[sims] Nova T6 Derived years error

[GAATaylor]

I've been drafted in to a school to help out with some nova6 and general SIMS work whilst the timetabler is off on maternity leave; the school has a vertical tutoring system with Y7, Y8..., Y11 combining together for activities during period 6. This has been set up as a derived year called VT.

 

The timetable schedule works perfectly but the timetabler has made a mistake by setting Y7 - Y11 as derived from VT, with the derived year VT being set up as the source. This is completely the wrong way round and is causing problems in the cover module (so far!).

 

I know how to correct the error but am worried about losing details of which pupils are in each teaching group, and the nature of the period 6 activities means that re-entry of these would be an absolute nightmare.

 

No new blocks will be created (beyond the derived from and source blocks) and no class names will be changed. My gut feeling is that class membership will be OK...but has anybody previously trodden this path and able to offer advice?

 

Many thanks,

 

Glenn

[bobsmith]

can you dump out a load of SLK files just to be safe?

[GAATaylor]

Thanks, Bob.

 

Erm...probably. What and where are they, though? I have a distant recollection that SLK files were in some way related to Excel...but this doesn't immediately sound relevant or correct. I don't have access rights on the server (beyond what I need for managing SIMS) so what is entailed by your suggestion?

 

TIA,

 

Glenn

[FishCustard]

What I always did when called to help with Nova-T6 (which I knew nothing about at the start!) was to duplicate the file, try whatever unholy ritual I was going to try, see what happens. If I ended up summoning Beelzebub by mistake I just deleted my test file and started again!

 

Can always duplicate the SIMS DB to try an import if you need to as well (I did that too).

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

What problems is it causing in cover as I've seen schools do it both ways without any reported problems?

[bobsmith]

Thanks, Bob.

Erm...probably. What and where are they, though? I have a distant recollection that SLK files were in some way related to Excel...but this doesn't immediately sound relevant or correct. I don't have access rights on the server (beyond what I need for managing SIMS) so what is entailed by your suggestion?

TIA,

Glenn

In Focus > School > Academic Structure > Curriculum Assignment by scheme, you can open a scheme and then dump out the current contents (student vs class) into an SLK using the "Allocate" button and then export.

 

This does indeed produce an excel readable file - don't mess with anything other than the class indicator tick (or whatever symbol it uses).

 

you won't need server access for this, just the relevant user permissions within SIMS.

[GAATaylor]

Thanks to both Bob and Esteban_COTS.

 

Esteban, here is the weird behaviour observed thus far:

 

1.Report | Student list | class list and then choosing Classes of years and selecting Y7 lists every class from Y7 to Y11 whilst selecting any other year produces none.

2.In cover, suspending all Y7 lessons for a single period also suspends all Y8..Y11 lessons happening at the same time.

 

Bob:

 

Your idea sounds like the way forward...dumping each scheme membership data into SLK files and then re-importing them or, if push comes to shove, using them to manually re-enter the students into classes in the "new" blocks if things go pear-shaped. The timetabler has also made an identical mistake with Y12 and Y13 which come together during the same periods as Y7-11 do. I can start with Y12/13 as there are fewer classes than in Y7 - 11 so I can "practise" on this before going for the big one!

 

Many thanks to you both

 

Glenn