Siena College

Siena College, a Roman Catholic secondary school for girls, offers a range of extracurricular activities, including sports, music, and performing arts. Prior to implementing Clipboard, the school faced various challenges in managing attendance, communication, and administration within its sports program. This case study explores how Clipboard’s Extracurricular Management System, helped Siena College overcome these obstacles, improve efficiency, and enhance student engagement.

James Houghton, Head of Sport, spoke about their experience with Clipboard. 

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Challenges Before Implementing Clipboard:

Before adopting Clipboard, Siena College relied on manual processes, such as hard-copy spreadsheets, to record attendance for sports activities. This method proved time-consuming and prone to errors, “it was quite hard to manage exactly what everyone was doing in terms of the students and the coaches and who turned up, who was injured, and who was unavailable.”

Coordinating with coaches and students through email and Schoolbox, the school's primary communication platform, further complicated the process.

‍“It was quite a demanding position to be in, to put the man-hours in to try and track everything. There were so many different areas of tracking that we had to do. And so many different platforms I think was probably where we struggled the most.”

Tracking student participation, injuries, and availability across different sports and coaches became a demanding task, requiring significant manpower.

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Impact of Clipboard's Extracurricular Management System:

The implementation of Clipboard offered a streamlined solution to Siena College's sports administration. The software's ease of use and simplicity allowed staff, including those with limited technical proficiency, to adapt quickly.

‍“It just is a really easy-to-use program… We’ve got a lot of staff who, for lack of a better word, are perhaps not overly comfortable with computers and software and all that sort of stuff. And they just found it really handy, really easy to use, and really simple.”

Clipboard facilitated efficient attendance tracking, particularly for non-compulsory sports, by notifying administrators about students who missed consecutive sessions. This feature encouraged accountability and provided insights into students' circumstances, enabling the school to identify and support at-risk students. “In some cases, we've actually managed to find out a little bit more about what's going on in that student's life, which has been good. So it has helped to locate those at-risk students.”

Additionally, Clipboard's automation and notification capabilities significantly reduced the administrative burden associated with running a sports program, resulting in time and cost savings for the school.

‍“Financially, at every school, it's a significant cost to run a sports program, and different schools are different sizes, but anything you can do to reduce the time in the administration area is going to help and save money and sell it for us.” 

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How much time has Clipboard saved?

Utilising Clipboard has substantially reduced Siena College’s daily administrative workload, allowing him to save several hours each day. The extra time gained has been instrumental in increasing availability for student engagement. “I think for me personally, as the Head of Sports, it saves an enormous amount of time at least a few hours every day. Because we save time, we can actually spend more time with the students.”

In cases where a student misses a training session, the school now has the opportunity to proactively reach out to them, initiate discussions, and gain insights into the reasons behind their absence. By eliminating the cumbersome paperwork, Clipboard has revolutionised its approach, enabling them to allocate more time to address any underlying issues that may impact its students. This transformation has undoubtedly enhanced their overall operations and yielded notable benefits.

“Normally you’re buried under a bit of paperwork and you don't have that time. So it's completely changed the way we do things here, and we're definitely better for it.”

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Integration with Schoolbox

In terms of their learning and teaching program, Siena College utilises Schoolbox as their primary platform. It serves as a comprehensive hub for their students, encompassing various aspects of their academic journey. Recognising the need to incorporate sports within this system, Siena College established dedicated sections for sports. 

One of the significant enhancements achieved was the seamless integration of Clipboard's calendar feature into the Schoolbox calendar, directly benefiting the students. This integration eliminates the need for an intermediary, such as the Director of Operations, who previously had to manually enter fixtures into the school calendars. 

“Being able to link the calendar from Clipboard automatically into the Schoolbox calendar for the students directly has been massive. It actually cuts out the middleman for us. ”

With Clipboard, any changes to fixtures can now be easily made within the sports department, resulting in instant updates on the students' calendars. Students are consistently reminded to refer to their calendars for the latest information. This direct accessibility empowers the sports department to make necessary updates without the need for email or phone communication with the Director of Operations, streamlining the process and enabling greater autonomy.

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