Concordia College, Australia

Concordia College recognises the power of Synergetic and SEQTA together

Connecting siloed school data

Concordia College is an independent school based in South Australia with over 1200 students. Like many schools, it had struggled with several disparate systems where data was siloed, admin workload was high, and the holistic visibility of the school was limited.

Concordia reached out to Education Horizons seven years ago to partner as their EdTech provider to help them:

• raise efficiency
• improve the flow of communications and
• increase visibility of the school’s performance.

Before we partnered with Education Horizons, we had around 16 different systems operating, none of which were natively integrated, and this doesn’t even count the apps staff were using. We needed a single source of truth for our data.

Director of Digital Resources Concordia College

Tony Shillitoe

The solution

Concordia initially selected Synergetic, a leading school management system in Australia, to improve school operational efficiency. The College then implemented SEQTA, the leading teaching and learning system, to enhance community engagement and integrate student wellbeing and learning data.

We initially introduced Synergetic, in the senior school first and then later in the primary school,” explains Tony Shillitoe, Director of Digital Resources. “Synergetic now functions as our single source of truth across the entire college and the system ensures that the data staff members access for their various roles across the college has integrity, is consistent and up-to-date.

Once the college achieved more consistency with its data source, Tony and his team shifted their focus to optimising tools to meet their teaching and learning requirements. For Concordia, the International Baccalaureate (IB) functionality in SEQTA was critical in their decision-making process for a learning management system. SEQTA supports the full IB continuum and enables schools to address its IB standards across PYP, MYP and DP.

The power of SEQTA and Synergetic integrated has led to a greater range of benefits for the college. The two Student Information Systems seamlessly connect, providing improved workflows for teachers, better decision making through powerful analytics for school leaders, integrated wellbeing and learning data for students and full integration of all parent communications and interaction through one app.

Why choose SEQTA and Synergetic?

Tony explains: “We now have a one-stop-shop for the College with the SEQTA and Synergetic integration. We have seen numerous benefits for teachers, school leaders and parents, including:

Reducing Admin Time for Teachers

Teachers no longer need to update data across multiple systems or collate records in one system and transfer it to another, particularly in marking, creating reports or recording pastoral matters. Processes are simplified and in one place. For example, allocating or covering for a relief lesson is no longer a paper-based system, or a last-minute stress for the ill teacher, as anyone can access the teacher’s program to know what is meant to take place. Marking rubrics, programs and units can be collaboratively created and shared, without endlessly replicating them.

School leaders can make data-driven decisions

This simplifies compliance and reporting without manipulating data from discrete systems.

The power of real-time analytics

Teaching practice is informed by accurate and live data that gives teachers deeper insights to understand the whole student experience.

Increasing parent and teacher engagement

Teachers can easily unpack attendance, wellbeing, and academic results for each student and parents can readily access their children’s progress, tasks and results.

Better communication and transparency with parents

Parents can update their child’s information – medial, custodial, financial – with ease through SEQTA Engage and monitor progress on a clear learning path for their child.

Streamlined ways of working across the college

The leadership team can implement a structure that matches how teachers work – breaking old habits and creating consistency.

Watch the full story of Concordia College’s experience

Everything connected with SEQTA and Synergetic

We can see a comprehensive picture of a child with the Synergetic / SEQTA integration, and that is helping the college understand our students better…it’s also giving our teachers a one-stop-shop for digital engagement. We only need to open one portal page and all the links to all the things we need are in that place.

About Concordia College

Concordia College is a leading co-educational Early Learning Centre (ELC) to Year 12 school located in Highgate, Adelaide that specialises in the International Baccalaureate (IB). With a history dating back to 1890, Concordia has a strong reputation as an academic and caring school, encouraging and supporting young people to be successful, independent learners. The vision of Concordia is ‘Inspiring and equipping hearts, hands and minds for a world of possibilities’, which speaks to the holistic nature of education at the college.