[sims] Student Teacher View

[tben2505]

Hi folks

 

Does anyone know if this view can be customised at all?

 

With regards to the contact details that are displayed for the pupils - if a pupil has mother and father father both priority 1, it seems to show the contact that appears alphabetically first, though we'd prefer mother. Clicking "See more" lets us see it but just curious if this can be altered.

 

Also we'd like to see the address here - is that possible? Some staff are phoning priority 2s (divorced parent) who doesn't live with the child any more - since all they see is "father" and a mobile number.

 

I'm aware this probably can't be done - but if not - are there any procedures or ways of doing things that you implement to make sure staff contact the correct people etc?

 

Cheers all

[SAMI71]

If you go to tools, house keeping scroll through. I think it's update telephone numbers. This is where you can see all the contacts for a child and can change prority and which number is used, this includes email addresses. I used to check it regularly due to the amount of changed mobile numbers parents seemed to have.

 

You can can also choose that no number is shown for contacts. Useful if you have to copies of correspondence to an estranged parent but do not contact them for any other reason.

[bobsmith]

Warning! My answer may sound flippant but it's not intended to be.

 

Why do you have 2 priority 1's? Does the divorced parent not want to be contacted in cases where the priority 1 contact can't be reached?

 

Trying to design around the ingenuity of teachers for doing the "wrong" thing is a hopeless battle, fixing the data works for me better.

[tben2505]

Warning! My answer may sound flippant but it's not intended to be.

 

Why do you have 2 priority 1's? Does the divorced parent not want to be contacted in cases where the priority 1 contact can't be reached?

 

Trying to design around the ingenuity of teachers for doing the "wrong" thing is a hopeless battle, fixing the data works for me better.

 

This has brought about a wider conversation about the organisation of the priorities. We have two priority 1s if both parents live with the student (and have not opted out of being contacted).

 

However I think it's probably wiser to have all at-home mums to be "1", all at-home dads "2"

 

This would make more sense in most cases, what does everyone else do??

[bobsmith]

We put the priority on the data collection sheets and go with that.

 

Where there is confusion we tend to use mum, but it would be not only sexist but plain wrong in this day and age to assume the mum is the stay at home parent. Saying this from experience - not political correctness!

[tben2505]

I think you misunderstood. Nowhere did I say "stay at home mum" - I said at-home mum (as in live with child) should be 1, as in the first person to call as in my experience, mother's are the best to call. Then father should be 2.

 

I'm talking about gender or equality

[tben2505]

And this goes back to my original point, the reason is that if you have two priority 1s, on student teacher view, it just shows the first one alphabetically; there's no way of chosing which it shows. You have to click "see more" to see the second parent.

 

So our idea is to have, broadly speaking, all mums as 1 and dads as 2 (so that the mums details appear first on that particular screen). This obviously wouldn't be for everyone, but in the bast majority of cases, this would work best.

 

Keen to know how others use priority numbers too.

[bobsmith]

I think you misunderstood. Nowhere did I say "stay at home mum" - I said at-home mum (as in live with child) should be 1, as in the first person to call as in my experience, mother's are the best to call. Then father should be 2.

 

I'm talking about gender or equality

 

Sorry yes I did misunderstand you, however we do have a lot of parents out of work down this way - sometimes it's mum, sometimes it's dad. The parent at home during the day in these cases are the ones we hope self nominate as the priority 1 contact.

 

We don't have two priority ones.

[tben2505]

So what do you do when both parents work (or both are at home), if you don't have two priority 1s?

[bobsmith]

The parent has to pick one as the first priority and another as the 2nd.

 

In real world terms, priority 1 simply indicates to us which person to phone first, it has no more significance than that. If they don't answer we move on to priority 2 etc. We share the priority order with parents and update it when they ask us to rearrange them.

 

Teachers should still have access to the "admin" view of student records in SIMS (afaik it's not hidden from them) and on that page you can see all the contacts listed in priority order.

[tben2505]

That's a good idea - inviting the parents to decide...

 

Yes that "admin view" or student details, though, is a bit fiddly, quite a few clicks needed to get to the contact details, and the email addresses aren't hyperlinked like they are on student teacher view...

 

Rearranging priority like you have it is a worthwhile line of investigation, though!

 

Cheers

 

T

[tombry]

The problem with naming all dads as priority 2 is some of the third-party tools will only pull priority 1 parents in.

 

I've found with my kids' school it doesn't matter that I'm listed as Priority 1, they always call my wife - which is pointless, as I work about 5 mins from my kids school, and my wife might be hours away some days.

[tben2505]

The problem with naming all dads as priority 2 is some of the third-party tools will only pull priority 1 parents in.

 

I've found with my kids' school it doesn't matter that I'm listed as Priority 1, they always call my wife - which is pointless, as I work about 5 mins from my kids school, and my wife might be hours away some days.

 

That must be frustrating - though I get that, for whatever reason - and I'm not being political (!), for the majority of kids, mum is better to call first.

 

It's not immediately clear how it ought to be arranged, short of asking the parents themselves to prioritise, as it were, their contact details, as suggested by @bobsmith

Then, if they both self-prioritise as "1" - then it doesn't matter who appears first on the student teacher view; unless we ask them that they're only allowed 1 priority "1"...

[bobsmith]

Well the trick there is to don't let them self prioritise independently, give em one bit of paper (per student) for contact details and a tick box for priority 1, 2, 3 etc.

 

The other thing I found is that the paperwork they used here when I first arrived had a section for "any other contacts" which didn't ask for any details beyond name and phone number. Some kids ended up with 5 or more contacts!

 

The new paperwork I brought over from my last school has 3 contact boxes in order of priority, nominally mum, dad and 1 backup contact. A full set of details is collected for each contact - this also helps keep contacts unique as with that much information we can match contacts to existing contacts stored within SIMS. A huge number of parents are backup contacts for other peoples kids etc.

 

An explanation of what the priority 1 is used for wouldn't go amiss.

 

It does feel like herding cats at times, but isn't that half the fun of working in education?

[tben2505]

Well the trick there is to don't let them self prioritise independently, give em one bit of paper (per student) for contact details and a tick box for priority 1, 2, 3 etc.

 

The other thing I found is that the paperwork they used here when I first arrived had a section for "any other contacts" which didn't ask for any details beyond name and phone number. Some kids ended up with 5 or more contacts!

 

The new paperwork I brought over from my last school has 3 contact boxes in order of priority, nominally mum, dad and 1 backup contact. A full set of details is collected for each contact - this also helps keep contacts unique as with that much information we can match contacts to existing contacts stored within SIMS. A huge number of parents are backup contacts for other peoples kids etc.

 

An explanation of what the priority 1 is used for wouldn't go amiss.

 

It does feel like herding cats at times, but isn't that half the fun of working in education?

 

Indeed - though in our school there are many many "other contacts" - more than 2 - we have nannys, housekeepers, secretaries, you name it - bit of a minefield!

[PhilNeal]

Parental responsibility and court order fields are critical in messaging contacts, at least using InTouch. SIMS won't message contacts that are not parental unless specifically sent. Court orders override everything.

[tben2505]

Yes we have the in touch ticked for those who have asked to be communicated for mailing etc - I was more concerned with the order in which parents are typically telephoned by teachers - a solution of which is offered by using priority 1 and 2 for both parents.