Piper Hill Specialist Support School

Previously staff at Piper Hill spent a lot of time crunching numbers and analysing incident reports manually to try and spot patterns and identify trends. Bound and numbered books were used to record serious incidents. The behaviour support team would then meet with each class team at the end of the week and read through the incident reports to try and identify trends within individual pupil’s behaviour.

Now IRIS Adapt is used to record all pupil incidents. It is also used as a central point to link all documents and share more information; making for more consistency in recording and information sharing.

“We now use (IRIS Adapt) as a central point to link all documents and share more information.”

“We have also found there is now more consistency in dealing with incidents across the school, resulting in clearer boundaries for the pupils.”

We use the information we get from the system to inform our strategies designed reduce the number of incidents. It also provides a solid data foundation enabling us to give the best opportunity to change behaviour for learning. Information will also be very useful for Ofsted inspections. y useful for Ofsted inspections.

The use of IRIS Adapt has made the behaviour team more effective, they can spend less time processing information and more time in class working with pupils. It has also given class teams more confidence to come up with their own strategies, using behaviour information from the system. IRIS Adapt has taken what was previously done well and made it outstanding.

“We can produce more in depth reports more quickly using data we would never previously have had”

Key benefits

One key benefit is the accessibility of the data. We are able to access the system from anywhere around the school and even from home. Another key benefit is the amount of time we now save in not trawling through hand written accounts to find out detailed pieces of information; this used to take a long time, it now takes only a few minutes. We can now not only do a lot of things quicker and easier than before, but also in greater depth; for example, pulling out key information from the incidents across the school in order to create graphs and spot trends. Information is now much more accessible and more easily shared with colleagues.


The system is fully customised to our needs, so it fits with our existing work practices, ethos and language. Wherever possible, data entry is via drop-down menus which facilitates much more consistency in language and terminology.

“Information is now much more accessible and more easily shared with colleagues.”

Using IRIS Adapt has made the behaviour team more effective. Now we can spend less time processing information and more time in class working with pupils. It has also given class teams more confidence to come up with their own strategies, using behaviour information from the system. At Piper Hill we have always been very good at recording, reporting and sharing information; but what IRIS Adapt has allowed us to do is make our processes much slicker. It has taken what was previously done well and made it outstanding. We can produce more in depth reports more quickly using data we would never previously have had.

“Using IRIS Adapt has made the behaviour team more effective. Now we can spend less time processing information and more time in class working with pupils.”

Having access to the information enables staff across the school to be more proactive at managing behaviour within their class teams. They are now able to devise better strategies and, most importantly, assess how successful the strategies have been. We have also found there is now more consistency in dealing with incidents across the school, resulting in clearer boundaries for the pupils.

About the school

Piper Hill Specialist Support School is an outstanding school in south Manchester. The local authority uses the school as a model of best practice and the Headteacher has supported a number of schools to improve, both locally and nationally. About a third of the pupils have profound and multiple learning difficulties; the rest have severe learning difficulties and, in many cases, complex learning difficulties and challenging behaviour.

Many students come from areas which are socially and economically disadvantaged and 36% are eligible for free school meals.

Book a short demo to see how IRIS Adapt can work for you.