Welcome back to another new year!
As always, 2019 was a busy 12 months here at Firefly with lots of new and improved features developed for schools. With our ongoing commitment to powering the modern learning experience we released -
- A new look markbook - the first phase in our ongoing markbook development, helping teachers understand student progress and know how to support them effectively.
- The new Firefly for Teachers app, available on iOS mobile phones.
- Multi-tasking added for all of our Firefly apps, making it easier to support the modern learning experience on the move.
- Integration with the online textbook publisher Classoos so that teachers can use their favourite teaching and learning resources in one familiar environment.
- Our new AD Link tool, allowing schools to use groups from AD as well as your MIS, engage teachers, students and parents with a personalised experience for every group within a school community.
At Firefly we are committed to making it easy for schools to use the tools that they need to deliver a modern learning experience. We believe in providing schools with a single, central hub so that school leaders, teachers, students and parents have everything they need at their fingertips, saving time and reducing complexity for the whole school community.
With this in mind, we are delighted to kick off 2020 with some brand new features and developments to help schools engage everyone in the learning conversation:
iSAMS
We know that many schools use iSAMS as an important part of their parent communication strategy. With this in mind, schools with the Firefly Unlimited package can now take advantage of our new Single Sign On arrangement for parents, making it even easier for them to move seamlessly between Firefly and iSAMS. Our ongoing partnership and integration with iSAMS and other MIS providers, helps to engage parents in the modern learning experience, with access to the information they need, when they need it, through Firefly’s single, central hub.
OneDrive
The combination of Microsoft and Firefly provides the anchor to a school’s core processes and empowers teachers and school leaders with the tools they need in one seamless space. We have built on our existing integrations with Office 365 and OneNote so that teachers can now share files and documents from OneDrive more easily though Firefly pages and tasks. With Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations embedded into Firefly, teachers can share resources quickly and easily, and edit their files directly from Firefly.
CareMonkey
We believe strongly in reducing the burden of day to day administration and giving teachers more time to teach. Our new SSO partnership with CareMonkey ensures that school leaders, teachers and parents can work with each other more effectively to support students in their learning journey. Whether you are managing consent forms, medical records, field trips, staff forms or online payments, Firefly and CareMonkey provide a seamless environment for schools to manage their admin processes quickly and easily.
What’s next?
New insights tool
Work is continuing on our new Insights tool which will give leaders the understanding they need to drive a modern learning experience for the entire school community. Which teachers are creating the best opportunities for learning? Are students making the best of the learning materials available to them? How can you tell which parents are engaged in school life? School Insights will empower school leaders to take action, knowing what needs to be done and when, for greatest impact.
Further integrations with Google & Microsoft
We are also working on deeper integrations with Google Classroom and extending our partnership with Microsoft to make it even easier for teachers and students to use the tools they need in a single, intuitive environment designed to meet the needs of schools.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy and prosperous new year. We look forward to working with you over the next 12 months.
