Queen Elizabeth School
Reducing Administration
Queen Elizabeth School in Kirkby Lonsdale, is an 11-18, co-ed, non-denominational, Academy school which has 1438 pupils, of whom 347 are in the Sixth Form.
Jim Williams, is the Network Manager who looks after the technical side of things and explains how the move to Overnet Data came about:
“The school had been using Moodle for several years and was previously using a county hosted Moodle site, but found that this required a lot of administration time to manage. A local school came in and gave us a demonstration of Overnet Data’s Edulink for Moodle service, which prompted us to look into them in more detail. The Overnet Data solution allowed the integration of our SIMS school management system with Moodle so that courses could be automatically populated with student’s details. The integration with our Active Directory allows pupils to sign into Moodle with a single set of credentials, which is great for access from home. The ability to have parental accounts, linked from SIMS, has enabled us to give parents secure access to their child’s tracker, timetable, and exam results. The implementation has improved whole school engagement with both parents and students.”
Why do you use Edulink Communicator?
“We use Edulink Communicator to improve home-school communications. Previously we had sent out letters which were expensive to send in terms of administration time, printing costs and potentially postage, all with no guarantee that the letter would make it home and be seen by the parents. It was during the implementation of Edulink Communicator that the technical support offered by Overnet Data really came into its own, with minor issues being resolved quickly and effectively by their team.”
Would you recommend Overnet Data to other schools?
“Yes, we’d recommend Overnet Data for a wide range of reasons, including:
They help us to reduce the amount of time spent on Moodle management as it automatically picks up new accounts in SIMS and links seamlessly with their Active Directory account
Their process of ongoing product development has delivered timely new products, e.g. the use of Homework Block going forward will save costs on printed planners, whilst allowing parents to view their child’s homework with ease
Their support and response times – they understand any problems that we have and the speed of support offered has been great, as they really understand the needs of our school
The solutions on offer fit in really well with what schools are looking to achieve – Edulink Communicator and Homework Block fit needs that had been identified as key areas for development by our school
Products offered are considerably cheaper than many of their competitors
In summary, their great day-to-day support in conjunction with new developments offering additional functionality help to reinforce the value of our investment with Overnet Data.”
To improve your homework management, download the free Edulink Homework plugin here. https://moodle.org/plugins/block_homework
You don’t have to be a customer of Overnet Data to use it. Why not take a look at our Edulink for Moodle which allows the automated provisioning of students, teachers and classes within Homework Block or our Edulink Communicator which allows you to notify parents of homework updates?
