Word quickly spread and from that early spreadsheet and database we have gone on to build an MIS system which is now the fastest growing in the UK. Recently, we’ve been asking schools how it has helped them – and we are proud of the feedback. Of course, as the CEO and technical architect for the Pupil Asset school system you would probably expect me to say that – and claim that ours is the future of MIS systems!

But actually, we are not there yet - and where we are heading in trying to produce the system of the future is I think still interesting, and we have lots of plans in place, many of which we are hoping to share at Bett later this month.

When I first began looking at school software, I found it incredible that so little progress from the wider world of technology had penetrated into schools. Management software was confined to physical servers (or a Compaq PC under the secretary’s desk!) and so impossibly hard to use that everyone who had not been on the three-day training course was scared of it.

So, all this complexity obviously delivered a huge amount of functionality for the school, didn’t it? Well… beyond storing parent addresses and doctors’ details (never, ever used by the way - teachers just phone an ambulance if it gets that bad) it was always a fight (and often another training course) to complete a government census return or extract data for analysis.

The original iPhone came out in July 2007 (yes, 10 years ago!). I clearly recall the conversation I had with a friend at the time saying he already had a digital camera and an iPod - and internet connections were better through a land line.

What he (and the other handset manufacturers) failed to see was that in combining these things with a simpler interface wrought something far greater than the sum of it’s parts.

Schools are no different. The data is there, and it’s not hard to track - but pulling it together lets you - as a head or governor - see (on a dashboard, in real time) who in my school is not achieving to their best potential.

By combining the attendance, behaviour and assessment data together, you can see that little Jonny is struggling - but he’s been away 6 out of the last 10 days and got into a fight two weeks ago. 30 seconds - maximum. That’s all it should take.

Consolidation. That’s the future.

Next steps should be built in too. Texting parents (or better still free iMessage-style app messaging) as soon as they need to know is a solved and relatively simple problem. Building a connection to your external messaging service is more work than just sending a text message.

In summary, the future MIS isn’t an MIS - certainly not as we know it today. It’s a system for sorting out your school full stop. So how are far along are we with this vision? Well, actually you can do everything above today with Pupil Asset. So what’s missing from our goals? You. Don’t you think it’s time to take control of your school?

We’ll be discussing all of this at Bett stand B236. Visit www.pupilasset.com or contact [email protected] / 01603 672100 for more information.