Case Studies

Like many institutions, West Derby School, Liverpool used a Moodle learning platform and Capita SIMS in their daily school life. Now, they've made these important systems more efficient with Moodle SIMS Integration.

Using Moodle SIMS Integration to improve effiency

The school had initially become frustrated when trying to involve pupils and parents in assessment results using Capita SIMS. It appeared all their data would be have to be transferred to the learning platform manually, if there was to be any chance of pupils or parents viewing it. However, after implementing Moodle SIMS Integration from Webanywhere, staff were able to automate the process, making data tracking and transfer easier for everyone.

Recognising the issues when working with Moodle and SIMS

While Moodle and SIMS are both valuable tools for any school, they can cause problems. The systems aren't compatible, meaning information such as registration details or grades have to be transferred manually.

Furthermore, there's difficulties accessing the data too, as parents and pupils are unable to view results or comments at home. With the Department for Education recommending a move towards online reporting, this incompatibility could prevent a school from following government guidelines.

West Derby School were conscious of these issues. Staff would be wasting time entering records twice, and the school community unable to monitor pupils in real time. Waiting for results to be entered by hand also meant important statistics wouldn't be reaching home as fast as many staff would have liked.

"There is an expectation that schools will move towards online reporting, which will offer parents online access to information on their child's attendance, behaviour and progress in learning. The online reporting expectation does not replace face-to-face and direct engagement, nor does it duplicate or replace the existing statutory requirement to provide annual pupil reports for parents; but it is intended to provide parents with up-to-date information at appropriate points through the year to maintain their interest and enable a richer dialogue."

Source: Department for Education

Solving the problem with Moodle SIMS Integration

Moodle SIMS Integration offered a solution to these problems. Once used, the software transferred all the school's data automatically. School registers, course enrollments and test results were moved to Moodle, allowing staff time to focus on other, more important tasks.

Teachers, pupils and parents were also able to view this data live. Everything from attendance scores to behaviour notes were made available on pupils' Moodle profiles, meaning the whole school were kept up to date and involved in school life.

What West Derby had to say about the software

Steve Morton, network manager at the school, explained the impact the software had;

"Our teachers no longer need to log into SIMS, they simply log into Moodle, they can then take a register, record behaviour/achievement or generate self-marking courses that write back into the Assessment Module within SIMS directly, therefore entering data just once.

Our Year heads can check attendance, see what homework has been completed and what grades are being achieved.

Our Parents have the ability to access attendance information, see their son's timetable and monitor homework and coursework progress. And, of course our students benefit from being in control of their own education. They can instantly see how well they're progressing and obtain feedback from their teachers."



The service from Webanywhere

West Derby school were pleased with the results of integration, but also praised the efforts of the Webanywhere team. Steve explained how our experience working with schools since 2003, had made a big difference;

"Webanywhere have quite a family feel about them in that they are very communicative and knowledgeable about their products and client base.

As a school we like to deal with people who know who we are, what we're trying to achieve and want to support that aim. Not many companies that deal with education establishments meet that criteria – Webanywhere are one of the few who do!"

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