Overseas schools express interest in web-based management software

Schools in Canada, the UK and the United Arab Emirates have expressed keen interest in a local company’s web-based management software, according to My School Ltd managing director Patrice Peyre.

Launched in 2008, My School offers a simplified and flexible solution allowing schools to manage and share information, compile reports, and give parents or students online access to information such as grades, assessment and attendance information, among other functionalities.

Mr Peyre said there were similar products on the market internationally, but My School had been designed to be tailored to a learning institution’s specific requirements with an easy-to-use interface and to empower school administrations to “do more, easily, and in less time”.

The system is already in use in a handful of schools in Malta.

“My School is intended to be used by teachers, parents and bursars and can be configured for different users,” Mr Peyre explained. “My School allows administrators to store student information like health and legal issues, grades and attendance and revenue information such as course fees. I am currently designing a payment system for My School that would record fees and calculate discounts for parents with more than one child at the school, and other schemes.”

Born in Malta to a French father and a Maltese mother who soon migrated to France, Mr Peyre returned to the island after 13 years. After leaving sixth form, he began his career in technical support and later trained in software development. Mr Peyre moved to the UK after 11 years in Malta and became increasingly involved in office automation and software architecture.

During his six-year stint in the UK, Mr Peyre worked for a string of blue chip companies including Barclays and Hyundai, and as a senior consultant subcontracted through IBM at the Financial Times’ 1, Southwark Bridge address.

Following several months of backpacking in Asia with his fiancée Sandra, Mr Peyre settled in Paris to follow an MBA programme at the HEC, during which time the couple got married.

While living in Manhattan in 2008 during an exchange at New York University, Mr Peyre read an article in the New York Times about parents’ increasing obsession with checking their children’s school grades online. At about the same time, a The Times reader in Malta had penned a letter to the editor complaining that despite the rising cost of education, parents were still finding themselves paying for after-school private lessons.

Inspired by the cuttings, Mr Peyre’s original idea was to design a system that would be adopted by schools under a revenue-sharing model for administrations and parents.

The system’s business model was realigned to offer added value through simplification.

“I set about designing solutions to schools’ problems with ways to save them money, meet legal requirements, produce reports, invoices, and such like,” Mr Peyre said.

“On the one hand, the software saves the school time. In turn, parents are more involved in their children’s progress. The feedback I receive from parents is very satisfying. Through the online information they know what homework is due and have a clear picture of attendance. More importantly, they are fully aware of the situation in real-time, not at the end of term, so any problems can be addressed quickly.”

Mr Peyre added My School was also useful to separated parents as they did not have to rely on each other for obtaining a clear picture of their child’s advancement. It was also helpful to parents who travelled often or whose children were attending boarding school.

My School, Mr Peyre stressed, gave institutions the ability to focus on education while My School support managed the technology, software licences, hardware, backups and up­grades.