User:Jenny urey/sandbox

Introduction
TASC Software Solutions is a British Software Company with its head office based within the Science Park,Wolverhampton, West Midlands. TASC specialise in providing bespoke software to Educational organisations including (approx) 1100 Schools and Local Authorities.

TASC is a Premier Partner of Capita SIMS whom who currently have around 80% of Schools Management Information System (MIS) market share.

History
TASC Software was established 1990. 1994 was the beginning of our Premier Partnership with Capita SIMS and from here we developed PARS further into a Pupil Data Management System enabling teachers to easily track and edit pupil attendance, behaviour, grading and personal data along with automated messaging. Senior Management were now able to access pupil data and analyse with bespoke reports aswell as PARS recognising roles within School and automatically alerting them on issues. Pastoral also track, update and analyse data within PARS which also has a fully integrated communications section including SMS text, email, letters and phone logging. As SIMS Premier Partners, PARS data works seamlessly with Schools SIMS database allowing data to write-back into SIMS in real-time.

1995 Recognising Local Authorities need in tracking attendance data within their Authority, ADA was created - an attendance graphical analysis software package again working with SIMS in real-time. ADA brings together authority wide attendance information at pupil, group, school and authority level, saves time and assists strategic decision making on attendance.

1997 With Schools recognising also the need to track their pupil data (and wanting to know exactly what the Local Authority were able to see!) TARGET was next developed. TARGET gave Schools the 'bigger picture' about their attendance in a visual and graphical view finding potential issues or the potential future truant

An electronic format to collate Child Protection information on a secure system was high on the agenda for Local Authorities. SENTINEL was developed in 1999. SENTINEL ensures that all incidents and related information is stored in one central LA child protection database and effectively accessed, co-ordinated, managed and properly secured. This software also helps to identify training needs and develop training strategies.

2006 Working in line with current technologies, PARS. sql was replaced by PARS.NET

2009 The enhanced PARS; PARS Connect, enabled teachers to remotely access pupil data with a graphical user interface compatible within laptop, Touch screen technology - Pad or phone, Windows and Mac. This was and still is a cost effective way of Schools to access their SIMS data from anywhere with Internet Access 2008 was the announcement by Jim Knight, Minister of State for Schools and learners "I announce that, from September 2008, all maintained Schools will be expected to start the move towards online reporting with all primary schools meeting the requirement by September 2012". Here began the recommendations lead by BETA for Parental Enagagement Software and the Introduction to INSIGHT. We already had a software option developed recognising the need for parents to access data from home so we built upon this to conform to Government recommendations and also taking into consideration childs welfare with permission levelled hosted software. INSIGHT was quickly recognised by many Schools and Local Authorities as an easy, quick and cost effective solution for Parents and Guardians to access SIMS or PARS data online with some Local Authorities recommending INSIGHT as their preferred solution.

2011 SMYLE was created - Supporting learning by understanding pupils experiences. As part of the new Ofsted inspection framework, the main focus of inspection is to establish that the pace and depth of learning are maximised as a result of teachers’ monitoring of learning. Formative assessment encourages you to take regular readings about a student’s achievements, understanding, enjoyment and challenge levels. It is this detailed regular feedback that lets you know how your lessons are being received by everyone individually. SMyLE is a software based methodology that allows students to feedback their understanding, challenge level or other key indicators in a quantifiable and structured way.

2012 TASC Software Solutions still continue to grow creating and developing software and plan to be here for many more years to come

Partners
TASC create and develop applications for various partners including Nationwide Retail Systems allowing pupils to login to School - including lessons using Biometrics - finger print recognition. This is particular effective in Sixth Form Establishments. Another partner being 4Matrix software http://www.4matrix.org/ - an assessment analysis tool also comparing your Schools acheivements with national statistics

Editorials & Recognitions
| ICT - A key to parental engagement to look on learning

''Taking a different route is Michael Cousins, assistant head at Sacred Heart High School in Newcastle. He has responsibility for raising achievement and also oversees the school’s use of Tasc Software’s Insight, and he makes a direct link between the two responsibilties: “The single biggest thing that has an effect on whether students do well is parental support. We do a fantastic job here, but we can only do so much if parents aren’t backing us.”''

''Easington parents: 'absolutely fantastic' It’s evident that one of the killer features of Insight is ease of use. Here’s Samantha Smith, mum to three children in Sturminster Newton High School: “I’m no good at reading instructions. I like to be able to work through something and I found I could do that with the Insight system. The school does provide an idiot’s guide but I’ve never read it. I learned it by playing with it.”'' ''Among authorities that are taking up Insight for all their schools is Warwickshire. The county is currently rolling it out to provide parental access to SIMS data alongside its RM Kaleidos learning platforms with the same single sign-in.''

''There’s no doubt that parents do want to support their children in school. At Capita’s annual SIMS Conference this year, Easington Colliery Primary School head Harry Weightman, getting started with Capita’s SIMS Learning Gateway, introduced some very attractive parent videos. One beaming dad, speaking about how pleased he is to be seeing information on his daughter, uses the phrase “Absolutely fantastic” three times in a 90-second clip''