Reporting question

[trackers]

I am very new to SIMS and this is probably a very basic question......and a second question that is perhaps more of a problem...

 

1.

 

I am about to print out a set of reports.

 

Is it possible to remove an X from a marksheet field?

 

Because a "0" was entered for a tracking mark there is an X in the grade column on the marksheet and it is being displayed on the report.

 

If I remove the "0" - the X remains.

 

I think the settings are such, that if I could remove the X (which is greyed out) the report would not display the subject report.

 

 

2. We have a group of students who are repeating their AS year but have kept on one A2 subject.

 

In the A2 subject, when the reports are printed, they are picking up the teacher comment from the previous year (the AS year) rather than the A2 teacher comment that I would like to display.

 

I can manually change this on the exported Word document report - but am wondering if there is an easy way around this - because it is a problem that is going to present itself every year.

 

My predecessors tell me that they never found a way around this!

 

.....................

 

any advice appreciated.

 

trackers

[Mistert89]

Sixth form, a pain.

I always report on actual result dates, such as 1Sep to 30Nov2017 so that I don’t have last year’s data for repeaters. It’s the only way as many students seem to sped three years in the Sixth Form...

[Pink_Panda]

In my last school we set up academic year specific result sets for the 6th form, so: Year 13 Term 1 2017-18 for example, in my new school we use a date range as @Mistert89 suggests.

 

Regarding your first question, when you say you removed the 'o', did you right click the 'o' in the marksheet and select: view/edit history, highlight , then press the red x in the top right corner? If you just hit delete, the 'o' will be there again when you open up the marksheet. If the 'x' is greyed out that means that either the result set is locked, or is set as 'read only'.

 

To open a result set: Focus/Assessment/Result Set, find your result set, double click to open and untick 'locked', press save. You should now be able to delete the grade in your marksheet as per above. Remember to lock the result set again once finished.

 

To change the read only, go to: Focus/Assessment/Templates, find your marksheet template, and untick the 'read only', save. Then delete the grade in your marksheet as above. Remember to tick 'read only' again afterwards.

 

In Individual Report Templates, you can tick 'hide rows with no results' and 'remove report sections that contain no results', so nothing will be displayed for this subject.

 

Hope this helps.

[trackers]

Thanks for the reply Pink_Panda. Tried some of your suggestions. Changing the "read-only" in the Templates as you suggested seems to have got me there. We have 4 track grades per year and I was able to delete grades/scores 3 and 4 (that shouldn't be there yet) using this method you suggested.

 

It's going to be a bit of a slow process to do this for the group of repeaters in each subject - but if it is a one time job each year I think it will be worth it.

 

As I said I have just started using this program and this is something I was told couldn't be done - so thanks for your help.

I am just hoping that it doesn't cause any difficulties when the time comes to enter values in the cells by the teachers - ie the grades will still be calculated and grades generated as before.

 

I will have to see how I print out the next set of tracks using a date range - it seems that might even solve the problem I was having without the need for the process above...although I am not sure if I have this right?

[trackers]

Thanks Mistert89. As a new user - does this mean that when I go Focus>Assessment>Individual report>Year 13 Winter Report that when I select Students...that when the options window pops up and I select the year group that the date range I need to set is at the top of this pop up window?

 

I notice that at the moment it starts at 01/08/17 - perhaps this is a date that will pick up last years info?

 

Another - somewhat related question is:

 

I have a laptop that I can access SIMS on at home - it seems that I can do everything apart from generate the actual reports - when I try to do this SIMS freezes indefinitely. I wonder if it is likely to be a bandwidth problem or a laptop problem. I have BT infinity.

I wonder if I am trying to do something that it is not possible to do at home?

 

(Perhaps this question should be in a separate post too?)

[Mistert89]

Unfortunately, harder than that..

When you insert the links into the individual report template, you select the date range instead of a result set. Yes, many links and rebuild your report every time. I also make a combined Y12/13 report for the whole sixth form as they are often timetabled across both years.

 

In terms of running reports remotely, I use a RD app to run a real onsite PC as it often refers to “the C drive” so you need to effectively be on site.

I actually RD directly on the server - depends on your role... I am Sims manager and manage the network, so I can!

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

Yes, many links and rebuild your report every time.

 

You don't have to re-build your report every time, just clone it, show hidden characters and find/replace the dates.

[Pink_Panda]

no problem, trackers. Have a look at the help files in Sims on how to set up individual report templates. You need to insert tags that relate to the aspects in your marksheets, these aspects can be linked to a result set eg Year 13 Term 1 2017-18, or you select a date range, and most likely you select 'Recent'.

 

the date you mention, 01/08/2017, will be the start of your academic year.

 

If you are using a date range, and you deleted any previous data in your marksheets, that should not be a problem. The previous data will still be available, and any calculations will work. Should the data be left in when using a date range, it will be blank on the student's report, as it obviously doesn't apply within the date range.

 

I cannot help with your question regarding working from home in Sims, I'm not privileged enough to work from home, but I think Sims is a bit more restricted when you're not via the network. Someone else might be able to confirm this.

 

Regards

[trackers]

The advice given has been brilliant. I tried out the setting of the date range and as long as I do it for Grade, comment and teacher initials the reports I don't want from previous academic years disappear and the reports from the current year , appear properly.

 

When I do it for our A2 repeat students who have dropped from 3 to 2 subjects - the dropped subject no longer appears.

So all is good.

 

I am interested in Esteban Child of the Sun's suggestion about cloning and using find and replace.

 

Does this mean that using the find and replace I don't have to go through the fairly slow process of clicking on the aspect I want to change selecting "result" and browsing for the correct result or comment to insert?

I thought that maybe I had to do this to create the correct link - but if I don't then the process won't be so slow after all.

 

Does this also mean that on my simpler marksheet reports - that if my first report shows target grade and track grade 1 for each particular subject, that when our second phase of reports shows track grade 2 as well - I can copy and paste the text, change the 1 to a 2, rather than having to search for the correct track2 in the menus to insert it?

[Mistert89]

I didn’t realise you could do that edit, so try it. Esteban will certainly be right....

[Pink_Panda]

hello tracker

 

glad it's all looking good. Replacing the result sets in bulk is a bit fiddly, but once you got your head round it, it will certainly be quicker than manually changing every tag.

 

Here's a link to a thread, which will explain the steps: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/68755-how-bulk-update-result-set-individual-reports-am7.html

 

As it says in the thread, always make a backup before you start bulk replacing. You can copy and clone your original report template, save it under a different name, then work with the copy. Individual report templates can become corrupt quite easily.

 

Let us know how you're getting on!

[trackers]

Getting on..........ok. Must admit it is all taking up huge amounts of my time. The bulk update is something I'll put on the long-finger for now.

 

The IT in house expert left at Christmas so now it's pretty much up to me to learn as I go.

 

Latest issue is that simple marksheets are printing with some blanks even though I have a box checked that says it shouldn't print empty sections. The sections are empty because students are not taking a particular course - eg "Design and Creativity" - they are not in the marksheet class list, yet the subject is appearing on the students tracking sheet. I know there is a quick way to fix it somehow - but as I don't know it yet - I spent over an hour opening xml files - deleting the offending rows on the report table - saving and printing. luckily the offending subjects do not appear on the fuller "winter report" that includes all the teacher comments.