IRIS Central is the name of the new cloud-based tool from IRIS that is designed to help improve the running and efficiency of UK schools within multi-academy trusts.
It is hoped that the tool will help to supercharge critical in-the-moment decision making and reduce admin burdens amid more demanding Ofsted reporting.
IRIS Central will give trusts access to powerful, up-to-date analytics, enabling trust leaders to make better decisions for the good of students, staff, individual schools, and the trust as a whole.
Real-time dashboards allow trends to be spotted more easily, so trusts can understand where they are seeing success and replicate this in other areas across the group. Or conversely, where there is a problem, to make interventions early on.
There are currently 1,170 multi-academy trusts in England that manage at least two schools. Most (78%) of trusts plan to grow in the next 12 months and all schools in England are aiming for academy trust status by 2030. However, the majority of education leaders have to manually organise data to create meaningful insights, taking critical time away from what matters most – improving the life chances of students.
This issue is heightened during critical Ofsted reporting, which 74% of teachers believe is associated with a huge amount of unnecessary extra work.
IRIS Central supports trusts in moving their focus and time away from the arduous collecting and organising of data, to using it to make critical decisions, so they can drive impactful change as they embark on their growth journey. With easy to access and near real-time intelligence, IRIS Central presents an opportunity to fundamentally change the way Trusts are managed as businesses.
David Houghton, chief operating officer at Kernow Learning, said: “As a trust leader, we receive countless reporting requests that can take weeks to create; and this is precious time we don’t have. IRIS Central gives us an efficient system that centralises reporting, bringing together all the data in one place and presenting the information as one, comprehensive set of data.
“Critically, this cuts the time spend on administrative work and reduces the margin of error – maximising output and minimising the energy put in. IRIS Central is an exciting, robust solution that is revolutionising our central Trust databases. It ensures our leaders are empowered to spend more time on creating a better experience for our pupils.”
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