The Educator Magazine U.K. Sept-Dec 2022 - Magazine - Page 55
School Transition was launched in 2020,
and so far, the software has been
successfully adopted by 85 schools in
Derby City, who have used the portal
successfully to save their schools many
hours of administration time by
ensuring schools receive comprehensive
information about each student making
the transition to the stage of education.
It has also been further developed to
support pupils transitioning all the way
through to Post-16 and into Further
Education.
Lincoln Project, a cross-sector
partnership in Lincoln City, working
together to raise aspirations and
improve outcomes for children and
young people, bringing consistency to
the process.”
The new software saved schools time on
administration, but also benefits pupils
as the new school knows much more
about each young person and any
additional arrangements for students,
who may struggle with transition can
be put in place much earlier so they are
more confident moving on; their
welcome experience becomes much
more personalised.holds.”
Helen Barker, Head of KYRA Strategy and
Anthem Leadership and Professional
Development, who is part of The
Ambition Lincoln Project Team, added
“We are so pleased that our hard work
has culminated in being able to secure
funding to offer the School Transition
Portal to schools in Lincoln. We’re
hopeful that the software will transform
transition for Lincoln schools just as it
has in Derby”.
The expansion into Lincoln is part of
a strategy to roll out the software to
primary and secondary schools in other
geographic locations.
Vanessa Hopkinson, Lead Practitioner
for Leading Teaching at KYRA (Part of
Anthem Schools Trust) based in Lincoln,
who is part of The Ambition Lincoln
Project Team, has supported the
implementation of the Primary to
Secondary Transition Portal.
Commenting she said, “I heard about the
School Transition Portal from an Anthem
Trust School based in Derby. I quickly
identified that the software would help
to support the work of The Ambition
Working collaboratively, The Ambition
Lincoln Project and the School
Development Support Agency, were able
to source funding for a pilot project for
pupils transitioning to secondary schools
within The Ambition Lincoln Project
Area.
Andrew Chisholm, is the Director of
Professional Development at the Priory
Federation of Academies Trust, who is
also part of The Ambition Lincoln Project
Team, and will have several secondary
schools within his Trust using the School
Transition Portal.
Commenting he said. “I am really excited
about us being among the first schools
in Lincolnshire to use this new software.
It is definitely revolutionising the entire
process and making the transition of
pupil information really easy.”
Mark Fryers, from Derby based IT and
Telecoms specialists Link ICT Services,
is also a founding Director of School
Transition. Commenting, he said “When
we developed the solution, we wanted
to place children, not data, at the centre
of the platforms. Our software enables
open dialogue between schools to
ensure that every child is well known at
their destination school. The Transition
Portal places the emphasis on filling out
information for the pupil, not meeting
the varied formats specified by each
destination and so creates a centralised
system for student movement at
transition time.”
School Transition portal includes a fully
comprehensive package of services
which includes project management to
implement the software, training
sessions and technical support. Link ICT
Services deploys the system platform
and provide ongoing user support
services
Hannah Everett, Project Manager at
School Transition, added, “Word is
spreading quickly across the education
sector that our School Transition Portals
have the scope to improve educational
outcomes for children and provide time
savings to education professionals across
the UK. We already have a further two
School Transition Portal projects in the
pipeline and have received a number of
enquiries from other Local Authorities
who are interested in improving school
transition outcomes. We’re looking forward to what the future holds.”