School Transition Limited, based in Derby, has recently expanded the reach of their Primary to Secondary Transition Portal software to support more than 60 schools in Lincoln.
School Transition was launched in 2020, and so far, the software has been successfully adopted by 85 schools in Derby City, who have used the portal successfully to save their schools many hours of administration time by ensuring schools receive comprehensive information about each student making the transition to the stage of education. It has also been further developed to support pupils transitioning all the way through to Post-16 and into Further Education.
The new software saved schools time on administration, but also benefits pupils as the new school knows much more about each young person and any additional arrangements for students, who may struggle with transition can be put in place much earlier so they are more confident moving on; their welcome experience becomes much more personalised.
The expansion into Lincoln is part of a strategy to roll out the software to primary and secondary schools in other geographic locations.
Vanessa Hopkinson, Lead Practitioner for Leading Teaching at KYRA (Part of Anthem Schools Trust) based in Lincoln, who is part of The Ambition Lincoln Project Team, has supported the implementation of the Primary to Secondary Transition Portal.
Commenting she said, “I heard about the School Transition Portal from an Anthem Trust School based in Derby. I quickly identified that the software would help to support the work of The Ambition Lincoln Project, a cross-sector partnership in Lincoln City, working together to raise aspirations and improve outcomes for children and young people, bringing consistency to the process.”
Working collaboratively, The Ambition Lincoln Project and the School Development Support Agency, were able to source funding for a pilot project for pupils transitioning to secondary schools within The Ambition Lincoln Project Area.
Helen Barker, Head of KYRA Strategy and Anthem Leadership and Professional Development, who is part of The Ambition Lincoln Project Team, added “We are so pleased that our hard work has culminated in being able to secure funding to offer the School Transition Portal to schools in Lincoln. We’re hopeful that the software will transform transition for Lincoln schools just as it has in Derby”.
Andrew Chisholm, is the Director of Professional Development at the Priory Federation of Academies Trust, who is also part of The Ambition Lincoln Project Team, and will have several secondary schools within his Trust using the School Transition Portal.
Commenting he said. “I am really excited about us being among the first schools in Lincolnshire to use this new software. It is definitely revolutionising the entire process and making the transition of pupil information really easy.”
Mark Fryers, from Derby based IT and Telecoms specialists Link ICT Services, is a Director of School Transition. Commenting, he said “When we developed the solution, we wanted to place children, not data, at the centre of the platforms. Our software enables open dialogue between schools to ensure that every child is well known at their destination school. The Transition Portal places the emphasis on filling out information for the pupil, not meeting the varied formats specified by each destination and so creates a centralised system for student movement at transition time.”
School Transition portal includes a fully comprehensive package of services, which includes project management to implement the software, training sessions and technical support. Link ICT Services deploys the system platform and provide ongoing user support services.
Hannah Everett, Project Manager at School Transition, added, “Word is spreading quickly across the education sector that our School Transition Portals have the scope to improve educational outcomes for children and provide time savings to education professionals across the UK. We already have a further two School Transition Portal projects in the pipeline and have received a number of enquiries from other Local Authorities who are interested in improving school transition outcomes. We’re looking forward to what the future holds.”
