Schools weekly newsletter
Friday 30 January 2015
Contents

Updates from DfE

The Big Spring Clean: 27–29 March

Integris G2 update from MIS

Guildhall Orchestra Valentine’s Day concert
Updates from DfE
DfE has recently updated two key documents that are important for schools, which you can
download from the links below:

National standards of excellence for headteachers: departmental advice for headteachers,
governing boards and aspiring headteachers
www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-standards-of-excellence-for-headteachers

Schools causing concern: statutory guidance for local authorities
www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-causing-concern--2
Maxine Squire / maxine.squire@york.gov.uk / 01904 553007
The Big Spring Clean: 27–29 March
Schools are being invited to get involved with the Big Spring Clean weekend, 27–29 March. This
is part of the Smarter York initiative which is a council wide campaign of activities to instil a
sense of civic pride in the cleanliness of our city. The main focus of the weekend will be an invite
to communities to clear up their own local areas themselves. This could include:

CYC making black bags etc available for volunteers to use

Inviting people to leave filled black bags in a particular location and we will collect them on
the Monday

An invitation to schools to tidy up their environs on the Friday afternoon (it will be the last
day of term)

Inviting businesses to clear up outside their premises

Inviting parish councils to contribute an initiative.
We would really like as many schools as possible to get involved and there will be opportunities
to publicise the work of individual schools in The Press.
Maxine Squire / maxine.squire@york.gov.uk / 01904 553007
Integris G2 update from MIS
The Integris G2 Management Information System LA 3-year pricing agreement has now expired.
We have re-negotiated a new 3-year pricing agreement with the supplier, RM Education. There
has been a modest price increase from the previous 3-year agreement, but the prices remain
significantly below the commercial rates.
As a local authority we are not in a position to accept the pricing structure for Integris on behalf
of schools. You will shortly be receiving a letter outlining the proposed costs and we will ask you
to either opt in for 1, 2 or 3 years. You will also have the option to opt out of the agreement. To
ensure that we comply with new European procurement legislation, each school will be invoiced
directly by RM instead of the previous arrangement where the LA invoiced on RM’s behalf. We
will discuss the logistics of this new arrangement with RM and let you know the detail in due
course.
For schools to adhere to their requirement for compliance with the national statutory
requirements placed on schools around data collection, data management and statutory returns
it is advisable for a school to have an MI system that is able to:

produce the statutory termly census file

export compatible Common Transfer Files

record electronic attendance

record exclusion information.
We have briefly surveyed the market and Integris G2 still emerges as the most economical and
value for money product. In addition to the statutory functionality Integris G2 performs, its
range of in-built modules allows a school to reduce the manual administrative burden. It is
hosted remotely, which ensures that regular secure back ups are generated and upgrades are
undertaken without any loss of functionality within the school.
Hannah McNamee / schoolmis@york.gov.uk / 01904 554580
Guildhall Orchestra Valentine’s Day concert
York Arts Education is giving away 50 tickets to schools to enable children to attend the exciting
Guildhall Orchestra Valentine’s Day concert on 14 February 2015 at the Barbican: see
www.yorkguildhallorchestra.com/html/concert_season.html.
If you would like to take a group from your school, please let me know as soon as possible.
Ted Schofield / ted.schofield@york.gov.uk / 01904 554275