Platform Presentations

Tuesday 24th June, 9.55am

Highlights of 2007/8 – Phil Neal

Tuesday 24th June, 10.15am

Capita Vision for the 21st Century Local Authority - Nic Fell and Simon Smith

This session will look at the long term roadmap from Capita's viewpoint of how MIS will develop for schools and Local Authorities.

It will look at some of the challenges we all face and at how over the next 5-10 years Capita will meet these challenges following its success in these areas.

Nic Fell - Biography
Nic has been working in the Local Government IT field for over 10 years, working predominantly with Local Authorities, Schools and Colleges.  Before joining Capita, Nic was responsible for a number of educational ICT solutions, including the development and introduction of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) for the school’s market.

Nic joined Capita in 2005 and is currently Head of Product Management for the Local Authority MIS solution, One.   Responsible for product strategy, Nic developed Capita’s vision to deliver a single MIS for Children’s Services which led to the re-branding of the original EMS product as One, and the development of Capita’s ICS (Social Care) solution which signalled Capita’s move into the wider Children’s Services arena. 

Simon Smith - Biography
Simon first became involved with SIMS software in 1993 when he joined Coventry City Council Support Unit as a Training and Support Officer initially working on LRM4.  After various roles with the team he became Education Support Manager at Stoke Park School and Community Technology College in 1997 and over saw the introduction of several SIMS modules into the school, which led to the school becoming one of the first SIMS Reference Sites.  In 2004 he joined Capita as Product Manager for SIMS Core at the time of the launch of SIMS. net read/write and in 2006 became Head of SIMS Product Management.

Tuesday 24th June, 10.45am

SIMS at the heart of every Primary and Secondary classroom

Sue Ferris and pupils (Secondary)
Assistant Headteacher, Sue Ferris, and four Year 8 students from Falmouth School in Cornwall explain the benefits of exposure to their performance data in improving their motivation, behaviour and attainment.  They are at the leading edge of developments to involve students in data recording that is often seen as a Key Stage 4 process.  Their excitement and dexterity with SIMS has helped many teachers to overcome their fears!

Students talk about Average Point Scores, Progress to Targets, Achievement, Attendance and several other features of Assessment Manager as well as Lesson Monitor, and are particularly keen to demonstrate awareness of the new measure by which schools will be judged; the dreaded “two level progress” between Key Stages!

Harry Weightman - Biography
"In 1994, I became Headteacher of Easington Colliery Primary School, County Durham. Today there are 450 pupils on roll aged 4 to 11 years. I was privileged to work with the LA design team (four years) in constructing a new building and grounds. We relocated to our new campus in 1998.

Easington Colliery is a former mining community that has faced challenging times and circumstances. I have been actively involved in many community regeneration strategies. I helped establish the Easington & Seaham Education Action Zone and represented primary headteachers for the first three years of this important initiative. More recently I have been an active member of the Seaham & Easington Excellence Cluster. We have steadily and continuously raised standards. The school now performs at national norms in all core subjects.

I have a strong determination towards sustainable school improvement. I have a good understanding of school leadership, organisation and management, including experience of working with large scale budgets and management information systems. I am committed to developing and supporting leadership capacity across the school. I have a successful record of partnership work and networking, both regionally and nationally."

Sue Ferris and Falmouth School Pupils - Biography
The four students are in Year 8.  In the last academic year, Falmouth School was involved in giving presentations led by Year 11 students, based around Value Added Lines and progress at GCSE.  In September, several primary teachers requested information to lead them forward on SIMS, and it was decided that Year 11 was too far removed from the Primary agenda.  James, Emily, Zara and Daniel were asked to prepare a presentation to local primary heads, and had one hour with Sue to find their way around the system!  They worked unsupervised for three sessions, then gave a presentation at a local hotel to demonstrate the impact of data tracking on their motivation and the schools ethos of personalised learning and promoting appropriate behaviour.

Falmouth School is richly diverse in its intake and this is one of the great strengths of the school.  The four children reflect our aspirations as well as our insistence that data is used as A TOOL AND NOT A WEAPON.

Sue’s responsibility for both LEARNING and ASSESSMENT summarises her motivation throughout a 25 year teaching career.  Initially English teacher, then Head of Year, Sue’s current role continues to embed the inextricable link between performance of a school and personal fulfilment for each individual child.  Having supported a number of secondary schools in their increasing use of SIMS, Sue now spends one day a week as a consultant for the innovative Primary Tracking Project in Cornwall, playing with assessment in its broadest sense, including achievement in sport, behaviour for learning, attendance, externally validated results and teacher expertise. 

Tuesday 24th June, 14.15pm

SIMS at the heart of Primary and Secondary school leadership

Kae McSweeney (Primary)
Headteacher, Kae McSweeney, explains how use of SIMS allows her to plan, target and improve her school’s performance. Kae will explain the difficulties of her Hackney catchment and how the children are supported through understanding of their needs monitored through SIMS.

Kae McSweeney - Biography
"Now I’m a headteacher called Kae
I come from NZ, far away
And in 35 years
I’ve seen blood, sweat and tears
But I’d not give up one single day".

Thelma Cox (Secondary)
Headteacher, Thelma Cox, explains how use of SIMS allows her and her senior management team to plan, target and improve her school’s performance. Thelma will explain the difficulties of her Ealing catchment area and how the children are supported through understanding of their needs monitored through SIMS, specifically Assessment Manager and Performance Analysis. Thelma will also discuss how Featherstone make interesting use of the SIMS Learning Platform to provide an on-site curriculum for excluded students.

Thelma Cox - Biography
Thelma Cox has worked in London Schools for most of her career, most recently as Headteacher at Featherstone High School in Southall, in the London Borough of Ealing. Judged to be ‘outstanding’ by OFSTED in 2007, Featherstone is a Leading Edge school and Lead Practitioner for Inclusion. Her career has also included teaching in Europe where she experienced alternative ways of managing schools and educating young people, which has influenced her practice as a Headteacher.

Tuesday 24th June, 16.45pm

A Framework for Learning - Dame Sheila Wallis

The presentation will describe the journey taken by Helenswood Performing Arts College to improve student behaviour.

This has been done by way of re-designing the curriculum on offer to KS4 students and devising and applying more effective sanctions and rewards.

The background: In 2006 there was a detention system in place that was clearly an ineffective means of punishment. Further, the number and timing of fixed term exclusions pointed to a flaw in the curriculum package undertaken by a significant minority of KS4 students. By offering them ownership of a personalised curriculum design, then agreeing with all stakeholder groups a Framework for Learning that includes new and effective sanctions, the College has reduced fixed term exclusions from a high base in 2005/6 to nil.

Dame Sheila Wallis DBE - Biography
In 2001, Sheila Wallis was awarded the honour of Dame Commander of the British Empire for Services to Education. A Teaching Award winner in 2002 for Lifetime Achievement, Sheila is a member of the national judging panel and chair of the South of England Awards Panel. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts.

In 2002, Sheila retired as Head of Davison High School, a specialist Technology College, Beacon of Excellence and Leading Edge School in East Worthing, West Sussex. In 1998, whilst at Davison, she created a new breed of support staff that she called Cover Supervisors in order to free up time for staff to engage in the Expert Trail, a personalised professional learning framework. Since that time Cover Supervisors have become part of the workforce remodelling agenda.

In 2002 Sheila created her education consultancy business, The Wallis Partnership Ltd. and was voted by the business community as Woman of the Year.

In September 2006 Sheila was invited to lead Helenswood Performing Arts College in Hastings, East Sussex and is thoroughly enjoying the challenge.

Sheila serves on the Ministerial Taskforce for Gifted and Talented students, the advisory board of the National Consumer Council and the FSA. She is the President of OUTSET, a West Sussex initiative that promotes volunteering among young people in the region.

Wednesday 24th June, 10.30am

‘Not Drowning but Waving’ - Dame Enid Bibby

How School Leaders can ‘Harness Technology’ to stimulate 21st Century school transformation
What are the challenges presented by the mass of data and complexity of systems now available to school leaders in their drive to transform and sustain improvement in their schools? How can we exploit digital technology to improve teaching and learning whilst simultaneously protecting learners from cyber abuse and teachers from cyber stress? Does 24/7 access by all to school really lead to sustainable improvement? Can we really ‘future proof’ our schools during the most rapid growth of technology that education in the UK has ever experienced, whilst assuring ‘value for money’?

Dame Enid will explore the impact, tensions and opportunities offered by new technologies to School Leaders and give insights into those schools which have exploited the best and discarded the rest.

Dame Enid Bibby DBE - Biography
Dame Enid has been Headteacher of two very successful schools, Silverdale in Sheffield and, latterly, Wood Green High School College of Sports, Maths and Computing in Sandwell LA in the West Midlands. Wood Green was designated as an Outstanding School in 2002 and 2006, a High Performing Leading Edge School and won Sports College of the Year in 2006. She has also served as a Board Member for BECTA, a Member of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust Council and as a Governor of the new Ofsted Board. She is a School Improvement Partner for Telford and Wrekin and Cumbria LAs, a presenter for NCSL Head for the Future programme and a BECTA Expert Consultant. Dame Enid retired from Wood Green in August 2006 to become an independent consultant on Leadership, E-Learning and School Improvement. 
Dame Enid was awarded the DBE in 2004 for services to education.

Wednesday 24th June, 12.30pm

Supporting school leaders with the challenges of data - Brian Lightman

In this challenging context this presentation will explore the reality of implementing policies like real time reporting and universal home access and reflect on what the ‘new relationship with parents’ means in practice.  From the perspective of an experienced headteacher who represents nearly 14000 school and college leaders throughout the UK  he will analyse these challenges  and look at the key role of LA support teams in assisting leadership teams to plan strategically and implement these developments.

Brian Lightman - Biography
Brian is President of the Association of School and College Leaders. He has been Headteacher of St Cyres School - a mixed 11-18 comprehensive with 1500 pupils in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan since 1999. Prior to that he worked for 16 years in three 11-18 mixed comprehensive schools in the South East of England before becoming Headteacher of Llantwit Major School in 1995. 
Brian has had longstanding interests and involvement in curriculum development, institutional self-evaluation and school funding. This year as President of ASCL he represents the Association’s membership throughout the UK and has been particularly actively involved in consultations about the incorporation of new technologies into the UK education service.

His broad experience within the English and Welsh education systems includes being an external examiner and  member of the 14-19 panel of the Ministerial Advisory Group of the Welsh Assembly Government. Brian is also a member of the board of Careers Wales – Cardiff and the Vale. He is a trained inspector for the Welsh Inspection Service Estyn. His main teaching subject is German and previous responsibilities include many years of using a wide range of SIMS modules.

Wednesday 24th June, 13.15pm

SIMS Road Ahead - Phil Neal and Simon Smith

This presentation will close the conference by providing a summary of the issues that Capita will be looking to address through its SIMS software during 2009/10.  It will provide an insight into current thinking with regards to the software development roadmap for 2009/10 at a high level which will then be discussed in more detail with schools and local authorities over the coming months.