why choose matrep?
Because it…
purpose
With matrep, your school can:
- import pupil and staff lists
- arrange pupils into groups
- assign tasks to staff based on group and subject
- track progress towards the reporting deadline
- collate all finished reports into a single document at the press of a
button
- allow parents / guardians to log in and view their child’s
reports
…and your staff can:
- write reports any time, anywhere they have web access
- not have to worry about file formats, backups or software
- write reports throughout the year knowing they won’t lose them
ease of use
- Writing reports is an arduous enough task without having to fight with a
complex IT system created by programmers with little understanding of
usability. We appreciate this and have built the system to allow your staff
to get the job done as easily as possible.
- Every page has been written with clarity as a top priority,
in appearance and in wording.
- Large schools and complex setups do not slow the process down at all:
only the setup stage is more complex. The system can easily cope with schools
well in excess of 1000 pupils; it is limited to 3000 at which point
administration gets unwieldy. We recommend that schools in excess of
around 1500 pupils look for sensible ways to split the job into two
accounts.
- Several time-saving shortcuts are built in:
automatically assign pupils to standard year groups;
pre-fill reports with common text (e.g. for “work covered”);
copy report text between similarly-performing pupils with gender pronoun
and name substitution where applicable;
paste external data such as exam results across multiple tasks.
online
matrep is an online system, which means:
- you don’t need to buy any additional hardware;
- you don’t need to buy or install any new software;
- all you need is an internet connection and a web browser;
- your data is stored on our servers, so no need to worry about backups,
file locations etc;
- all improvements and updates we roll out are immediately available to
you with no action required.
security
Security of data is a priority:
- all connections are
encrypted as securely as online banking;
- most actions are logged to provide traceability and accountability;
- normal staff members are prevented from taking “destructive”
actions like deleting pupils: such actions are limited to
pre-defined admin staff;
- all data is backed-up to an encrypted off-site facility
so even if our data centre gets hit by a rogue asteroid,
we can recover swiftly;
- full back-ups are taken
every two hours:
how does that compare with your current back-up strategy?
- we’re registered
under the Data Protection Act for your peace of mind.
setting up
- When you sign up, the system will make you an admin for your school. This means
you have the ability to set the system up: importing pupil lists and staff lists, choosing
subjects, grouping pupils, creating report formats and assigning tasks to staff members.
During the setup phase, you can elect to allow non-admin staff members to do some of these
actions themselves to share out the job of setting up their responsibilities.
- Configuring your school on the system is as quick and painless as we can make it.
Chances are you have your pupil list — and possibly your staff list — in electronic
form already. The system will let you copy and paste straight from this to import
multiple pupils and staff at once. For simple, one-form-per-year schools, you can be set
up and writing reports in less than 20 minutes.
- Once the setup is complete and the report writing is under way, you can turn the
setup lock on to prevent non-admin staff making destructive changes and losing work.
output
Once written, your reports can be exported in a variety of common document formats:
- Rich Text Format .rtf, compatible with most word processors;
- Adobe PDF .pdf;
- CSV data suitable for mail merge and other data manipulation.
Your exported file is typically ready within a minute, depending on system load and size
of document: you are emailed when the export is ready to download.
pricing
The free trial allows you full use of the system for evaluation, with the only restriction
being that you cannot create more than fifty reports. To lift this restriction, subscribe
for just 10p per pupil per month for the first 200 pupils, 5p/pupil/month above that
for a 12-month contract.
If you pay annually, you get two months free. Example prices:
Pupils | Monthly | Annual |
100 | £10 | £100 |
200 | £20 | £200 |
300 | £25 | £250 |
500 | £35 | £350 |
1000 | £60 | £600 |
support
An internal chat facility is available, allowing staff to raise help requests
within the system. Most problems
will be related to school setup: pupils in the wrong group, missing subjects or tasks etc:
the school admin(s) can fix this themselves.
If the problem or suggestion is not within a school admin’s remit,
matrep support can be included in the conversation
and we will respond as quickly as possible.
Additionally, we actively welcome suggestions for improvements. We’ve deliberately
kept the feature count low to concentrate on the core task of writing reports rather than trying
to impress with loads of flashy eye-candy, but if there’s something you find you really need,
let us know and we’ll see what we can do.
Key feature upgrades are announced via our Twitter page.
Follow us there to keep abreast of new features.
Interested? Try it out completely free…