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See also...
Lots of data
Lots of text to analyse.
- How can you find all the incidents involving rock throwing in the school?
- How many time outs were the response to incidents
- ...
- How can you make sense of hundreds of incidents, resolutions, alerts and support actions?
It is a lot easier if the text is well ordered. And there are two possibilities
- You can use the search buttons in the Main Tools are
- You can use the statistical reports in the Reports section
Consistent terminology
The key thing is to be clever and consistent in the way you record your data. This begins with terminology: 'Threw' and 'throwing' are different bits of text just as 'rocks' and 'stones' are different bits of text.
Be aware and work through this issue with other users to achieve consistency.
Using clever slash coding creatively
Some schools are using 'slash codes' to record, categorise or summarise actions, concerns and resolutions. This makes
- data easier to enter
- easier to read
- easier to search and analyse
- for a finer grain of detail for informed users
- data more 'objective'
Example Codes
- Actions
- R/ might mean includes the preparation of a report
- HV/ might mean home visit
- ph/ might mean a phone call
- C/ might mean counselling
- ...
- Positive Support Plan actions
- Begin with +
- RE/ = how responses will be managed
- ED/ = things to be taught
- EN/ = environmental adjustments
- Concerns
- H/ might mean harassment
- B/ might mean bullying
- T/ might mean threatening behaviour
- L/ might mean offensive language
- ...
Also see examples at
- Resolutions,
- RC/ might mean a Red Card
- TO/ could be used to record a 'time-out ' as part of the resolution
- Alerts,
- NC/Dad could be used to record ' No Contact to be made with Father...
- Similarly RO/ might be used to record the existence of a Restraining Order
- Time and place
- First character is location , eg, C means in Class; B might mean Bus
- Second character is a colon - this is used to recognize time and place data
- Third character is a time period, eg, R might mean Recess
- Example below: the incident took place in class (C) in the third time period (3)
Consider the following record of an incident
This record might represent the following situation:
"The student was involved in serious conflict in the classroom in third period on Tuesday 24 May last (also identifies teacher) during which the student continued to used offensive language (L/) and acted in a threatening fashion (T/) over an extended period of time. This was offensive to the staff member (OS) and caused the teacher to be concerned for her/his safety (H/) . The matter was dealt with by the AP and involved the protocols associated with being 'red carded' (inc letter to parents) as well as time out for three lunch hours."
There are reports that will list details or provide statistics (by year and gender) based on the existence of '/" in the record, that is, searching for 'L/' would return all a report showing the number of incidents involving offensive language in each year group by gender.
The added advantage is that such coding can be combined in many different ways.
