Rupert uses the relational database features of Claris' File Maker Pro 4 to provide teachers with easy-to-fill reports that have students' personal information and subject information already entered.  Spell checking, categorised comment banking and print previewing help teachers produce quality reports in less time and with less effort than the previous hand-written and Word template methods.  Rupert also handles weighted assessment tasks to make assessment of semester grades easier for staff.  Staff can easily print their own reports to ease administrative bottlenecks.  Version 4 facilitates CSF outcome recording by directly exporting data to CASES.

After each semester, since reports are stored in a database, individual reports can be easily archived and retrieved, and groups of reports can be searched or queried for particular information (e.g. grade summaries for year level coordinators who are interviewing students about promotion). 

Student data is taken directly from CASES.  Subject information (subject descriptors, work requirements, assessment tasks, CSF strands/phases and assessment task weightings) provided by learning areas is stored in a subject table which is easily updated each semester. 

Comment banks can be produced by individual teachers or learning areas to reduce reporting time and encourage a faculty-wide consistency in commenting.  Comments are organised into categories to make make the organisation of large numbers of comments easier.  (e.g. an English comment bank may have a "Spelling" category with various spelling-related comments within it. 

Comments may contain "Magic Pronoun" codes such as {name}, {his/her}, {he/she}.  The appropriate name or pronoun is generated for each report the comment appear in.  Rupert even offers magic apostrophes: using the {name's} code inserts a student's name with a correctly positioned apostrophe (e.g. Michael's or Chris').

Rupert's stablemates are:

Rupert Front Page 2 to create form teacher/YLC summary sheets at the beginning of the reports.
Sporty Rupert 2 for sports reports.