Creating registers for extra curricular activities in NOVA T?

[SteveRichards]

Hi all,

I would appreciate you thoughts / advice here...

As timetabler I've been asked to look into creating after school study registers that would appear on teachers timetables on SIMS. (The registers would follow already existing curriculum groups in year 11, such as "11xa/en")

 

My own thoughts on how I could achieve that are that:

1. I could create an additional 'Period 7' on the Nova model and then just build the newly required sessions. However I've read numerous warnings and golden rules about how I should NEVER change the model in the middle of an academic year and that this can cause massive problems.
   
2. Someone has suggested that I could use alternative curriculum, however I cannot see how this would be helpful seeing as currently no period exists either for mainstream or alternative. Anyway, assigning an entire year cohort through alternative curriculum is just an unfeasible task.
   
3. SIMS activities does exist for this purpose but it comes with a price tag, is untested and does not exactly have glowing reviews.
   
4. I could just do it the old fashioned way with a spreadsheet/db based system.
   

 

 

Any ideas appreciated but especially any feedback re points 1 and 2.

 

Thanks.

[Linfit]

Have been through this several times over the years, and your are entirely correct about 1 and 2. Alternative curriculum is fine but it has to match against lessons in the existing cycle.

I think it is possible to change the cycle part way through a year but my understanding is that it can cause discontinuity with attendance reporting.

If it was suggested I do this I would want some serious advice from my SIMS support unit - I wouldn't do it without their help.

 

Totally agree with 3 as well, we had it demoed to us and SIMS activities is one of their "doesn't work quite the same as any other bits of SIMS overpriced plug a gap in core functionality bolt on fixes", like Options.

 

We eventually solved this problem, and several others, by using Edulink, which allows staff to create after school "clubs" which they can populate with students and take registers for.

I suspect this would be substantially cheaper than a SIMS activities licence but its a serious communications platform so not something you would necessarily buy to just solve this problem.

[CAM]

I use this method and I do not recommend it, get yourself some software to handle the management of extra-curricular instead. Staff have to add their students manually because it isn't a compulsory session and I don't want students getting penalised for absence but I have to keep explaining this when I get requests to add the students on!