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   Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI Training and Consultancy - Brigantia Learning Trust

Sheaf Digital recently delivered 2 days of Power BI Training to staff at the Brigantia Learning Trust in Sheffield. The trust operates 4 academies including one post-16 college.

The training included a one day introduction to Power BI course for staff from both the central team and Longley Park Sixth Form Academy and then a follow up session where the focus was how Longley Park Sixth Form Academy could use data from v2 of the Arbor Snowflake data warehouse.

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   Microsoft Power BI

Power BI Assessment Tracker Reports for the Holy Cross MAC in Coventry

Sheaf Digital has developed a series of Power BI assessment reports for the Holy Cross Multi Academy Company in Coventry.

The 5 Holy Cross primary schools use the Arbor school management information system. The new Microsoft Power BI reports connect to Arbor’s data warehouse and give staff in schools and the central team a joined up and accurate view of student achievement in years 1 to 6.

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   Microsoft Power BI

A Simple Guide to Microsoft Power BI in Multi-Academy Trusts and Schools

Multi-academy trusts (MATS) face particular challenges when they try to collect, organise and then report on data.

  • Data can be stored in different systems in different schools.

  • The central trust team wants a whole-trust view.

  • MATS and schools can be short on technical resources. Staff are busy and don’t always have the time or expertise needed to get an efficient solution up and running

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   Microsoft Power BI

Power BI Consultancy for Schools - St Francis and St Clare

Sheaf Digital has developed a series of Power BI reports for the St Francis & St Clare Catholic Multi Academy Company (SFSCMAC) in Wolverhampton.

All 12 academies use the Arbor school management information system and the Power BI reports use data from Arbor’s Snowflake data warehouse. The way the data is organised in the data warehouse simplified the development of reports that now give the Trust a joined-up view of assessments, attendance and student demographics across all 12 academies.

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   Microsoft Power BI

Sheaf Digital - Power BI Training - OSI Europe

Sheaf Digital recently delivered a one day intermediate level Power BI course to OSI Europe in Scunthorpe. The training was based on our Power BI Next Steps (intermediate) course and then tailored to be a better fit with the requirements of the OSI team.

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   Microsoft Power BI

Sheaf Digital Power BI Training - Chesterfield College

Sheaf Digital recently delivered 4 days of Power BI Training to two separate groups from the business support team at Chesterfield College.

The training was based on our Get Started with Power BI course, but adapted to better meet the requirements of the Chesterfield College team. That’s our standard Power BI training approach - we talk to the client, find out more about the data they collect and then we build the training sessions around a series of bespoke training activities. Either we use dummy data or we use real client data to build functioning, useful dashboards.

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   Microsoft Power BI

Using Microsoft Power BI in Schools

These are some lessons learned and observations from the last 12 months of writing bespoke Power BI reports and delivering Power BI training to multi-academy trusts. They may help other schools and trusts that are about to start on a Power BI journey.

Most of the reports were bespoke reports that look at Key Stages 1 & 2 data - multi page reports that give the central team and staff with responsibility for school improvement a detailed overview of student performance across the trust.

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   Microsoft Power BI

The best way to develop Microsoft Power BI reports for schools

The best Microsoft Power BI reports and dashboards are simple. They turn large sets of tabular data into user friendly, interactive visualisations that make it easier to spot data trends and other useful insights.

Simplicity really is the key. Just like with other kinds of software, users want an intuitive design that requires little or no effort to understand. Less is nearly always better.

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   Microsoft Power BI

What's the difference between measures and calculated columns in Microsoft Power BI?

Power BI calculated columns and measures can be confusing at first - they seem to do almost the same thing. In the following example we use some simple school attendance data to explain why calculated columns and measures are different and we show you which one to choose when you want to do more analysis of your data.

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   Microsoft Power BI

Build a simple interactive school student satisfaction survey report with Microsoft Power BI

The goal with this report was to create something interactive (and engaging) that non-technical stakeholders could use to explore student satisfaction data. That’s important - we are not trying to develop a super flexible, complicated reporting tool, but instead we want to use interactivity to engage non-technical stakeholders with data about student satisfaction.

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