[sims] Starting the new Academic Year early

[Seb1780]

For as long as anyone can remember, we have always started our academic year on 1st September. However, we use Go4Schools and this will not update until SIMS has rolled over to the new year and we always end up with a mad panic and a lot of work throughout September getting Go4Schools ready for the new year.

 

My thinking is that I could start the new year at some point in the holidays thus gaining some time when things are quieter to do the setting up of Go4Schools.

 

The "other place"* is full of tales of woe and caution about doing such a thing, citing reasons ranging from the census to exam results all being affected. My gut feeling is that nobody has really looked at this because "we've always done it this way".

 

Does anyone here know, with certainty, what the effects of starting the year early will be?

 

Thanks

 

*TAFKA SupportNet

Edited April 18, 2016 by Seb1780

[Banjo]

I think you'd be the first to try this. Please keep us updated on how you get on reporting your attendance figures for the census.

[PotNoodleTech]

I think the reason no one has started the academic year early before is because the academic year starts on 1st September, not before!

 

It sounds to me like you're trying to fix the wrong thing. Go4schools should have the ability to import "future" data from the next academic year in SIMS so that everything gets imported ready and you can crack on with making sure it's all sorted before Sept 1st.

 

If Go4schools doesn't allow you to do this then maybe you should ask them, I should imagine every school that uses them will have this exact problem?

[Seb1780]

I think you'd be the first to try this. Please keep us updated on how you get on reporting your attendance figures for the census.

 

I'm not sure how this would affect attendance, can you please elaborate?

 

I think the reason no one has started the academic year early before is because the academic year starts on 1st September, not before!

 

It sounds to me like you're trying to fix the wrong thing. Go4schools should have the ability to import "future" data from the next academic year in SIMS so that everything gets imported ready and you can crack on with making sure it's all sorted before Sept 1st.

 

If Go4schools doesn't allow you to do this then maybe you should ask them, I should imagine every school that uses them will have this exact problem?

 

Every school does have the same problem, and I have asked them to look at this issue but until it is addressed I'd like to explore ways to use my time more effectively.

[Banjo]

If the school is open on the 1st Aug for a new academic year, then the DfE will be expecting attendance codes for your students for that month. I have no idea what an individual attendance sheet would look like with August at the start and at the end? What date would you put down for the enrollment start date for Y7? August or Sept?

 

Nobody can tell you the definitive this will go wrong or you need to check this as I don't believe its ever been done before. You'd be the first, a true pioneer, Blériot, Yeager, Hillary, Armstrong, XXX Secondary Academy.

[Seb1780]

My thoughts were to start the school year on 29/08/16 - after the exam results were in to prevent any issues with that. All new enrollments start on that date but with the school calendar set for three days holiday followed by two PD days - children attend from 5/9/16 onwards and I get a week to do the changes in Go4Schools.

[PhilNeal]

Normally the problem with TP applications and new academic years is that they require pupils to be admitted; they use the adno to make the link. Admitting pupils before they arrive is not good practice.

 

It is possible for them to avoid this problem if they engage with our partner team we can advise.

[studio]

My thoughts were to start the school year on 29/08/16 - after the exam results were in to prevent any issues with that. All new enrollments start on that date but with the school calendar set for three days holiday followed by two PD days - children attend from 5/9/16 onwards and I get a week to do the changes in Go4Schools.

 

Apologies to bump an old(ish) thread but did you get any answers about this as we are looking at doing the same thing?!

[Seb1780]

Hi @studio - no, I didn't get any answers other than those above which, as you can see, were definitely against the idea. In the end we went with 1/9/16

[vikpaw]

There used to be lots of documents about starting the curriculum early. It was not best practise, but "lots" of schools did it.

I know you can pull the date forward for the start of the year, we frequently had it in mid-August, but we didn't have to deal with census or exam results so two bullets dodged. There's no reason not to pull it forward and fill the gaps with vacation days.

I'm pretty sure there was a school or two who would start the year back in June / July to give some kids a head start on the next year's work.

 

Admitting students early is probably the biggest issue, because you have to be careful that you admit them to the correct year, and don't end up promoting them up with the rest of the kids.

SupportNet used to have a fair amount of guidance docs on this, but they probably didn't make it to YourAccount I can probably dig out a copy of the 'Starting next year's curriculum early' guide.

[ItsOggy]

I have just changed a school from starting the new academic year at the end of July back to the September start.

 

No one really knew why our year started in July, moving back to September gives us more time to do the end of year stuff, fees, reports and mapping a for new year!

[MkII]

Hi @studio - no, I didn't get any answers other than those above which, as you can see, were definitely against the idea. In the end we went with 1/9/16

 

We're new to G4S and I was expecting to be able to start working on it on 1/9/16 but the year hadn't rolled over and I was told it wouldn't happen until 5/9/16 on the pupils first day back. Not the first day of term and the teacher training days of 1&2/9/16. A tad frustrating as we'd planned to train staff to use it. We're also told that as the whole of the UK rolls over on that day it's pot luck if it's working in time for registration.

 

Phil Neal seems to be saying that it's something that Go4Schools could fix easily. I'd love some more precise info on that to pressure Go4Schools with.

[PhilNeal]

Schools across the country have different "start of year" dates. Our software will cope with that and report attendance accurately to the DfE etc.

The issue arises when TPs link their systems to fields that are not filled until either the children are admitted i.e. the AdNo or the UPN which may not be known when the child record is created.

Also the UPN is also supposed to be a hidden number used to link at the Department and not openly used within the school. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/270560/Unique_Pupil_Numbers_-_guidance.pdf

[rabsmith]

Reviving this old thread as the issue is still ongoing with go4schools. Very frustrating. We upgraded and added the seating plan module too, and staff cannot use it to plan in these training days as nothing has loaded for this academic year.

 

No timetables. No class lists. No seating plans. No data. Kinda defeats the purpose of go..putting data in front of our classroom teachers?

[MkII]

In the manual it says you can use Go on training days if you set your beginning of term to the first day of school instead of the 1st day of term for the pupils. We set ours to the 1st day back for pupils and had the same problems (dunno why the academic year was set to that but it was. Next year!).

 

It is something of an issue in Go. There are ways to cheat by pushing some changes through to be effective immediately. Those wouldn't be convenient for a lot of changes, and there's enough work to be getting on with anyway!