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SMARTcurriculum® Update Issue 16 – Summer 1 2022

Dear SMART​curriculum® User

In this issue:

  • MIS integration for automatic data updates
  • End of an era
  • Awards news
  • Online Curriculum Efficiency course published by Anspear
  • CST Annual Conference
  • Webinars and videos for this term

Uploading and Downloading: What It Means

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MIS integration for automatic data updates

Firstly, a very big thank you to you all for feeding back to us on the variety of MIS or other systems you use to store curriculum, staffing and finance data. This has been key to our product development planning. 

We have been listening to clients’ concerns about updating staffing lists. The way to resolve this is through drawing data from MIS systems by using an API system (application programming interface). We are actively working to develop this with a leading API provider that you will be familiar with from their work with other EdTech software services. We are working towards having automated integration available in the SMART​curriculum® Analytics App for the next academic year and will keep you posted. Meanwhile don’t forget we already have the capacity to receive CSV files extracted from whatever system you use to upload and update data in the SMART​curriculum® Analytics platform. 

To give you a little context as to why automated data extraction and import takes careful planning and a little time… One of the challenges of the MAT environment and the evolution of school MIS systems is that previously dominant providers are losing schools. API providers have been used to dealing with the leading MIS systems, but schools are not storing the data that we use in their MIS systems consistently. So the landscape of data handling in schools is changing and we need to see a shift in automatic data access to some of the other proprietary software providers where HR and personnel data is held. We look forward to delivering our solution to you in the Autumn term.

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End of an era – new company branding

At the end of this academic year we will be saying goodbye to the CJ Learning Ltd name. We are rebranding the company to SMARTcurriculum Ltd. This is quite a significant change for us as the company has traded as CJL since 2010, but all good things change and grow and this is the time to move the business on to new horizons.

This means that the new annual licences for SMART​curriculum® Analytics will transfer to this new company name rather than through CJ Learning Technologies Ltd. We are making things simpler and easier to coordinate for you our customers (and for us too!) 

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Awards News

Earlier in the month, Directors Chris and Di Jones enjoyed attending the Educational Resources Awards 2022 in Birmingham. The SMART​curriculum® App was a finalist in the category ‘Best Tool for Leadership, Management or Assessment’.  We were not winners this year, with Leadership Matters taking the trophy, but we were delighted to be in a very small group of finalists recognised for making an impact in this area and received some very positive feedback.

We were also extremely proud to receive nominations in two of the upcoming Digital Leaders 100 Awards categories: Digital Leader of the Year and Digital SME of the Year! We look forward to meeting other nominees and hearing the results on 26th May.

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Online Curriculum Efficiency course published by Anspear

Chris is very pleased to have had his Curriculum Efficiency programme published in the Leadership section of the Nimbl online CPD Library, published by Anspear. You can see a course preview here: https://www.anspear.com/webpreview/curric_efficiency/ and the full CPD library here: https://www.anspear.com/cpd-library/. 

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CST Annual Conference

We are exhibiting at the Confederation of School Trusts Annual Conference on Thursday 16th and Friday 17th June. If you are attending, do come and say hello! We will be on Stand 30 and look forward to seeing you. 

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Training webinars this term

If you haven’t already booked your place for this May and June’s SMARTcurriculum Live user webinars, all sessions are bookable on Eventbrite – please just select the relevant date(s):
 
Friday 27th May 2022, 2-2.30pm
SMARTcurriculum® for Provision Mapping
Particularly suitable for SEN Strategic Leads and Curriculum Deputies, but very much open to all. Using the SMARTcurriculum® App to measure and maintain support staff activities alongside taught curriculum planning.
 
Friday June 24th 2022, 2-2.30pm
SMARTcurriculum® Modelling for Future Impact
Particularly suitable for Curriculum Leaders, but very much open to all. Explore how the SMARTcurriculum App supports Curriculum Modelling for your next phase. This tutorial will support your forward planning for next academic year. We will consider the agile curriculum model, adapting for pupil roll changes and how to manage a restructure of the curriculum where necessary. This includes, for many, a reconsideration of the cycle design and lesson length – and its impact on your current staff profile
 
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Useful videos for the Summer Term

We recommend some videos from our growing bank of webinars for this term.
  1. [SMARTcurriculum] for agile staff modelling link here. Coming up to the resignation deadline at the end of May, many school leaders will be looking to see how to take opportunities with staff applying, do they fit, can we afford them, and how will this change our modelling?
  2. [SMARTcurriculum] for curriculum modelling link here. Thinking ahead to next year, you will need to get your licence sorted for next year but we can start to model your thoughts for change and the implications for the new cohorts in 12 months’ time.
  3. Reporting and feedback functions link here. There are many ways to see and articulate the information held within SMART​curriculum®. Reporting to and developing understanding with governors and trustees through strategic questions in the written reports, comparing the progress you are making and the impact of changes through the compare analyses function as well as the many charts and tables that give you visual reports of your modelling.
  4.  Clients have been very kind to allow us to record interviews over the past year talking about their experience with SMART​curriculum® Analytics. Paul Mundy-Castle and Andrew Fell
  5. If you haven’t seen it already Chris Jones talking to the EdTech show Check it out!

Kind regards
Nicky
 
Nicky McGregor, Business Manager on behalf of Chris  Jones, CEO and the SMART​curriculum® team
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Get involved

If you have any other ideas or priorities for development please let us know. We are keen to, and do, respond to requests and ideas. 

We also have a Developers Group who help us to drive forward functions and new ideas.

To feedback ideas or if you would like to join our SMART​curriculum® Developers Group to drive innovations that support you best, please let us know on info@smartcurriculum.net.