Success of software systems that track children’s education

The Wakefield-based business has already won a contract with Leeds City Council to supply it with the Virtual Schools Portal (VSP) system, and confirmed it is in talks with numerous other local authorities.

The product aims to help ‘virtual headteachers’”, which are appointed by the local authority to take on responsibility for the education of children it looks after, to track their progress, offer support and intervene if necessary.

Martin Mascarenhas, managing director, said he expects the company, which was formed around 18 months ago, to turn over between £400,000 and £500,000 in the year to November 2012, with a net profit of between £200,000 to £250,000.

He expects to take on four to six people in the next year, building on the firm’s existing eight-strong headcount.

Coun Judith Blake, Leeds City Council executive board member with responsibility for children’s services, explained that in the past, tracking the performance of children in its care has been complicated as they are spread out across a large number of schools, sometimes not even based in Leeds.

She added: “This new software is a really positive step forward that will make tracking children’s performance more efficient and straightforward. It means that wherever they are in school their information can be provided easily and consistently, helping us to better meet our responsibilities in Leeds.”

The VSP system was developed alongside the council.

Schools Opt-In also sells another product, called Omni Progress Tracker (OPT), which is a web-based tracking and reporting system for schools, allowing them to track and assess pupil performance against criteria and targets.

Sales director Andy Bevan founded Schools Opt-In, which was initially a public-private partnership with Carr Manor High School in Leeds.

Mr Bevan explained that OPT was developed in the school and that the intellectual property was bought by Schools Opt-In, with the deal having been completed around the middle of last year. The system had already gone in several schools, but to expand its reach and to take the business to the next level, Mr Bevan started looking for funding and the input of additional directors.

Former colleagues Mr Mascarenhas, Jonathan Mayo and Andrew Phillips came on board and invested in the business. Each of the four directors own a quarter of the company.

Currently, the OPT system is used in secondary schools, such as Leeds West Academy, but Schools Opt-In hopes to expand into primaries at a later stage.

Meanwhile, the firm is focusing on pushing its VSP system, explained Mr Mascarenhas, adding: “We want to drive this forward and get across the country with it.

“We have either been to see or are seeing 40 local authorities.”

He said the response to the product has been “fantastic”.

A marker for progress

LEEDS West Academy uses Schools Opt-In’s OPT system to track and assess pupil performance.

Chris Smith, information leader at Leeds West Academy, said it “enables our teachers and leaders to easily input grades and monitor attainment and track progress of our learners throughout the year.

“The system also facilitates easy printing of colour-coded half-term reports for parents to quickly see their child’s progress on one page”.

The academy’s latest Ofsted report read: “The extremely robust tracking of students’ progress informs self-evaluation and enables very effective and well-targeted interventions to be put in place quickly.”