Key Features of Sleuth - The Behaviour Tracking System
Access from anywhere over the internet
Personalised to a Member of Staff's Role and Responsibilities
Supports a Consistent Whole School Approach to Managing Behaviour
Automatic Update from your MIS - No Duplication of Data Entry
Customisable to Your Behaviour Policy
Student Groups - Create your own tracking group
Sleuth has a long track record of contributing to improvements in behaviour management in hundreds of schools. It is designed, written and supported by a team of people each with at least 10 years of experience in their particular field of education, behaviour management or information technology.
Sleuth is the original and most widely used behaviour tracking system in the UK, used by tens of thousands of school staff: teachers, managers and administrators. For schools who take behaviour management seriously it has been proven to make significant contributions to their ability to respond effectively to behaviour issues.
Since its first release in 2001, Sleuth has evolved as a result of working with and listening to staff in school who use Sleuth everyday. It has always been a dedicated behaviour tracking system, not an after-thought or add-on module for a school administration system (MIS), it is designed specifically for the purpose of tracking behaviour in order to improve your management of it.
The School Software Company will support your implementation of Sleuth from day one, calling on experience gained from hundreds of schools: primary, secondary, mainstream and special. We can review your policy, assist in setting-up Sleuth accordingly and provide Sleuth training and/or behaviour management training to help you get the most out of tracking behaviour. We will then continue to work with you and provide advice on-site, by telephone, email and through the website.
Access from anywhere over the internet
The latest release of Sleuth is online. It is accessible from any PC with a browser and an internet connection.
Tracking behaviour online with Sleuth has many benefits:
- No Installation - You do not need IT staff to install any software
- No Maintenance - We backup and manage your data, new features are added automatically
- Access for ALL - All staff have access to Sleuth from anywhere with an internet connection
- Parental Access - Parents can login and view real-time behaviour data for student(s) in their care
- Implement Today - We can get you up and running in minutes
- Ease of Use - Sleuth is an electronic version of a referral-form making it simple for staff to use and understand
Sleuth is designed based on the feedback and contributions from the hundreds of schools that use it. It has evolved into the most popular behaviour tracking system in the country as a result of us listening to staff in schools who are dealing with behaviour management issues daily.
Ease-of-use is obviously subjective and depends on the individual user, but with Sleuth we are confident that anyone can use it without going on a training course.
For a school to be really effective at managing behaviour all staff need to be up to date with behaviour issues. That means all staff should be able to view behaviour data relevant to their role in school, preferably daily, so it must be simple and quick to do so.
Sleuth users do not have to design reports, they are all an integral part of the product. We know what you need to report so you don't have to go looking for it. You can take our reports, filter the data to report on just your target group(s) and save this as your own MyReport to be re-run in seconds as soon as you log on.
Staff can login to Sleuth and with one-click of the mouse view exactly the data they are interested in, presented the way they want. For example, it takes one click on the Sleuth Home Page for the Head of Year 7 to see all the year 7 students involved in negative behaviour today showing the behaviour, staff member reporting, subject, period, and all action taken and by whom. It couldn't be easier. With another click you can see the progress of all your referrals to SMT.
Personalised to each staff member's role and responsibilities
Everyone that logs into Sleuth is presented with their own home page listing their MySearch and MyReports: these are links that present exactly the information you need to perform your role.
See the information you want instantly each time you login:
- MySearch - a shortcut that runs an incident search that you have previously created and saved. Click a MySearch and Sleuth displays all the incidents that meet your search criteria so you can view and/or follow-up individual students’ involvement.
- MyReport - an incident search that displays the search results in a particular report format - for example Today's Negative Incidents for my Tutor Group (as a text report), This Week's Incidents by Behaviour (as a bar chart), This Term's Incidents by Date for Year 7 (as a line graph)
- MyDefaults - all incident data entry fields can be defaulted to a user's role and preference, e.g. staff reporting, subject, location, class layout, etc.
Supports a Consistent Whole School Approach to Managing Behaviour
Reports and searches can be set-up and provided to colleagues (these are called SharedSearches and SharedReports) so each member of staff has access to the relevant data they need for their role. This keeps everyone up-to-date with current behaviour issues promoting a consistent and appropriate response to behaviour.
SharedSearches can be used for new staff, to provide them with the means to review the behaviour of students in their teaching groups and for faculty colleagues to monitor faculty referrals, detentions or rewards. SharedReports can also be used for review meetings so all staff involved have access to the same up-to-date data that will be discussed. SharedSearches and SharedReports are simple to run for any user, even those with no experience of using Sleuth, just click the link on the Home page to run the search and display the results.
See the information you need instantly each time you login:
- SharedSearch - A SharedSearch is set-up for you by a colleague to display incident results of interest to you in your role. A SharedSearch appears on your Home page and is run with a single mouse-click.
- SharedReport - A SharedReport is set-up for you by a colleague to present incident results in a report format relevant to your role. A SharedReport appears on your Home page and is run with a single mouse-click.
- System Defaults - most incident data entry fields can be defaulted to a school-wide value to force all users to enter a value or allow them to ignore it.
Sleuth records your incident observations in detail so that you can analyse behaviour in detail. Effective behaviour tracking requires detailed observations in order to identify the triggers for behaviour so that you can recognise them and intervene.
Sleuth also records all interventions (actions) used, not just the final outcome, so as well as having a detailed record of what a student did, you also have a detailed record of what staff did as a result of the behaviour. This is critical to being able to evaluate policy and make sure the staff responses to behaviour in practice are consistent with policy.
At the minimum you should be recording observations that include:
- Incident Date/Time
- Lesson period
- Timing within lesson (e.g. beginning or middle)
- Lesson subject
- Lesson style/activity (e.g. text-based or physical)
- Classroom Seating Plan
- Interaction between pupils (e.g. group work or pairs)
- Staff member reporting the incident and if they were covering a colleague
- Location - where the incident happened
- Name of each student involved (most incidents involve more than one student)
- Behaviour(s) of each student involved (these may be different, e.g. bullying and victim of bullying)
- Comments about what may have led up to the incident/behaviour (may be different for each student)
- The initial action taken by the reporting member of staff for each student
- All (follow-up) actions taken for each student - date, staff involved, comments, copies of letters
All of these things can have an impact on behaviour and recording in this detail provides an opportunity to understand the underlying causes of behaviour and focus on finding solutions. Only Sleuth gives you the choice to record all of them (and more) and then proactively manage their impact on behaviour.
Obviously, it's not what you have, but how you use it that will ultimately make a difference to teaching and learning so Sleuth allows you to decide what should be recorded, the level of detail required and even allows you to decide who should record certain details, perhaps based on their role and responsibilities. For example, when recording an incident, if it is essential for you to know the style of lesson delivery Sleuth gives you the control to ensure staff enter this information. If this is not information you will act upon staff don't need to enter it.
Sleuth gives you complete control so you can record exactly what you need to make a difference.
As well as detailed recording, a major strength of Sleuth has always been the ability to analyse behaviour in detail. Analysing in detail means you can identify the causes of behaviour and plan effective solutions. The incident search in Sleuth allows you to analyse behaviour using any combination of the incident input fields, student details and staff details.
Analyse behaviour based on any one or any combination of the information in the left column below and report the results (as a bar chart, pie chart, line graph or text report) by any of the criteria on the right:
Search on any one of, or a combination of:
- Date/weekday/time incident occurred (and range of dates)
- Date/day/date incident entered (and range of dates)
- Student name
- Minimum number of incidents involving a student
- Student ethnicity
- Student gender
- Student statement of SEN
- Students on-roll or off-roll
- Year group*
- Tutor group*
- House group*
- Student group*
- Negative or Positive behaviour
- Behaviour group
- Behaviour type*
- Action taken*
- Action group
- Date/weekday of action (and range of dates)
- Date/weekday action takes place (and range of dates)
- Staff reporting (the incident)
- Staff ethnicity
- Staff gender
- Covering? (if covering a colleague's lesson)
- TA Present? (if a teaching assistant was present)
- Staff member actioning (this action, this student)
- Staff member referred to (alert or for further action
- Further action is required (this student)
- Subject*
- Lesson period*
- Timing (beginning/middle/end of lesson)
- Location (where incident took place)
- Learning style (in lesson)
- Pupil Interaction (in lesson)
- Classroom layout
* multi-select available, e.g. for Year group, multi-select years 7, 8 and 9 to report on all KS3 students
Report, presenting results by:
- by Period
- by Location
- by Staff Member (Reporting)
- by Subject
- by Learning Style
- by Subject
- by Interaction
- by Seating
- by Timing
- by Date (Incident Occurred)
- by Day of the Week
- by Week
- by Month
- by Student Name
- by Behaviour Type
- by Year Group
- by Tutor Group
- by House Group
- by Student Group
- by Ethnicity
- by Gender
- by Action Taken
- Behaviour Points by Year Group
- Behaviour Points by Tutor Group
- Behaviour Points by House Group
- Behaviour Points by Student Group
- Behaviour Points by Student Group
- Behaviour Points by Week
- Behaviour Points by Weekday
- Detailed Incident Listing
- Summary Incident Listing
- Search Results Listing
Sleuth records all the interventions used, not just the final outcome, so you know which interventions worked and just as importantly, those that didn't. Not only does a record of all interventions provide a means to check how effective individual sanctions/rewards are for particular students, it is also a means to check that policy is being applied consistently at all levels.
Sleuth is often used as the means to communicate referrals of behaviour to senior colleagues. A referral to a colleague is an intervention in itself so should be recorded and Sleuth allows you to manage the referral process to closure. When a student is referred, the referee will see they have a referral to deal with as soon as they login to Sleuth. Optionally a referee can automatically be notified of a referral via email (and/or SMS message) that there is an incident requiring attention. The staff member referring can also check the progress of any referrals they have made with a simple MySearch.
Sleuth is often used as the means to communicate and manage referrals of behaviour to senior colleagues. A referral to a colleague is an intervention in itself so should be recorded and Sleuth allows you to manage the referral process to closure. When a student is referred, the referee will see they have a referral to deal with as soon as they login to Sleuth. Optionally a referee can automatically be notified of a referral via email (and/or SMS message) that there is an incident requiring attention. The staff member referring can also check the progress of any referrals they have made with a simple MySearch.
Automatic update from your MIS - No duplication of data entry
Sleuth automatically updates itself from your school administration system. There is no need to manually enter student, staff, year/tutor/house group information in Sleuth.
The Sleuth Importer is a software tool to automatically update student, staff and year/tutor/house group data in Sleuth using data from your school MIS (e.g. SIMS .Net, RM Integris, Facility CMIS, Phoenix Gold).
This process will also add all new students at the beginning of a new school year and take off-roll all school leavers. Once installed you can choose when and how often the update takes place and any changes made to your MIS are reflected in Sleuth immediately following the next scheduled or forced update. All student addresses, primary contact details, SEN status, year, tutor and house groups are always up to date.
The Sleuth Importer is included in the cost of Sleuth Online.
Customisable to your behaviour policy
Sleuth allows you to use your own vocabulary for behaviour that is familiar and consistent for your staff. Sleuth is easily adapted to match your own needs: behaviour types, groups, sanctions, rewards, locations, activities, classroom layouts, lesson intervals and subjects can be added to correspond to your school and your behaviour policy and reward system.
As your policy evolves Sleuth can evolve with it. If you decide to record in more detail you can use Behaviour Groups to report on similar behaviours - e.g. For tracking bullying define behaviour types (e.g. teasing, rumour spreading, threatening, sexual harrassment, physical attack, etc) and then define a behaviour group called Bullying. This allows each behaviour to be tracked individually and also collectively using the Bullying group. Any behaviour in the Bullying group recorded for a student can then prompt for an appropriate sanction from the Bullying Action Group. This is just one way in which Sleuth promotes the consistent use of your behaviour policy.
Student Groups - Create your own tracking group
As well as tracking behaviour by year, tutor and house groups, in Sleuth you can set-up your own ad-hoc tracking groups to monitor a group of students in your care.
Some typical examples of using student groups in Sleuth are:
- SEN Concern: to closely monitor students flagged up as potentially having SEN requirements
- Academic Mentor Group: used to monitor those who are underachieving academically and may need extra support in particular subject areas
- Feeder School: used to track year 7 students post-transition according to their primary feeder school
- Learning Support Unit: to track all students that are receiving additional support from an LSU
Every action in Sleuth has a behaviour points value. Typically sanctions have a negative points value and rewards have a positive points value. When an action is assigned to a student the points are automatically assigned.
Over a period, perhaps a month or a term, the points can be accumulated and reported for all actions within this period. As a result of the total, a further action could be taken, for example. a reward given for reaching a target of 20 points or a detention given for reaching -25 points. This can be an effective way to set and measure progress against behaviour targets.
There are a number of reports in Sleuth specifically to show accumulated Behaviour Points by Student, Year/House/Tutor group. Showing Behaviour Points by Year/Tutor group in assemblies is a very effective way to promote positive behaviour and engage pupils in understanding how their behaviour impacts others.
Generating Letters & Documents
Using Sleuth, any action assigned to a student (sanction or reward) a document can automatically be generated by the member of staff assigning the action. The document is generated according to a template that is set-up to suit school policy and can include any information about the incident, student or action.
For example, for managing detentions, a detention letter can be generated when a detention is assigned using an After School Detention template which includes the student's parental contact address and details of the reason for the sanction and when the detention will take place. Similarly you can set-up a template for a reward postcard or Headteacher's Letter.
The letter can be printed by the member of staff entering the action or marked for printing later in batch, by the admin team perhaps (See Batch Reporting below).
The batch reporting feature in Sleuth is a real time-saving feature for all staff - teaching and administrative. Using Batch Reporting, in a single step you can produce a report specifically for each member of a group.
Some typical examples of using batch reporting in Sleuth are:
- Print Letters Home: All today's letters home can be printed in one step for signature, franking and posting.
- Merits by Subject this Term for each student in a tutor group: for a parents' evening a form tutor can generate a behaviour report for each student in their charge
- Behaviour Points by Tutor Group for each year group: used for a whole school assembly to show the performance of each TG against the others in the same year, for each year group one at a time.
- Incident Count by Staff for Referrals of Level 1 Behaviour to HoD for each subject: a count of the number of referrals by each staff member to their Head of Dept for low-level behaviours for each subject/faculty area
- Level 2 Incidents by Week this term for each Year Group: a line graph showing recorded incidents of level 2 behaviours week on week for each year group to compare HoY support/resource issues in each year group
A Behaviour Group is a collection of individual behaviour types that can be used to map your policy framework to Sleuth for data entry or reporting. Similarly an Action Group is a collection of individual actions (sanctions or rewards). A Behaviour Group can be associated with an Action Group so when a particular behaviour is selected you are presented with the range of actions/consequences that could follow, as determined by your policy.
Behaviour Groups can also be used to monitor the progress of particular programmes to address behaviour, for example SEAL. A behaviour group can be setup to track and report specifically on Social and Emotional behaviours.
- For Data Entry: to translate policy to practice related behaviours can be grouped so they appear together for data entry, perhaps based on level of severity or type. Related actions can also be grouped using Action Groups. In Sleuth you can link a behaviour group to an action group so if, for example a level 2 behaviour is selected, which policy dictates should lead to a level 2 action, you are automatically presented with the level 2 actions. For new or temporary staff less familiar with policy this provides some guidance to support your behaviour policy
- For Reporting: related behaviours can be grouped together so you can analyse trends more generally without losing the detail for tracking individual behaviour types. For example you can report on and analyse all Low-Level Disruption (including Out of Seat, Talking, Not Listening, etc) or Ready to Learn behaviours (including Lack of Equipment, Late, Appearance, etc) or all Bullying behaviours (including Peer Isolation, Taunting, Racial Harassment, etc)