SIMS to iSAMS - with SIMS End of Year processes

[Comedygold]

We have schools moving from SIMS to iSAMS in September. Schools are going to use SIMS as a read-only, for a few weeks on a perpetual licence. Most schools have migrated to iSAMS already, and all is good with that.

My questions are about end of year processes in SIMS and will the schools still need to do this, which might sound a bit bazaar but:

(1) Calendar. Does this need creating? Without the academic calendar being created for 23/24, SIMS will stop working in September, at roll-over - even as a read-only. So I presume the answer is 'yes'.

(2) Promotion. Does this need to be done also? Otherwise the students will not show as current or leavers in SIMS, and their Reg and Years will show in brackets. Which is okay, but will it have an impact on reports and also viewing/searching their data? I wouldn’t think so. But just checking. If they had to do promotion it wouldn't even have to be correct, this would just be to keep their records 'live' for any analysis or data checking purposes.

Ideally, we would like to stop the SIMS database at a certain moment in time and stop services on the server. But that isn’t happening.

We do still have ESS support, but this is getting urgent as September looms. Any suggestions are welcome from those schools that have been through this process. Or anyone who can advise. Many thanks