Question 1

How do you track progress against baseline data?

Accepted Answer

We don’t yet use Involve to track progress against baseline data. We still use spreadsheets and ALPS Education for that. We submit half-term and end-of-term reports through Involve, and bringing that data together for analysis is our next step.

Question 2

Can trip organisers use medical information from iSAMS without asking parents to complete the same forms each time? We want to be able to control what is visible. Is it quite granular in that respect as well?

Accepted Answer

We keep medical data in iSAMS and draw it into Involve, where we can see the information we need for a trip and ask parents for further details. We can map the data granularly, but the setup depends on how information is stored in iSAMS and needs testing. We didn’t demonstrate Tahira’s specific parent-facing setup in the session.

Question 3

How did you convince the senior leaders that it wasn’t an IT project? How did you get that buy-in from your senior leaders?

Accepted Answer

It began as an SLT discussion about improving how the whole school works. I led implementation, with people responsible for trips, medical, pastoral functions and the junior school leading their areas. The bursar and executive leadership directed the project. Technical support was involved, but did not lead it. Now that the system is established, the bursar and head of technical support oversee more of its day-to-day operation.

Question 4

Do you have an MIS administrator that looks after the entire product and is responsible for iSAMS and Involve, or has that role been dissolved and pushed out to those who look after the health centre, trips, academic timetable and so on?

Accepted Answer

We still have an iSAMS data manager because iSAMS remains our MIS. Our departments manage their areas in Involve, while the data manager maintains iSAMS and helps resolve issues between the systems. The data manager and head of technical support are separate roles; the data manager reports to the head of technical support. Teams try to resolve issues locally first, then take MIS or syncing issues to that team, which can escalate them to Involve if needed.

Question 5

What’s your roadmap at Stonyhurst for how you’re going to use SOCS going forwards? Is it purely to liaise with other schools on communication and results? What’s your thought process over the next 12 to 18 months on how SOCS is going to be used in relation to everything else in Involve?

Accepted Answer

We’ve retained basic SOCS functionality to share sports results with other schools, while handling team selection and fixtures in Involve. The connection between the systems has not always worked perfectly. We have no firm plan to remove SOCS and will review whether to keep it at the end of the academic year.

Involve Discovery Session with Stonyhurst College

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Q&A Summary

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