non-software, I have experienced as a customer. I am proud to be part of a company that has had such a significant impact across the sector.”

Warren’s arrival is the 16th appointment made by IMP Software in the last year, with other roles spanning development, implementation, support, marketing and sales, and he explained the IMP ethos that also attracted him to the role. “Having got to know them as a customer, they understand MATs completely, but every cog in the machine works extremely well, every function supports the business extremely well, all at a high level of competency,” he said. “I wanted to be able to work with an elite group of people in this space. They value their staff – and that gives you every opportunity to succeed. I want to be a person who is critical to IMP and making significant impact in various areas of the business, and whose ideas help to define the product and bring new products to market.”

Will Jordan, Co-Founder of IMP Software, added: “We are delighted to welcome Warren, and all our new arrivals, in what has been a hugely successful year for the company. We position ourselves as the experts in MAT finance and our customers look to us to provide guidance on key sector issues, so we need credible and expert people to ensure that we are able to provide the best possible advice, whilst also ensuring that our solutions keep offering significant value as the sector goalposts change. The political direction of travel, following the recently-published Schools White Paper, is for MATs to grow in size and IMP is the only system that naturally supports MAT finance teams with this challenge. In anticipation of consistent future growth, as a business we are always recruiting so the door is always open for proactive approaches from individuals who have relevant expertise, are passionate, and have a deep commitment to customer service. We are very aware that our ability to both attract and retain the very best people will be tightly linked to our continued success.”

A school’s SIMS system is the hub of all the important information that leaders and class teachers need to make informed decisions. However, up until now it’s been a struggle for schools to export and interpret this knowledge in a simple way from SIMS, which has limited the use of the data gathered.

The integration of Power BI and SIMS is set to change all that, and the HLT SIMS team are preparing to support the new ‘SIMS Consolidated Reporting’ tool when it launches in September 2019.

On its own, Power BI is a powerful analysis tool traditionally used to create graphs and visualisations that can be used to better understand data. Combining this analytical capability with the huge amount of important information held in a school’s SIMS system to create reports and dashboards will provide senior leaders and teachers with a way to understand data that just wasn’t possible before.

With new insights into areas including behaviour management, attendance and SEND, data will be presented in a much simpler format to allow deeper understanding and more informed evaluations.

Cristina de Pointis, MIS Support Manager at HLT, commented on the new product:

“Our team are really enjoying being able to create detailed SIMS reports using Power BI with data extracted from SIMS to build central dashboards, enabling schools and MATS to monitor and compare performance. Schools need this insight to make the right decisions to improve standards, and the SIMS consolidated reports using Power BI can do just that.”

This new tool is a great addition to the already robust selection of SIMS support that the CAPITA accredited team at HLT have to offer. The team currently work with over 60 schools and cover everything from core module licences and bespoke training, to comprehensive support packages that offer unlimited service desk support.

If you’d like to benefit from this exciting new development or to learn more about any of our other SIMS services, our specialist team would love to speak to you. You can contact us via email, call us on 020 8820 7777, or visit our webpage.

Chubb’s new Advisor Management software manages and controls 18 panels at the college’s Bangor Campus and two main sites in Holyhead and Llangefni. It provides one single interface for fire detection, intruder alarm, access control and CCTV system management.

“Initially, we approached Chubb regarding panel upgrades,” said Andy Tomlinson, estates services officer, Coleg Menai. “But on further discussion with our Chubb account manager and a consultation period with our tech teams, it was decided that the Advisor Management software would provide significant efficiencies to the way we manage our fire and security systems.”

The software can be accessed remotely and by more than one operator at a time, providing facilities management teams with a reliable, efficient, responsive and highly powerful system.

Alarm management is combined with live video to give immediate visibility to any alarm activation; intruder alarms include live and recorded video to track the whereabouts of an intruder. As a fully integrated system, if an alarm is triggered, lights can be turned on, sounders can be activated, and access granted or restricted – from any connected device.

“Any authorised member of our team now has access to all systems and site plans at the touch of the button, rather than having to switch between programmes. The live video stream in the corner of the screen is also extremely useful for verification purposes,” explained Tomlinson.

With over 500 employees and 10,000 students, Coleg Menai has vast and varying access control needs from students, employees, contractors and visitors.

“A significant benefit has been in streamlining the provision of access control cards, which was previously very labour intensive,” added Mr Tomlinson.

Chubb has been working with Coleg Menai for 20 years and Andy Tomlinson said the long-standing business relationship is a result of good management and trust:

“The Chubb engineers and technical teams are prompt and always available, and the account management has been instrumental in supporting each stage of our fire and security development.”

More than a third of primary school teachers (35%) agree. This is despite the fact that schools are now recording more information about the children they teach than ever before.

The results suggest that primary schools’ communication with parents needs to evolve, something some heads are actively addressing.

Jayne Mullane, headteacher at Mersey Vale Primary School in Stockport, remarks: “We need to listen to parents to find out what information they want to receive. In my school, parents gave us feedback on our reports and we changed them as a result. They now include information about how much effort a child makes in class as well as details of academic performance.”

The Capita SIMS survey found that knowing whether their child is happy and confident in class tops the list of information parents want to know from teachers, suggesting that mums and dads do not just want academic results on their reports.

And although three-quarters of parents (74%) stated that it was very important to have information on happiness and confidence, less than half (46%) reported actually receiving it from their child’s primary school.

Teachers too felt information on a child’s happiness was crucial, with 75% stating it was very important for parents to have this information.

Phil Neal, a director at Capita SIMS, comments: “The vast majority of parents believe teachers are doing a great job, but the research does indicate that information about how a child is doing in school needs updating.

“By asking parents what they want, schools can actually stop collecting unnecessary data and just focus on the information that really helps teachers in class and gives parents a more rounded picture of their child’s progress.

The survey also revealed that most teachers (85%) agreed that technology has a positive impact on their workload when it comes to monitoring pupil progress.

Phil Neal continues: “By making better use of the management information systems and pupil tracking software that they already have in primary schools, teachers can track a richer set of information about pupils without impacting on workload.

“Teachers could just as easily record and report on whether a child helped a friend in class or is working hard on a particular project – details that are often just as important to parents as assessment results.”

A guide for schools entitled ‘Could do better: is it time to change the school report?’ is available and can be downloaded from www.capita-sims.co.uk/evolution. It contains tips for schools on improving reporting and a list of questions parents should ask schools about pupil progress.