Which is all very well until the DfCSF brings out a new initiative, such as Community Cohesion, which was announced in July this year. Suddenly the school’s selfevaluation programme has to expand yet again.
What schools have to remember is that the Department is also insisting that schools start looking at where improvements in efficiency can be made. In terms of inspections this must mean using software that controls the process of selfinspection and monitors exactly how departments are performing and how up-to-date policies and other key information are at the moment of interrogation. Such a system saves on time and photocopying and thus is infinitely more efficient.
It was this drive towards efficiency in the midst of continual new initiatives that caused Reigate School to search for a new solution. The result was Ariadne, developed by Softorque, which gives senior managers a clear view of the status of all the school’s policies, departmental monitoring and staff performance while at the same time indicating which documents are missing, which are out-of-date, and so on.
The Ariadne system is now installed in around 100 schools in England. When the inspectors start to interrogate managers regarding the system the school has in place for monitoring and self-evaluation, the answers can be given immediately. No one has to stop working, nothing has to be printed. All the information is available at the press of a key.
Tel:01883 331138
e-mail ariadne@softorque.com
