Data Collection for new pupils

[justjay]

Hi,

Hope I'm posting in the correct place!

 

I've recently been put in charge of turning all the paper copies of the new starter forms, into a digital format - being able to carry this info straight over to SIMS would be an added bonus!

 

At the moment we send out approx. 6 forms, consisting of 15 sheets of paper to each year 6 parent (pupil registration, pupil background, photo consents, catering etc). If we can make this all digital then it would be a huge saving on time and money.

 

Is there a platform, or any other way of doing this that you would recommend?

 

Thanks,

Jay

[DavR]

Google Forms would be the obvious one, you can collect all the info via a web form and have a nice spreadsheet (well, Google Sheet you can export) at the end. Not sure if you could then manipulate that to upload in SIMS Admissions?

 

You'll need to do a DPIA before using any new system for this, as you will be putting A LOT of personal data through it.

[Boredguy]

If you already use Google G-Suite, then as Dave suggests you can use the Google Forms

If you use Office 365, then you can use the Forms in there.

 

We have been using the 365 Forms for all our covid test responses from students and staff (as well as surveys) and the office staff have quickly grasped how to set them up and the fact that all the data is available as a spreadsheet for both, and the data is held within your environment so if you've already done the DPIA on it, you don't need to go through it again for another platform

[jmak]

For new starters (assuming you're a state school) you should get an atf from the local authority which you can upload into SIMS. This normally creates a basic record for each child including parental contact details.

 

You can get SIMS parent app lite free, which you can then ask parents to use to provide additional data. This can then be automatically uploaded to SIMS once verified.

 

https://www.ess-sims.co.uk/products-and-services/sims-parent-lite-app

 

As others have suggested, you can create a web form which has the advantage that parents don't need to download anything to complete it, but the disadvantage is that there's no approved way to automatically upload it to SIMS. I created a form by going through the pages in SIMS and making the fields match exactly with links to different sections so that parents didn't have to repeat the same information (eg where multiple contacts had the same address).

 

There is a script created by an edugeek which automates upload from a csv and write a few people have used it successfully, but it's not officially supported and there's no means of reverting if it goes wrong.

 

https://www.edugeek.net/showthread.php?t=99098

Edited May 17, 2021 by jmak

[enjay]

We're looking at some third party products for this, because they feed the information into SIMS for us.

 

That said, even a Google Form has advantages over paper forms, because you don't have issues with trying to read handwriting. I'm cautious about uptake of a Google Form though, as some parents might prefer something more professional-looking. Google Forms even say "don't send passwords" via them, so some people might feel uncomfortable entering medical details, passport numbers, etc. via them.

[enjay]

You can get SIMS parent app lite free, which you can then ask parents to use to provide additional data. This can then be automatically uploaded to SIMS once verified.

 

https://www.ess-sims.co.uk/products-and-services/sims-parent-lite-app

 

We tried this at my last school for data collection of the existing students. It requires a lot of housekeeping to set up, as parents will undoubtedly have multiple contact records in SIMS meaning they can't view all their children at once. For new intake, this isn't such a problem of course.

[Ditto]

We're looking at some third party products for this, because they feed the information into SIMS for us.

 

That said, even a Google Form has advantages over paper forms, because you don't have issues with trying to read handwriting. I'm cautious about uptake of a Google Form though, as some parents might prefer something more professional-looking. Google Forms even say "don't send passwords" via them, so some people might feel uncomfortable entering medical details, passport numbers, etc. via them.

When I was at a 'Google' school we (often office staff once I trained them on forms creation) used Google Forms extensively to collect data from parents. We found the vast majority did so and I think most did so for convenience. We had one objector, he just didn't trust Google at any level and refused to use their products. That was a challenge because he wanted to register to a limited seating viewing of a school play his son was in. in the end, he was asked to fill in a paper copy. As much as anything, what we learnt is many parents need mobile phone devices supported, so Google Forms worked well.

[enjay]

When I was at a 'Google' school we (often office staff once I trained them on forms creation) used Google Forms extensively to collect data from parents.

 

Yeah, you're probably right actually. I remember at my previous school we used a Google Form when we gave up on Parent App Lite, and the significantly vast majority of parents completed it online (and most of those who didn't, it was lack of access not an objection to the process). Indeed, now I think back to that time, we had more complaints about SIMS Parent App requiring social media sign-on than we had when we asked for medical details in a Google Form!

 

 

We had one objector, he just didn't trust Google at any level and refused to use their products.

 

We had one of those too. They refused consent for their child to have a Google account or for any of their data to be stored in Google. We politely told them we didn't need their consent!

[steveg]

We did this last year using Microsoft Forms, into an excel spreadsheet. Admin team ended up manually pasting into sims as wasn't a very long job. This year we are hoping parents will enter straight into Arbor app.