User:Saijumammen

'Mr Saiju Mammen, software and website guru and all-round techie Desert Star.'

Reports for every student across the whole school need producing? Get Saiju in. Could you update the website? Call Saiju. I need a list of all siblings in the school. Saiju’s your man. How has this student’s performance improved over the past three years? Ask Saiju. The newsletters need uploading onto the website. Saiju will do it. The extra-curricular clubs sign-up register needs setting up. Ok, Saiju? The nursing department requires a new confidential logging system. Oh, Saiju will help you with that. Need a report for the Ministry of Education? Saijuuuuuu!

There is probably no-one in the school who works so quite so closely, quite so often, with quite so many people right across the school.

“I really like working with people from all areas of the school as I’m always learning something new,” says the ever-calm and always-smiling Saiju. “I do work long hours, often into the evening and I take work home with me, but I never get tired. I find that there’s an energy at The British School that keeps us all working hard towards making sure this school keeps getting better all the time.

“My motto in life is ‘Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today’. I just like to get things done, and if that means staying all night or not taking a holiday, then so be it. I suppose you could call me a workaholic.” Born in Kerala, India, Saiju has been living in Abu Dhabi since 2000, and has been at The British School for the past seven years. After graduating in Commerce in Kerala, he went to Chennai with the intention of studying Chartered Accountancy. He soon realised, however, that IT was where his true interest and talent lay, so he quickly changed his course accordingly. “I had been developing software programs since I was at college, and I realised that I was interested in the new. I want everything to be at my fingertips, and believe that you can do everything via IT. I am working towards a completely paperless society. I know it can be done, it just takes a while for us to get used to doing everything online rather than printing stuff out all the time.” After working in IT in Chennai and Kerala for a few years, Saiju moved to Abu Dhabi in 2000 where he joined computer education company APTECH as IT manager responsible for corporate training. The opportunity then arose to join the growing IT team at The British School, so in 2005 he was appointed as software developer. When Saiju first joined the school, he was looking after small areas of the IT system, but with the full support of SMT, he was soon given a free rein to look into how the school could harness IT to manage its increasing amount of information. Saiju was instrumental in setting up the school’s central database, implementing a UK software application called SIMS (School Information Management System). Saiju soon became the SIMS expert at BSAK, establishing the system in the school and tailoring it to our specific requirements. He rolled out the system in phases, starting with the Secondary School reports, then individual student performance tracking, and eventually working with different departments across the whole school. He now works with almost everyone, from the teaching staff to the registrar, the accounts team, the PRO team to the nursing department. Everything is now centralised and integrated with the SIMS system, including details of all students and members of staff, reports, performance records, timetables for each and every student and member of staff, nursing records, the school’s virtual learning platform Fronter and even all the accounting software. “SIMS has become a truly central database and invaluable resource for the whole school,” Saiju enthuses. “For a school of this size, it’s crucial to be able to have all that information at your fingertips and I’m very proud that I’ve been able to play a part in setting up such a state-of-the-art system. People call me SIMS man now!” There’s never a dull moment in Saiju’s job. “Every day is different, and there is always something urgent to be done. I always try and finish the job as soon as I can; I don’t like leaving things undone. At a school, deadlines are immovable – you can’t be late with reports for example, it just can’t happen! “The British School has been so supportive of me and helped me to achieve some of my ambitions over the years,” he adds. “I always wanted to do a Masters in IT and the school enabled me to do that. After two years of evening classes in Abu Dhabi, I gained my Masters in IT from Manipal University in India. “I always like to be a student, learning new things all the time, and the senior leadership team at BSAK has encouraged me to do this. They have very high expectations of staff at the school, and this pays off as people rise to the challenge. I like to feel that I’m constantly developing.” Married to Deepthy, an insurance claims officer at Daman Insurance, Saiju has an eight-year-old daughter Hannah who attends St Joseph’s School; and the new addition to the family is baby Noah who was born in May. “I must thank my wife for being so patient. I’m always working, and even when I’m at home I’m on the computer. My daughter calls me ‘computer man’!” In the rare moments that Saiju takes off work, he loves spending time with his family, and he also likes beautifying their home. “If I wasn’t an IT guy, I’d really like to be an interior decorator,” he reveals unexpectedly. “I love visiting different shops to see what the latest styles are. I’m in charge of all the interior décor at home. I shift things around at least once a month. I like change, it helps you to think if you’re doing things differently all the time. We have a small space at home, but I make it like heaven.”