[sims] SIMS App?

[GREED]

I know. I wasn't trolling, just applying some balance, i have equal if not more hatred than you for SLG, but i also know a lot of people out there who are really getting on with it quite well.

 

footer: You've always been the voice of reason : regardless of who you worked for

 

I know I know. You were right too that that post was my opinion.

 

To that end it would be great to hear from schools (or LAs, if they haven't run away!) that are using SLG well?

[Seb1780]

To that end it would be great to hear from schools that are using SLG well?

 

I'd like to use SLG well; we have it and we pay for it but due to a lack of knowledge we don't use it.

 

I've tried finding training, but so far have been unsucessful. Does anyone reading this know of any SLG specific training?

[GREED]

I'd like to use SLG well; we have it and we pay for it but due to a lack of knowledge we don't use it.

 

I've tried finding training, but so far have been unsucessful. Does anyone reading this know of any SLG specific training?

 

I'm sure you can pay for it from your LA or Capita most likely. I guess a good deal is SharePoint training too, and how you can develop this to use within your school and not just for SIMS use. What plans do you have to use it? What would you like to do with it?

[Seb1780]

Yes, I've seen Capita SLG training but this has been aimed at the install / configuration rather than use of SLG. I want to be able to understand what it does, what are it's limitations and how I can use it beyond the VLE we bought it for. For instance, this app sounds good, but what training do I need to make sure the app will work with our setup?

 

I've only been here (i.e. working in education) for 18 months, and I was not around when the original decision was made to go with SLG. Normally it would be during that decision making process that I would answer a lot of the questions I have and learn a lot about the system. Nobody here has a clue what can be done with it, and I'm pretty sure we have not been maintaining it as we should.

 

So, would the Capita SLG Technical training benefit me?

[robjduk]

I went on the tech training. basically a day trying to explain how the hell you upgrade various versions of it.

[GREED]

Yes, I've seen Capita SLG training but this has been aimed at the install / configuration rather than use of SLG. I want to be able to understand what it does, what are it's limitations and how I can use it beyond the VLE we bought it for. For instance, this app sounds good, but what training do I need to make sure the app will work with our setup?

 

I've only been here (i.e. working in education) for 18 months, and I was not around when the original decision was made to go with SLG. Normally it would be during that decision making process that I would answer a lot of the questions I have and learn a lot about the system. Nobody here has a clue what can be done with it, and I'm pretty sure we have not been maintaining it as we should.

 

So, would the Capita SLG Technical training benefit me?

 

Do you have a SIMS account manager? Or is this done through your LA? Either way they would be my first ports of call. Ironically I did the same way way back in the day when we were looking as SLG (not for long mind )

[PhilNeal]

Virtually all SLG sites come to us directly and there are a lot of them! It's also nothing like the price quoted earlier in this forum. I also think it looks great!

[GREED]

You really do surprise me sometimes Phil...

 

Interesting to hear about prices, is that even direct schools? Interesting to know too you deal mostly direct.

 

Do you have advice for the chap here looking for development support?

[Sylv3r]

We are a SLG school and as I have posted in other threads - it works well and we (IT staff) and parents love it. I must admit, off the top of my head I don't remember costs as we purchased 5 years or so ago, but I don't think it was anything as expensive as I have seen quoted.

 

All of our teachers up until September 2013 used SLG as their main portal for Attendance, behaviour, Profile reports access to student / staff information other than key in our admin. Training was minimum for staff and quite often we put together step by step click here guides which were more than acceptable.

 

A lot of people dislike Sharepoint due to the clunkiness, we have rebranded ours with our own content and school colours and although I would agree it still has a look and feel to Sharepoint, it certainly is not as bland as an out of the box share point install.

 

I run and manage our SLG install and have had no formal SLG or Sharepoint training everything has been self taught, I install the updates generally prior to a SIMS update again with little or no fuss. Whether I would recommend it to another school, I would have my reservations and it certainly could be a full time role in managing and skinning the install.

[harriuk]

We were quoted around £10,000 a few years ago. So yes the quoted price is about right.

 

I'm loathed to pay Capita any more money after having to fork out £9,000+ just to keep using SIMS after converting to an academy.

 

Talk about private sector being propped up by the public sector!

[zag]

I run and manage our SLG install and have had no formal SLG or Sharepoint training everything has been self taught, I install the updates generally prior to a SIMS update again with little or no fuss. Whether I would recommend it to another school, I would have my reservations and it certainly could be a full time role in managing and skinning the install.

 

Just out of interest how are the upgrades of SLG these days? Does it still mess with your active directory?

 

The difficulty of doing upgrades was one of the (many) reasons we got rid of SLG. Now we have TASC insight its 1 click to upgrade and it done in 30 seconds. Its so refreshing

[harriuk]

We also have TASC and it is really easy to upgrade and they constantly issue patches and add new features whenever a school asks for them.

[Steven_Cleaver]

Another TASC happy customer here too and completely agree about patches and upgrades.

[howartp]

Speaking to someone at Capita yesterday, the idea that this App would be available without SLG seemed to be more of a 'yes, soon' than a 'oh, people at BETT don't like it being with SLG, let's think about it'. So here's hoping it will be available SLG-less say by Summer? (Or, knowing Capita, sometime in September?)

[vikpaw]

I wouldn't believe the hype.

At BETT no one I spoke to knew anything about those plans.

 

It would be an amazing turn around to have it ready for summer.

 

I'd like to hear from SLG schools that take it on. I'm interested in the security side of things.

[Love_Sausage]

We've recently had a quote in for SLG, these prices are less than two months old:

 

Self hosted - Including initial cost for licence, Implementation,"Annual Entitlement" Portal personalisation - £10,500 first year , £1100 for Annual Entitlement each following year - Total for 3 Years £12700

 

Capita Hosted - First year cost £6900, £4200 for licence each following year - Total cost for 3 years £15250

 

Odd, when you first contact Capita, the only cost mentioned is the licensing. Makes it sound really good value until the actual quote comes in. The app is now dangled as a sweetener for the whole thing, no details of when it would be ready.

[vikpaw]

The thing that got us was the install costs, and then any overage if things went wrong, at £600-1000 per day. Very quickly adds up, especially when it's via remote session and our internet is sucky.

[GREED]

The thing that got us was the install costs, and then any overage if things went wrong, at £600-1000 per day. Very quickly adds up, especially when it's via remote session and our internet is sucky.

 

Price of living in the sticks mate

[speckytecky]

For those few of us who have been reading this thread and head scratching at SLG it's: Sims Learning Gateway! I've seen no direct mention of Bromcom's Teachers Web Folder in this thread either. We have tried the latter but only about 2 of our staff ever seemed to use it so hard to justify the cost.

[matt40k]

When you're paying £10k for installation costs, you can see why going via the LA makes sense. Bet they didn't even send you some chocolates on valentines day!

[vikpaw]

For those few of us who have been reading this thread and head scratching at SLG it's: Sims Learning Gateway! I've seen no direct mention of Bromcom's Teachers Web Folder in this thread either. We have tried the latter but only about 2 of our staff ever seemed to use it so hard to justify the cost.

 

It's not really relevant here, the topic is about the SIMS app, the only reason it's spread into SLG is because the current sales model seems to be that you get it for free with SLG.

 

I don't think TWF has a dedicated app does it? The only thing worthy of mention might be Groupcall Emerge which is a direct alternative to the app, plus it doesn't require a full on SLG type install to run it.

[jenny_urey]

It's an app for teachers, to take registers, record behaviour/achievement and see student data.

 

A cool thing is if you mark a kid late it fills in how many minutes based on timetable schedule and current time.

 

They are planning an SLT app too to give overview stats for management like numbers on roll, absent staff, cover, overall attendance and such like. Sounds really powerful and begins to auto-use the data that is being harvested on a daily basis and present it easily.

 

[ATTACH]22797[/ATTACH]

 

I think the teacher app was coming out soon. There's a video on the capita-sims website but it doesn't show real visuals.

 

The app from Groupcall does the same and more and has had an overhaul lately. Plus they also have a parent app too, as do @Schoolcomms.

 

I can't imagine the stand alone price will be too far off the competitors' range. That's assuming it can work without SLG and all it's overhead.

 

....urrrr hum

[vikpaw]

....urrrr hum

 

Ditto my previous post. If you're un'appy it's cos you're unappy

[vikpaw]

Speaking to someone at Capita yesterday, the idea that this App would be available without SLG seemed to be more of a 'yes, soon' than a 'oh, people at BETT don't like it being with SLG, let's think about it'. So here's hoping it will be available SLG-less say by Summer? (Or, knowing Capita, sometime in September?)

 

How about in time to talk about it at next BETT ?

 

Of course if you follow @TheScarfedOne and read his blog, you'll have heard this earlier, but now it's official official.

 

Availability

 

• We are pleased to announce that the SIMS Teacher app will be available for all schools to purchase in January 2015.
  
• Schools do not need SIMS Learning Gateway (SLG) to use the SIMS Teacher app: it will be available for all schools to buy.
  

Latest news

 

• We are currently working with selected schools as part of our early-adopter scheme up to January.
  
• We have added some great new features including recording achievement and behaviour, further student details and assessment marksheets – all in-time for January.
  

Please visit SIMS Teacher App | capita-sims.co.uk to find out more.

 

Great news that it's unlinked from SLG and also i like the security features, 2-factor Google integration for authentication etc. Also sounds like it's 'smart', so it just opens to a useful page e.g. current register, which is pretty cool.

[howartp]

Yeah, got announcement email yesterday but forgot about this thread; I'd decided not to post yet.

 

Anyone know/recognise the 'Microsoft' integration icon - it says Google and 365, but what's the third? AD?

 

Haven't watched the video yet which might be why you seem to know more than me. Need to track down TheScarfedOnes blog; I've read a few of his in the past but not subscribed.

 

Peter