"Our work is to educate them — our responsibility is to prepare them — our joy is to know them." Those are the guiding principles for the Brookwood School, an independent elementary school not far from Boston. They're principles built on a commitment to the highest standards of education, and a commitment to the most effective methods, techniques, and tools for improving the educational experience. Among those tools you'll find FileMaker Pro, the award-winning database software application from FileMaker Inc.

Business Challenge

For nearly fifty years, the Brookwood School has provided perceptive, personalized education for students from pre–kindergarten through the eighth grade. Helping to keep track of the student body of approximately 400 is school technology director Doug Fodeman — who assumed the newly–created position seven years ago, just as the school was preparing for a major technological advance in the way it processed admissions. "When I first arrived they were using various combinations of inadequate software for database needs in the admissions and registrar's departments," Doug recalls. "These systems were inefficient and difficult to use. I proposed replacing these systems with a FileMaker Pro system which gives us increased flexibility and greater control."

Successful Solution

Doug engaged The Support Group Inc. to see to the initial development. "We spent a lot of time and money with our developer to get the system we wanted, and we're extremely happy with the results. We now use FileMaker Pro databases in administrative functions throughout the school — and we can make changes and expansions ourselves without having to deal with outside developers who would build elaborate systems and keep the code to themselves." From those early beginnings, the FileMaker Pro system is now used by approximately 70 members of the Brookwood School staff.

FileMaker Pro finds its heaviest use in the Admissions and Registrar's offices. "Whenever a family inquires about our school, a record is created," Doug explains, "and if the child goes on to become a student, that record moves into the Registrar's database. In this way each pupil receives a unique record which remains in the system as long as they're enrolled. Over the years we've added various components — for example we have a database containing medical information for each student, for use by the school nurse. This is important information to have available — medical histories, information on medications and allergies — and the database allows us to make this data available to teacher who need it." Grades and other information also form a part of each student's FileMaker Pro record, and this data becomes especially useful as graduation approaches. "We are able to help our students with secondary school placement," Doug notes, "helping to keep track of options for different high schools." Status reports for any given student may be generated quickly and easily — whenever and wherever needed.

We now use FileMaker Pro databases in administrative functions throughout the school — and we can make changes and expansions ourselves without having to deal with outside developers who would build elaborate systems and keep the code to themselves.

— Doug Fodeman, Technology Director, The Brookwood School

The Brookwood faculty also uses FileMaker Pro. "Our curriculum database is a valuable tool for teachers," Doug observes. "A 6th grade teacher can see what books were assigned to the students in the 5th grade, as well as what material they'll be assigned in the 7th grade. This allows teachers at various grade levels to easily coordinate their assignments in a hierarchical manner." And now, using a newly–deployed FileMaker Pro system, teachers are able to easily plot out their weekly class schedules and generate printed reports with the click of a button.