Boost - Make the most out of the Custom Report Writer

The next step is to take your reporting to the next level, using your reports to identify areas of improvement or success in your school, and then taking follow-up actions to keep everyone in the loop.

Get down to your key data

There's no need to export data to an external system - you can whittle down the information displayed in your report using filters. For example, to filter your data to only show students who need more support in certain areas, then follow up with their guardians or add them to Interventions to monitor their progress.

There aren't the same And and Or buttons as in other MIS systems, but you can still filter your data! Take a look at how this works in Arbor here: Using AND and OR filters in the Custom Report Writer.

Display your data in the way you need it

There are two fantastic features in the Custom Report Writer which will allow you to visualise reporting an a way that suits your school:

• Adding a calculated field to a custom report allows you to feed other columns into a custom calculation, saving you time working out each one.
• Colour-code fields using conditional formatting to flag key trends or important figures at a glance.

Why not use them in combination, just like in our example attendance report here: Attendance Concern Report

Top Tip: You can hide any columns from your final report you like, for example the ones you've based calculated field on! Just edit your report and select the Bulk Edit Column Settings button.

You can even create charts and graphs of your data right from the table! See more here: Make, download and print charts and graphs of Arbor data

Share information with the right people

Once your report is created, you can easily share them with the right people in a variety of ways:

• Share a report within Arbor to give the access to edit or just view from their All Reports page
• Send the report to someone not on your Arbor system via email
• Schedule an email to be sent out with a link to the report

Scheduling and sharing Custom Report Writer reports

Customise other areas of Arbor

Communications

When creating emails, SMS, in-app messages or letters, you can use merge fields to pull in limited data about students. But you can take this one step further by adding any data available in the Custom Report Writer as a merge field to pull into your communications!

Take a look at the video below on how to use merge fields, and this article on how to create them from your Custom Report Writer reports: Creating a Mail Merge using data from a Custom Report Writer report

Assessment Marksheets

Already using assessments? You can replace our default marksheets with fully customised ones based on Custom Report Writer reports!

• See how to get set up here: How to set up custom marksheets
• Then see how they look here: What are the different summative assessment marksheets?

If your school isn't using Assessments yet, you can set them up for next year to start learning from your data with visual analysis screens.

• Primaries - we’ve created two ready-to-go assessment approaches for reading, writing and maths assessments. Use our handy quiz to pick the approach that’s right for you, and save time on setup with our step-by-step guidance.
• Secondaries - take a look at our Introduction to Arbor Assessments for a feel of what we offer, then use our easy-to-follow setup templates for English Literature and Language, and Double/Triple Science here, or more basic setups here.

If you’re looking to manage your assessments in a bespoke way, our expert consultants can work with you to help you tailor Arbor to suit your approach - contact your Account Manager for further details.

Report Cards

Use our Custom Report Cards feature to create bespoke custom report cards in Arbor, then share them! You can send the via email, or share them through the Parent and Student Portals or through the Arbor App!

See how to use this feature here: Create and send out Custom Report Cards