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Horizon Academy Trust is a medium sized MAT that recognises every school is unique and that it serves its own unique community. They empower students to reach their full potential through the provision of a stimulating, innovative and creative curriculum. As a primary phase MAT, they support students and families from a young age as they believe that primary education underpins the success of a community.
Horizons Chief Finance officer Claire Purdue takes us through how they utilised Bromcom MIS to support their key operations.
As a school trust we found that we had too many systems working independently from one another. For the staff and the leaders, they were having to use several different systems to gain the information they required which was both time consuming and ineffective. The driver for consistency led the trust to look for a holistic solution that would unify the staff and protocols across the trust and by doing so would minimise the expensive and inefficient maintenance of several systems.
There was nothing left to question when Bromcom showcased their system. There was a clear roadmap and it had everything in one place, provided by one provider. The support team ensured the transition was smooth and provided bespoke features for us. The training was remote and Bromcom were able to adapt to our requirements, meeting the timescales we set to ensure all staff were part of the change, and not simply told-to-change.
Bromcom has enabled the schools to digitalise processes to save both money and paper. The recent pandemic has enabled the school to use the cashless option provided by the online payment system, within the integrated parent portal.
The pandemic has also impacted our school attendance. Bromcom were very responsive to the schools needs during this period. A Covid19 Dashboard was created to support staff with their attendance figures and help collate the data needed for the DfE returns.
Another example of how innovative and responsive the Bromcom team have been, can be seen at Trust level. MAT Vision has enabled the centralised team within the trust to quickly and efficiently view figures.
Before we changed to Bromcom, creating a trust-wide report would usually take several days and often not be in a consistent format. By using MAT Vision, we have been able to collate, interpret and analyse
data within a day. It also has a range of fantastic dashboards that have helped the trust visualise and drill down into the data to help understand trends and patterns.
MAT Vision just keeps getting better. Each time there is a new release,the product develops and there is a massive leap forward in technology. I was happy with the original design of the package, but it has surpassed my expectations with brilliant introductions.
The centralisation features have enabled the consistencies across the trust, where we once had a lot of trouble and have never been able to be consistent. I cannot wait to see what is next!
As a trust, we have seen the potential that Bromcom has created and the path they are moving towards. I am looking forward to leaving third party systems behind and moving to an integrated system that can ensure the holistic development of the child, school and Trust.