TEACHERS at Holyrood Community School in Chard are going digital in a bid to cut down on the school's paper consumption by 15 per cent.

The school is digitising its student and administration records to allow teachers access to call them up on computer screens in the classrooms at the touch of a button.

The school had stored the bulk of its records as paper files in filing cabinets. But this caused them problems, because with 1,180 students the sheer volume of information became unmanageable and getting access to specific information on a pupil was a laborious process.

By commissioning Peninsula's eCopy system, this has helped Holyrood to use and process less paper as it allows them by using a unique software connector to digitally scan in their school documents and then attach them to specific student academic and administrative records on a database.

Holyrood's bursar Tina Coles commissioned the new system and is already impressed with its efficiency and the advantages it has provided.

"Our high roll number means that keeping our 1,180 student records up-to-date is vital to enable us to offer a professional and proactive service in a competitive academic world," she said.

"We have constant external and internal updates to keep on our students, and yearly Government achievement and attainment reports to compile, so we need a simple and secure way to file and access our records.

"This digital system allows us to do this efficiently, on-time and, above all, on screen which is exactly what we need."

Realising that schools needed help to modernise their management information systems, Peninsula started to market a method of turning paper files into digital that would connect with existing computer software already used by schools.

Bob Griffin, who is responsible for Peninsula's eCopy system, said: "The software connector was vital to get schools to understand how we could store and update their records on their existing databases.

"While feedback from our school customers has been very encouraging, I feel that schools will now start demanding digital systems in order to make themselves more efficient, more responsive to their pupils needs and hence more attractive to prospective parents."

Anyone wanting further information on the digital records system can phone Bob Griffin on 0845 880 4545.