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6 steps to effectively earning staff buy-in for new school initiatives
Implementing your new year's initiatives at your school can be tricky because it means changes are going to happen. And change can be a four letter word.
School management software: all-in-many or all-in-one?
Does it feel like most school management companies are advertising as an all-in-one solution, when in reality they are an all-in-many: many apps, many logins, many code bases. So then what does all-in-one really mean?
Why is data protection becoming more important in private schools?
When schools think of staying ahead, staying agile, or differentiating themselves, technology is usually the obvious option for change and innovation. Delivering a 1:1 device ratio, or having high tech classrooms with interactive whiteboards, or even a robust parent to school communication app and fancy website, might be a few of the ways independent schools try to stand out to applicants.
K12 Admissions Software: 5 features your private school must have
The job of a K12 admissions director can be daunting. From being the first point of contact in recruiting and engaging families, to managing the multi step application process, and finally to maintaining relationships with the families and students to build an active alumni community. Communication and marketing are key parts to admissions, but so is analyzing demographics of the incoming classes as they will shape how your school grows in the years to come.
Finally, an invoicing solution specifically designed for K12 schools
Navigating K12 school finances, we often encounter several challenges. Ever noticed how parents struggle with different platforms for student information, payments, invoicing, and communication? This not only confuses them but also hampers the timely flow of payments, negatively impacting the financial health of your institution.
Unleash the ROI Potential of MySchool's Student Information System
As school principals, IT managers, and administrators, you know the importance of optimising your school's resources to create a high-quality learning environment. MySchool's student information system (SIS) is designed to maximise your return on investment (ROI) for your school. In this blog post, we'll delve deeper into how MySchool's SIS can benefit K-12 schools in North America, by exploring its key features and benefits.
Top 5 Tips for Password Safety and Effectiveness
Data from Security.org shows that adding a single uppercase letter to an 8-letter password dramatically increases safety. Here are five tips to help strengthen and protect your passwords.
Inclusion - a parent's perspective
As education professionals, we may have our own ideas and opinions on what inclusive education should look like. However, can our educational practices really be inclusive without taking into account the parental perspective?
Inclusion - a student's perspective
Approximately one year and six months ago, at the age of 24, I was diagnosed with autism. My life suddenly became split between a ‘before’ and ‘after’. I’m still me, but now my days are slowly becoming characterised by awareness with a capital ‘A’ and learning how to cope with the ball of anxiety that has settled in my chest, not from being autistic, but from being autistic in a world that is not built for me.
Inclusion - a teacher's perspective
Educators are at the forefront of every child’s educational journey. It is imperative that in order for true inclusion to take place, teachers need to have an understanding of what inclusion in mainstream schools is. We believe that teachers can give us insights into the comprehensive task of teaching children with additional needs within mainstream classrooms, and the information they provide would be valuable in the training and in the support of fellow teachers. MySchool school management software, has been working with the team from Learning 360° Foundation to gather feedback from teachers in Malta through a qualitative approach, so as to understand their views and experiences in the field, to spark a conversation on how we can continue to grow in inclusive practices in the classroom and beyond. The teachers were asked to give their own definition of inclusion, as well as what practices can be put in place in order to give every student the right to education within the mainstream setting. Various ideas and opinions were brought up throughout the interviews.
Product update
MySchool has a big year ahead, this is our product road map for 2022, broken down into the following sections: What we’ve delivered over the last year, What new modules are available now, What modules we’re working on next and How we go about designing and delivering new products. Let's dive in! Wrapping up the last year Over the last 12 months, we’ve been working flat-out on improving MySchool’s availability and its smartphone experience. These updates were also part of the groundwork required for the new modules we’re working on (more about that later). During this period, we’ve also delivered:
3 Game-Changers for IT Managers
MEET GREG GERBER. Greg’s career has spanned over 25 years in the education sector, starting out as a high school teacher before serving as Vice Principal. When offered the role of Principal, Greg made the decision to leave teaching altogether and move into IT, allowing him to pursue another passion and spend more time with his family. However, during the subsequent 12 years in IT, Greg quickly realized the majority of his time was spent consulting with schools, and helping them to better their vision and mission. Soon, Greg was back in school as Director of IT, focusing on finding and implementing a new School Management System. He quickly rose to become the Director of Learning for 43 schools across British Columbia, and now works in higher education as Assistant Professor and Dean of Science and Instructional Technology at the New York Institute of Technology, as well as regularly collaborating with the Ministry of Education and for K-12 schools in and around British Columbia.
CCPA and How It Applies to K-12 Schools
The California Consumer Privacy Act or CCPA is a state-wide data privacy law that took effect on January 1st, 2020. CCPA applies to all for-profit California companies that make over $25 million annually or hold onto a minimum of 50,000 consumers’ data. Their laws protect and give California residents more control over how for-profit businesses handle their personal information. It requires businesses to provide better control and understanding of what they can and can’t do regarding the data they’re holding. CCPA also includes parental consents over consumers under 13 years of age and affirmative consents for children between 13 and 16. Consumers would be given easier access to what they want to do regarding their data, including requesting data deletion and seeing what kind of information these businesses had collected, sold, or used.
Moving a paper-based school to a School Management System
"We have a great system, everything is working just fine so why should we move to a school management system." So why even consider moving? This is a great point but probably the wrong question to be asking yourself. It’s true, your system works just fine… but what is it actually costing you and could you be doing things better and in some cases much, much better? Resources: paper, filing, storage space. Paper, printing, photocopying costs pile up, not to mention the amount of manual upkeep required to maintain up to date accurate records. It’s hard to find official statistics on paper consumption by schools but anyone in charge of budgeting in schools will tell the cost of paper, printing and photocopying is significant. While a student information system won’t eliminate everything it certainly will significantly contribute to cutting costs in this area alone, and possibly enough to fund the use of a school management system.
How To Support Students Coming Out
It can be extremely challenging for LGBTIQ kids to attend school, especially when they are thinking about coming out to others. During this difficult and sensitive time, the right support can make a huge difference. Unfortunately, there’s still a lot of homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools, and too many victims are simply not getting enough, or any help at all from teachers or schools. Although these kids may have different questions and challenges, they have exactly the same needs as all young people: the right to feel supported and included. Additionally, they need to have positive role models and understand that although they may be feeling nervous, what they are going through is entirely normal.They should also be able to meet other LGBTIQ students of their age and they need to be able to be themselves without fear of homophobic or transphobic bullying. As an instructor, teacher, or a person involved in school programs, you are in a great position to support them and make a real difference in their lives. LGBTIQ students were asked about their experiences in school and college. In particular, they were asked what they thought would make their experiences at their school more enjoyable and what they wanted educators to know. Using this feedback, we’ll discuss a few ways to help LGBTIQ students to feel comfortable at schools.
Defining your school values, mission and vision
How do you quickly communicate what your school is about, what you believe in, what values it holds dear and what your school’s journey is? The values of a school should be outlined in a vision statement. They outline and communicate the school's philosophy and aspirations to parents and the whole school community. However, the school mission statement should describe the school's current efforts towards achieving its vision. For a school to remain focused on its purpose, it must state its values, vision and it’s mission.
Boost Your School Productivity With OKRs
How effective is your school program? Are you getting the result you want? Are your staff aligned on your objectives? Are your students productive and actively participating in programs? OKRs can be the tool you need to get more done, boost school productivity and get better results. Before giving you a few tips, let’s talk about what OKRs actually are.
Managing Separation and Divorce (of Parents) at School
The end of a marriage doesn't just affect you, it affects your children, including their behaviour and school performance. Divorce is a difficult event for everyone involved. Having an open, solid support structure in these times of crisis is essential for children. There are a few steps you can take to make it easier on your child at school and at home. Read more to find out what you can do to help your child cope with separation.
Take Your Enrolment Management System from Stressful to Streamlined With an All-in-One Platform
“They’re heeeerrrre.” The yearly blitz of back-to-school commercials featuring more backpacks, binders, and (spoiler alert) carabiner hand sanitizers than you can shake a stick at, seems to be the international sign to turn in your flip-flops and start setting your alarm clock again.
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Birth of the School Management System Q&A with The Man Behind the Code
Phil Neal’s aversion to paperwork, instinctive talent for coding, and teammates with a flair for marketing just happened to be the perfect storm that created a solution to an age-old problem.
The Evolution of the School Management System: PART 2
...And we're back to transport you further along the evolutionary timeline - unearthing even more fascinating insights in our special school management system origin story.
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The Evolution of the School Management System: PART 1
How did we ever live without it? It’s hard to remember a time when schools and technology didn’t go hand in hand.
5 Ways to Tell if Your School Management System is Future-Proof
In a world with increasing dependence on technology, it’s essential that your school MIS is future-proof, aka sustainable.
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Discover top time-saving hacks for busy school administrators
Get organised ahead of the new school term with these time-saving ideas. A day in the life of a school administrator is always going to be busy. As the first point of call for students, parents and teachers, the office is the school’s central hub of activity and there’s never a quiet moment!
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How technology is supporting schools during the pandemic
From global school closures in 2020 to the delivery of hybrid learning models currently in place, the pandemic has dramatically impacted education systems across the world. Technology has played a vital role in this pandemic. It’s enabled a huge proportion of the workforce to continue working from home and has kept us connected with friends and family we can’t see.
Why it’s time to commit to just one School Management System
Everybody has an opinion about technology, and teachers are no exception. Here are three typical schools of thought: It’s awesome, and I couldn’t live without it! It’s a necessary evil. Everything was fine before computers. Any of these represent you? Maybe all three at some point or another. Let’s take a look at a teacher’s point of view and see how effective her school’s management system is.
What bugs you about your School Management System?
According to Leanne Gomes, “census - is the worst.” This is the task that takes up most of Leanne’s time, “It has to be completed three times a year [October, January and May] and it slows the whole system down for everyone. You can’t access anything whilst it’s running.”
LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) Compliance
We are extremely proud and delighted to announce that MySchool is now fully compliant with the widely recognized LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) standard. This standard was developed by IMS Global, a renowned organization in the educational technology sector, and is supported by nearly 500 prominent leaders in ed-tech, including industry giants such as Google, Clever, Microsoft, Moodle, Pearson, as well as numerous esteemed educational institutions and universities across the globe.
The GDPR and school suppliers
As a controller, your school is responsible for the security and processing of all personal data you collect. This responsibility extends to the data you share with any third parties such as your suppliers. If one of your suppliers falls foul of the GDPR and the data you shared with them is compromised, the data protection authority may come knocking on your door. Although this may seem a little onerous, there is clear guidance on how to responsibly protect the data you share and how to legally protect yourselves.
MySchool update version 1.5
We're excited to launch an overhauled timetable configuration tool with version 1.5 of MySchool.
GDPR - The Data Protection Officer
The appointment of a data protection officer is one of the more daunting requirements of the GDPR. The concept of the DPO has been around for a long time and a number of countries in the EU have had the requirement in place for a number of years, most notably, Sweden and Germany. The GDPR now makes this appointment mandatory across the EU regardless of the size of the organisation though there are other criteria that determine whether a DPO is required. Before we get in to the criteria, I'll cut to the chase: schools will almost certainly need a DPO.
GDPR Awareness. What you should do right now.
The thing about the GDPR is that it's not going away and it's not going to pass by silently on May 25th 2018. It's designed to make everyone sit up and take notice. The truth is, current data protection action tends to be more reactive than proactive. The GDPR is designed to make the data controller, in this case schools, fully responsible for managing their students', staffs' and parents' data and to actively prove they comply with the regulation.
School Management Software to help bring your school community closer
Why use MySchool school management software to run your school? Let's take a look from a few different stakeholder perspectives and show you how MySchool can be the glue that helps binds the school community. School Administrators Communication through MySchool is powerful. It's as simple as selecting a class, year or the entire school and clicking 'send' to deliver emails, questionnaires and SMS messages. You can also create custom groups of parents, staff, teachers and students in just a few clicks.
Unpacking Personal Data under the GDPR
The GDPR defines personal data as: "... any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person ('data subject'); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person;" Article 5 Principles relating to processing of personal data To be clear, the 'data' element of 'personal data' refers to recorded information that is, or is intended, to be stored and processed electronically as part of a filing system.
Consent in the GDPR
Consent is not a new concept and has been a core part of data protection & privacy laws for decades. However the GDPR raises the bar considerably on 'conditions for processing' personal data. Simply put, 'consent' means obtaining clear permission to hold and process a person's data for a specific use. Although it is already required, practices such as 'opt out' have become common-place, e.g. pre-ticked checkboxes to receive marketing material, making it more of an assumption of consent rather than explicit permission. The GDPR is far more explicit about what constitutes consent and aims to entirely remove this kind of deception. Article 7 GDPR Conditions for consent
EU GDPR Summary for Schools
You may be wondering why we need new privacy laws. As it stands, data privacy laws vary from country to country within the EU, with little harmonisation. This causes confusion, reduces trust and ultimately undermines the effectiveness of data privacy laws. The GDPR is intended as a 'one-stop-shop' bringing with it a high level of alignment across the European Union. This of course also makes it far easier to administer and enforce. The following are the key elements of the GDPR. We'll be going into the details of each one of these in future blog posts. If you're not already subscribed, you can get email alerts as soon as we publish new articles.
The true value of school management software
Like all tools, the real value comes from not what they can potentially do but what you actually do with them. This is particularly true of school management software which can bring significant efficiencies to school administration. The problem is that these systems generally have an overwhelming amount of functionality that can end up unused or worse, completely misused, eroding the value of your investment.
MCA technology award finalist!
We're particularly excited today to find out we've been chosen as a finalist for the 2016 MCA eBusiness awards, 'Best use of Technology in Business Transformation'. Every year, the MCA eBusiness awards celebrate and acknowledge the best examples of web based technology & innovation in Malta. The awards aim to encourage digital innovation and growth across the width and breadth of the country's industry and society.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) glossary for schools
There are many specialised words and terms associated with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These are the most common ones. Binding Corporate Rules (BCR) Corporate rules to allow multinational organisations such as multi national school networks to safely and legally transfer data internally (within the organisation) but across EU borders. Consent Freely given, specific, informed and explicit consent by statement or action by the student, parent, staff member or any person signifying agreement to the processing of their personal data. read more about consent Data Controller This is the school. Determines the purposes, conditions and means of the processing of personal data.
GDPR Intro: privacy law affecting school data security for schools.
The General Data Protection Regulation is the EU’s tough new privacy and data protection law designed to significantly strengthen all EU citizens' rights and security relating to the data you store about them. This includes students, staff and parent's right to legal action against the school or ‘student information system’ supplier and the right to compensation regarding misuse of their personal data.
MySchool is ISO27001 and ISO9001 certified
We are proud to announce that MySchool has now attained the internationally recognised ISO standards certification for ISO27001 'Information Security' and ISO9001 'Quality Management'. MySchool is entrusted by its customers with the security, privacy and integrity of personal data belonging to thousands of students, staff and parents. The protection of our customers' data is a core to our business and these two certifications represent a significant enhancement to the security and integrity of the service we offer.
Buying School Management Software: 5 Things to Consider
Before finally settling on a school management system there are a few final details to look into in order to ensure that your school is getting the best solution for its money. Here are 5 of the most important features to look for in your provider’s pricing.
Choosing the Right School Management Software
Any seasoned education professional knows that when the time comes to upgrade or invest in a school management system, finding the perfect solution to suit your school’s specific needs can be far from simple, and a few key points need to be considered before making that all-important first step into the future. To streamline that search, just keep these 3 key aspects in mind when choosing your school management software.
1.2 MySchool Update
Over the past couple of months, we’ve been reviewing our services, the way we work, and how we can make MySchool better. As a result, we’re redesigning many of our work processes to be more efficient, upgrading our support infrastructure and redesigning our product and service pricing to be more flexible and easier to understand. We're currently in the process of rolling out the 1.2 update and a few of you have already been upgraded. We'll have everyone onboard by early 2016.