SIMS Parent App: first use

[trackers]

School has taken on SIMS Parent App, initially to allow electronic reports to replace paper, printing and postage.

 

I'd like to try a few test runs to see how it works.

 

Couple of early difficulties.

 

1. On the admin page there are references to patches that are need. I click on the links and SQL files are downloaded - I am not sure how to apply these patches.

2. Because I want to give parents access to "Individual Reports" I assume it is the Reports section that I give access to these - but how do I assign the reports to make them available? I have looked at the assessment tab and there is a section for making marksheets available but I don't seem to be able to add any marksheets - maybe this is because the patch is not applied yet?

3. Is the report made available by clicking the upload button on SIMS in the Individual Report section?

4. I would like to try at least one student per year group to see how the parent app will work for them - but I am not sure of an easy way to do this.

We have a couple of staff members who have children in some of the year groups so I suppose I could ask them to let me use their registration codes etc to access the app - but what about the other year groups - do I have to ask a parent for some temporary

access or is there an easy way as an administrator to do these checks?

 

These are probably very simple questions - but I have only had access to the program from this afternoon.

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

1. All the patches are on SOLUS3, you just need to take a note of the patch numbers and ask your SIMS support to release them to your school.

2. In SIMS you will need to access the menu route 'Routines | SLG & SIMS Online | Reports' (that's from memory so the working might be slightly different). You will only see it if you have the correct permissions in SIMS and the reporting patch has been applied to SIMS

3. Yes that is part of the process, once you've done that go tot he menu route mentioned in 2.

4. Assuming you are accessing the Parent App as a staff member in SIMS, you can temporarily add your self as a parent for a child to ghost them on the App, just remember to remove your self as soon as you have finished.

[trackers]

Thanks Esteban. The advice you gave got me much further.

1. It seems that at the minute I don't necessarily need the patches.

2. The Routines path to publish SIMS online worked.

3. The upload button, as you said, was part of the process.

 

still having a problem with question 4 though.

 

Do I add myself to the email contacts in the chosen student's record and make it the primary/main address?

When I went to send the invite to the(teacher) parent of the student in question, there is no email address beside the name when I go through the manage users stage.

Also when I look for my own name in the manage users area to invite or reinvite my name (and the name of the other administrator) doesn't show up - even though all other members of staff have their names there.

 

It all seems a little difficult for what seems to be a fairly standard idea...to look at what parents are getting when they access the app.

 

Any advice appreciated.

 

-

 

trackers

[MkII]

The invite email address is there from when the data was first pushed through. It's not live. So if you send an invite to a user with no email address, and wait for the online data to refresh, only then will you see an email address if it's on SIMS in school.

 

Confusing. Hell yes.

 

Re-invite...

 

You can only re-invite users that haven't yet been invited. So you shouldn't see yourself as you're already in.

 

[emoji16]

Edited November 18, 2018 by MkII

[bobsmith]

stopping and restarting the Sims online services on your server will force a refresh of the data without you having to wait for it to update itself.

 

We rolled it out to the parents of 1400 kids in October and we're nearly up to 50% take up so far, so it does work.

 

Just got to get the parents to actually sign up.....

[MkII]

Just got to get the parents to actually sign up.....

 

There's the rub

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

Thanks Esteban. The advice you gave got me much further.

still having a problem with question 4 though.

 

Do I add myself to the email contacts in the chosen student's record and make it the primary/main address?

When I went to send the invite to the(teacher) parent of the student in question, there is no email address beside the name when I go through the manage users stage.

Also when I look for my own name in the manage users area to invite or reinvite my name (and the name of the other administrator) doesn't show up - even though all other members of staff have their names there.

It all seems a little difficult for what seems to be a fairly standard idea...to look at what parents are getting when they access the app.

Any advice appreciated.

trackers

You need to add yourself as a priority 1 or 2 contact to the student's record on SIMS with parental responsability (make sure it is linked to the staff record you onboarded for SIMS Online Services)

As you (or another teacher) is already onboarded for Parent App admin you don't need to send another email.

You don't need to change your address but you need to set the toggle in the Admin portal to allow contacts who don't live at the same address to see pupils

[bobsmith]

You don't need to change your address but you need to set the toggle in the Admin portal to allow contacts who don't live at the same address to see pupils

Don't do this on your live system if you've already decided to disable this for safeguarding reasons.

 

The only thing this controls is access to "data collection".

If you've got parents who live apart and where their partner's address is not to be shared, then disabling this would give them access.

 

Safer would be creating a dummy record to add to their student and you can even put their address against this dummy contact to give you full access to the students data in the SIMS Parent App.

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

Trackers said in their original post that they wanted to do some test runs first to understand how the system works, I'd agree you wouldn't want to do it in a live system but am working under the assumption that this isn't a live system yet and wanted to minimise the footprint in SIMS by not creating anything additional if it wasn't necessary.

[trackers]

I'll have to admit to being a bit lost with some of these suggestions at the minute.

 

Things I am not sure about/or how to do:

1. stopping and restarting the Sims online services on your server - I haven't done this so I don't know yet how to do it.

2. make sure it is linked to the staff record you onboarded for SIMS Online Services - A fellow admin might have used the onboard button - I haven't and don't know what it is.

3 creating a dummy record ?

 

Where I have got to is this - the system is not live yet but will be by Christmas

I have 2 teacher's who have students in the school who I have published a report to and it is appearing as I would want it to on their phone app.....so that's looking good.

 

...but I have added myself as a priority contact to a few student's contacts (with their parents permission while I trial the software)... I get an email with a link and code...but when it tries to register me , the process repeatedly times out. I am now wondering if this is to do with the address issue?

 

Trackers

 

Thanks to all those taking time to read and reply.

[bobsmith]

In no particular order:

 

1. the timing out is an issue I've logged with Capita Tech Support - it shouldn't be happening and looks like a problem at their end or with their app.

 

2. A dummy record is just a fake member of staff, this would allow you to change their details without consequence. the reason I suggest this is that for data collection access it's best to restrict to people living at the address with the student. Changing the address record of a fake staff member is not an issue, changing your personal address every time you want to attach yourself to a different student would be a pain.

 

3. On the server there's a bit of software from Capita called "SIMS Services Manager". You can slide a little toggle next to the "SIMS Online Services Client" to turn it off then on again. You'd only do this to force an update NOW rather than waiting an hour or so.