In iTRACK, you have the ability to add an extra column on your data entry page, to use for any purpose you require. We call this the 'free form' column, as it is customisable by each school. This has to be enabled by your Education Consultant or our support team, so if you would like this functionality, please do not hesitate to get in touch. All the information below is only relevant once we have initially turned this on.
Once enabled, you can then define what you need it for, in the school settings, by entering text in the box as shown below, then pressing save changes. Make sure to select the 'KS1-KS3' tab when editing this column name (we will use 'effort' as the example here):
Please note: you can have a separate column with separate titles/usages in EYFS and KS1-3, by clicking the 'Foundation' tab on the school settings and repeating the process.
How to use the column?
On the 'Enter Pupil Results' page (in the 'Data Entry' section of the 'KS1-3' tab), regardless of how your subjects are structured and what components you have enabled/disabled, you will see an additional column with the title you entered in the settings. This will accept any form of data, including numbers, letters and words/phrases:
Please note: best practice would be to adopt a standardised approach, so the data remains consistent when we come to analyse it. For the effort example we are using: '1/2/3/4', 'A/B/C/D' or 'poor / unsatisfactory / satisfactory / good' etc.
Why use the column?
Popular usages consist of effort grades, attitude to learning (AtL), school values, amongst many others. However in iTRACK, the benefits are two-fold:
1) Auto-Populated on Termly/EoY Reports
Available for both compact termly and full EoY reports in the 'report writer preferences', you can choose the option to include your 'free form' data. This will then automatically pull the information through onto your reports, and is particularly useful if you want to give additional, subject-specific information. For example, a separate effort grade for each of the core subjects.
2) Analysis
You will also be able to find some analysis of this information, regardless of what you use it for. It will display as 'Your Title' Analysis under the 'Cohort Analysis' sub-heading in the 'KS1-3' section of the left-hand menu (depending what your school settings are), in the case below - 'Effort Analysis':
- Select the year group
- Select assessment year, which is the year's worth of data you wish to view
- Select the subject
- Select whether or not to include leavers
- Press go
You will now see the data itself in the top 'effort analysis' table for every pupil in the cohort over the course of the year. Underneath in the 'effort stats' table you will get percentages which will also calculate for each assessment point.
Regardless of the data you enter, whether it's numeric (1/2/3), alphabetic (A/B/C), or words/phrases as shown in the example, iTRACK will calculate what percentage of pupils are working at each of them 'effort stats' table below.