Compare
Compare a year held four different ways.
A spreadsheet, a legacy school system, a generic learning platform, and a record built for the academic year. The differences that matter are the ones a school feels in the third week of a term.
How that compares
Four ways to hold a school year.
A spreadsheet, a legacy system, a learning platform and a record built for the year. The differences that matter are the ones a school feels in the third week of a term.
| What a year needs | A spreadsheet | A legacy school system | A generic learning platform | Ashee SMS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The academic year | Rebuilt each term | A fixed structure | Courses, not a school year | Stated once, referenced everywhere |
| A student's history | A cell, overwritten | A row, sometimes dated | Enrolment only | Dated placements, kept |
| Grading | Formulas in a file | Hard-coded per report | One scale for everyone | Categories, weights and precision, per subject |
| The result | Typed in | Computed by a report | Usually not calculated | Derived, ranked, and frozen on publication |
| A correction | The old value is gone | An edit log at best | Overwrite | Previous value, who, when, and a review step |
| Between schools | A file per school, if remembered | One database per installation | Varies by vendor | Its own record, by construction |
The first three columns describe how those ways of working usually behave, not a particular product. Ashee SMS is compared against a way of holding a year, not against a competitor.
What stays the same
Three things adoption does not change.
A school does not have to adopt a grading philosophy, a calendar or a new set of job titles to use this.
Your calendar
Three terms, two semesters, four quarters or something else. The product states the year you run rather than asking you to rename its own.
Your grading policy
Categories, weights, precision and rounding are configuration. Nothing about how your school turns marks into a result is decided for you.
Your roles
A teacher sees their classes, an administrator sees the school, the platform operator sees that a school exists. No new job title is created by adopting it.
What is not built yet
Four things this does not do.
Listed before the questions rather than after them: a school that needs one of these is not a school this product can serve today.
No parent or student portal
Results can be published, but there is no separate login for parents or students to read them. A school prints or shares what it needs to share.
No messaging
There is no SMS, email or in-app messaging to guardians. It is a natural next capability and it is not in this release.
No timetable
The product holds classes, subjects and teacher assignments, but it does not build or resolve a timetable.
No fees, library or transport
The administrative side of a school beyond its academic record is not part of the product, and the plans page does not imply otherwise.
Choosing
Three questions that settle it.
Answered honestly, they decide most of the conversation.
Does your year have a shape this can state?
If your school runs terms, semesters or quarters, yes. If it runs something unusual, the custom option exists and is the reason the product does not assume one calendar.
Is a result a calculation or a decision?
If your results are derived from marks and a stated policy, this is the product's core. If a final grade is a committee decision recorded by hand, it is a different tool.
Do you need everything on day one?
If a timetable, fees and parent messaging are prerequisites, this is not yet the system for you, and the list of what is missing is two sections above.
Start here
Bring your next term onto Ashee
Start with one school. If the year closes cleanly, the rest of the group follows.