School management has been and remains an all-inclusive activity for educational institutions around the world. It entails meticulous monitoring of academic progress (or regress!) of everyone involved, towards consistent learning. Carefully examining resulting data will guarantee the best operations for any educational organization. Efficient and fair management towards students, parents or guardians and staff, altogether, is very important. School management systems, like Thinkwave Lessons, help to that end. But we cannot help but ask the question: “What is a school management system software?”
Defining School Management System Software
A school management system can mean many different things. But if we were to base it on context clues, we can say that it is a software designed for managing schools. But managing schools can mean many things. So, what really is a school management system and what is it for?
A school management software, like Thinkwave Lessons, is a management tool used for educational institutions. This type of software solution is aimed towards helping educational institutions in their day-to-day routines, by automizing administrative tasks. School management systems provide functionality from applications and enrollment to detailed performance monitoring and budgeting.
Administration management usually includes both students and faculty. Some systems even come with a feature designed to help manage daily operations, such as supplies, building maintenance, and inventories. The need for this feature depends mostly on the size of the educational institution.
School Management Software Features
Majority of school management software programs are based off four main pillars. And irrespective of any huge list of features, we can find a basic feature based around these pillars, intended to meet the needs of daily routines for almost all types of educational institutions. This begins with Program Management.
- Program Management and Class Scheduling
In a larger sense, Program Management involves an ‘extended’ feature that includes a set of more specific features that help in organizing curriculum, categorizing courses and classes and establishing their individual characteristics. This is the most basic function of a school management software. It also includes scheduling classes for in-person or virtual meetings.
- Information Management: Student records and admissions
Registering students and assigning them to class groups and enrollment to classes and courses is one of the basic elements of school management software. Eventually, all information collected will be used to keep track of and analyze individual progress until graduation.
- Financial and Assessment Management for Students
This usually includes daily notifications related to classes. But that’s not necessarily the end of it. Not only students but parents and guardians also must have access to important information, such as attendance records, timetables, gradebooks, financials and payments per student, installments, and outstanding payments. This feature includes all the features necessary to provide that information.
- Academic Management
Just like students, the school faculty is also difficult to organize and monitor. With different roles such as teachers, secretaries, supporting staff and administrative assistants, having a school management software can come in handy for efficiently managing all daily academic tasks.
- Financial and Assessment Management for Teachers
This feature includes tracking attendance, financials and payments per teacher, grading, and assessments, payments and outstanding payments.
- Role Management
Different roles require different types of information—at different levels of detail. A school management software like Thinkwave Lessons provides the necessary function, to simplify user experience for everybody involved.
Role Management is mostly a security feature that’s created to allow access only to information is authorized to use or view.
Online parent and student portals are founded on role management. This allows students, parents and their guardians to view available material and be in touch with teachers, coaches, or instructors, as necessary.
Why Employing a School Management Software is a Good Idea
1. Provides an easy, automated structure for any educational institution
There is a need to prepare the structure of classes and courses when starting a new school or academic period. Current teachers, and students, may be included in the structure for this new school or academic period, ready to accept notifications concerning their new schedule. New teachers and students can be included as an ongoing process.
2. Better and More Efficient Accounting
This system allows for basic management of finances, by assigning tuition fees for students and payroll information for teachers, instructors, and coaches.
3. Complete and Well-organized Record Keeping
After creating a new class, course, or department, new or current teachers and students are then added to the structure. Avoiding overbooking teachers or delegating students to more than one class at the same time is one of the most important features in any school management system.
4. Effortless Management of Students and Teachers
Managing teachers and students can be quite puzzling, particularly in academic environments. There is a need to observe or keep an eye on all aspects of their daily routine, and eventually find was to improve them. When all educational activities succeed, everyone (teachers, students, parents, guardians, coaches, and instructors) is happy! This, by itself, is a major retention tool for any educational institution.
5. Seamless Business Continuity
Cloud-based school management systems provide better business continuity because it doesn’t rely on local infrastructure. School records and schedules are managed directly in the cloud and can be accessed anytime, anywhere. This is a structural element and benefit any cloud-based school management system offers, and this comes in quite handy at any situation.
6. It’s Easy to Monitor Performance and Progress
It’s a lot easier to monitor teachers and students in their progress and to help them take measures towards a better success rate with a school management software. Academic organizations and institutions can increase registrations when they improve their track record. For this reason, relevant reporting and notifications can significantly impact actions for improvement.
7. Safe and Simple, in the Cloud
The cloud adds a multi-faceted approach to data security. All essential ISO procedures may be added, to guarantee security.
The Cloud also includes the best practices, controlling the latest security features and compliance with data protection rules, like the GDPR.
The good news is that there’s no need for expensive software, servers, or specialized personnel to make sure everything works as it is supposed to. You only need a simple desktop computer, laptop, and a web browser with internet access. This is how you can manage your educational institution anytime, anywhere.