What was the biggest challenge before you used Orah at your school?
Accounting for pupils whereabouts at times outside of structured lessons. As a boarding school operating 24/7 it is important we can account for the location of our pupils particularly when not in their boarding house.
What was the process of getting started with Orah like?
One of my goals has been to make our environment paperless so when I met the Orah team at the BSA Deputy Heads Conference in Brighton I was straight away intrigued. We looked at other solutions but the simplicity of this product really appealed.
What has the success/support team at Orah been like to work with?
In short it is excellent, very responsive and knowledgeable. We have a regular point of contact who has an excellent understanding of the product and is able to translate this into very effective solutions for us.
What was it like to get the rest of your team up and running with Orah?
Very straight forward we scaled the administration to a few key members of the support department and gave Housemasters control over their own house accounts.The level of synchronisation with our MIS means there is very little support needed.
What has allowed you to be so successful with Orah?
From the outset we have worked closely as a team combining both pastoral and technical elements of the school. Having a pilot project with key pastoral staff also helped make sure any changes of use where clearly understood before scaling to the whole school.
Has there been a particular Orah feature that has helped you the most?
Checkpoint kiosk has allowed us to give each house a really effective way to manage the signing in and out of the house members. The system looks very professional and sets the right tone to all stakeholders, in particular parents when they visit the houses.
What would you say to other schools looking to implement Orah at their school?
Plan well! Bring together both pastoral and technical teams and focus on a series of short term steps to get you to a longer term objective.
What made you choose Orah over the other options out there?
Reviewing the other options led us clearly to Orah, it has proved to be the correct decision.
