At Compass, we understand how stressful examination periods can be, not only for the candidates sitting exams, but also for the Exams officers and senior leadership staff who organise and supervise them. The impact of exam stress is not limited to students alone; it affects the well-being of teachers as well. In fact, studies conducted in the UK indicate that during exam periods, 45% of teachers reported experiencing high levels of stress (according to a survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, ATL).With this in mind, we’ve designed our exams module to make exam time much simpler.

So if innovation is not exactly gushing forth from SIMS, where do we look for it? Well, I took on an advisory role at Compass, the Australian HQ-ed MIS, two years ago precisely because I was keen to see more new thinking in this space. And now that their first English schools have gone live it seems like a great time to catch up with UK General Manager Pete Collison to find out more about the identity they’re carving out for themselves. Here’s a rundown of our conversation.

Here at Compass, we are delighted to launch our brand new, integrated data visualisation tool for schools: Pulse. We know as schools you are swamped with unproductive tasks that burn through your precious time, with endless reports, exports, OfSted documentation writing impact statements and reporting back in Local authority meetings. So we got to work making sure the data you collect already can be easily repurposed and transformed into intuitive reports and data visualisations (graphs, pie charts etc.) for all your needs, and no additional workload.