Capita Education Software Solutions (ESS), part of Capita plc, has secured a three-year contract worth £255,000 with multi-academy trust, Plymouth CAST, to continue to deliver SIMS, its school management information solution, across 35 schools.
The contract will also include parent payment solution, SIMS Pay.
Using integrated management information solutions enables Plymouth CAST to standardise school data collection and analysis across its two secondary and 33 primary schools. The trust will be able to compare schools in areas such as pupil attendance, behaviour, assessment as well as human resources functions. SIMS assessment and payment solutions help to reduce costs and streamline processes across the schools.
SIMS has an evaluation and reporting function that teachers can use to record and monitor the progress of pupils throughout their learning journey. Teachers can build a full picture of each student by combining assessment data with attendance, behaviour and the type of group they belong to, such as pupil premium. This enables schools to quickly identify where intervention is required to support struggling pupils.
With SIMS, teachers can analyse pupil data and track progress. If a pupil is not meeting the standards they should be, teachers can provide additional support to help them. Additionally, teachers can share this information with parents so they can be more involved and build on the partnerships that schools have with each parent.
SIMS Pay is an online payment solution that helps schools easily collect and refund parental payments securely using the existing data available on SIMS. School administrators can simply set up items including uniforms and school trips that can be bought online. This helps reduce time spent on payment administration.
Andy Bennett, managing director of Capita Education Software Solutions, said: “This contract renewal with Plymouth CAST is a clear demonstration of our expertise in the education sector. We have over 35 years’ experience in delivering innovative software solutions to schools. This experience gives us a clear understanding of what schools need to run efficiently and effectively, leaving them to focus on what’s important – improving educational outcomes.”
Karen Cook, chief finance and operating officer, Plymouth CAST, said: “We are constantly working with our schools to understand how processes can be improved. SIMS has been instrumental in helping us manage data as a multi-academy trust and gaining a deeper understanding of our schools. It also places us in a very good position to extend our collaboration with other schools in the future.”
Capita ESS works collaboratively with its SIMS support partner, Scomis, to provide a complete end-to-end solution to enhance SIMS including local support for all of Plymouth CAST schools.
