St Joseph's College

St Joseph's College is an esteemed Catholic all-boys day and boarding school located in Sydney's Lower North Shore, Hunters Hill. The school has successfully implemented Clipboard’s Extracurricular Management System since 2019. St Joseph's College provides a supportive, non-selective learning environment that cultivates excellence in education, co-curricular activities, and pastoral care. With a vision to educate boys for life, learning, and leadership for the common good, the school upholds its values and Marist traditions.

‍

With 1,100 students, and extracurricular activities (ECAs) being mandatory, this case study explores the school's experience with Clipboard and highlights the perspectives of key stakeholders, including Headmaster Michael Blake, Head of Sport Cameron Hart, and Head of Basketball Tim Kovacevic.

‍

Challenges Before Implementing Clipboard:

Before implementing Clipboard, the school faced several challenges and pain points in managing extracurricular activities (ECAs). These included:

‍

1) Time-consuming administrative tasks associated with organising ECAs.

2) Difficulty in visibility and accountability of coaches for attendance and session results. 

3) Reliance on paper-based attendance rolls and fragmented software integration systems. ‍

“We were using a lot of paper rolls to select teams, where we were integrating software, it was all different elements of software,” said Headmaster Michael Blake. 

‍

Impact of Clipboard's Extracurricular Management System:

To address these challenges, St Joseph's College (Joey’s) adopted the Clipboard Extracurricular Management System, which offers the following key features:

‍

1) Clipboard Attendance Roll Marking: The system enables real-time tracking of attendance, allowing administrators to identify students who miss training sessions. This information facilitates effective communication with boarding coordinators and ensures student wellbeing. 

“When the rolls are marked in real-time, not only can I see the student is present at their sport, but I can pull up the location and see where they are. Clipboard gives that real-time lens of where any boy is at any given time” says Headmaster, Michael Blake. 

‍

2) Real-Time Updates: Through the system, administrators can track and send out real-time updates, providing valuable insights for supervision and student safety. 

“I absolutely recommend it, it just saves so much time, if you’re keeping rolls, if you’re after scores, tracking coaches, tracking sessions, and being able to put all your sessions for the whole year on Clipboard. As well as having SMSs and emails go out to your coaches, to keep people accountable" says Head of Basketball, Tim Kovacevic.

‍

3) Coach Accountability: Clipboard holds coaches accountable by notifying administrators when attendance or session results are not recorded. This feature helps identify coaches who require reminders and supports the evaluation of their performance.

“Clipboard is a great tool for holding the kids accountable, but it’s also good for holding the coaches accountable because you can see which coaches you have to text every day to remind them to do their roll or fill in a result. This puts a little red mark next to their name so they might not get called back next year for a team.”

‍

4) Time Savings: By automating administrative tasks, Clipboard frees up valuable time for coaches and staff. This additional time can be utilised for student development, personalised attention, and enhancing coaches' own knowledge and skills. 

‍“It saves time, and it gives our coaches and staff more time to actually work with the students, both on a personal level and also to develop their own knowledge and skills of the game,” says Headmaster Michael Blake. 

‍

5) Clipboard Activity Selection: The system empowers students to choose their desired sports activities and manage their schedules effectively. This feature promotes student engagement and facilitates efficient time management.

‍“For our students as well to be able to select their sport, and use it again to manage their own time around their calendar and their timetable is really effective” says Headmaster Michael Blake. 

‍

6) Clipboard Incident Reporting: The incident reporting functionality within Clipboard enables efficient documentation and management of any occurrences during sporting activities, ensuring a safe and secure environment for all participants.

‍

Results and Benefits

The implementation of the Clipboard Extracurricular Management System has yielded significant benefits for St Joseph's College, including:

‍

1) Time Savings: It is estimated that Clipboard saves up to 140 hours per week across various sports activities. This substantial reduction in administrative workload allows staff members to focus more on student interaction, skill development, and program enhancement. 

"Clipboard can save up to 140 hours a week between all the different sports. Which is obviously a huge number and a huge amount of admin, and it’s theoretically a few people working full time just on roll marking and team selection” says Cameron Hart, Head of Sport.

‍

2) Enhanced Sporting Offerings: By streamlining administrative processes, Clipboard enables coaches to dedicate more time to improving students' sporting skills and knowledge. This increased focus on coaching translates into a better overall sporting program and improved results for the college. 

“I think we get a better sporting program out of it, and better results as you extrapolate that forward as our coaches have more time to work with the kids on the skills of the game rather than the essential but time-consuming admin component” says Headmaster Michael Blake. 

‍

3) Coach and Staff Satisfaction: The ease of use and efficiency of the Clipboard system contribute to a positive experience for coaches and staff. The system's user-friendly interface enhances their engagement and provides them with a better overall experience in managing ECAs. 

‍“As a coach who came in and never used Clipboard before, it was super easy to set up, with no problems with the way the program was already set up and was very professional and looked good. It was very very easy for coaches to use which is probably why I went with Clipboard as a first choice” says Head of Basketball, Tim Kovacevic.

‍

Conclusion: 

Based on their positive experience, St Joseph's College Hunters Hill highly recommends the Clipboard Extracurricular Management System to other educational institutions. The system offers a robust solution for enhancing and advancing sporting programs, improving administrative efficiency, and providing a better experience for staff and students.

‍

“I would highly recommend it to other schools if they’re not already using it” - Head of Basketball, Tim Kovacevic.

“We would certainly recommend Clipboard to other schools as a really good product to enhance and take forward their sporting program. I think their staff would really enjoy using the program and I think they’d get a better experience out of it. “- Headmaster, Michael Blake.