Little-Miss Posted January 3, 2011 Posted January 3, 2011 I am just filling out a questionnaire for our LA as we would like to start rolling out electronic registration in our classrooms. One question asked if we wanted SIMS Dinner money installed as well. I know we have this in the office so assumed it was more of an Admin thing, but have never had any personal experience of it. Is it where it records which children are having school dinners that day or is it actually the money side of it? Do you trust teachers with it?
rh91uk Posted January 3, 2011 Posted January 3, 2011 I don't know an awful lot about it as we don't use it - I do know its a module that is used for the financial side and has certain reporting techniques etc if they owe money. It also looks at Attendance to see whether they are on trips, absent etc so they don't get charged accordingly for dinners (I think..) Try this case study ..... http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/Web/corporate/pages.nsf/Links/3BBB2ED36C68FE51802572A7004D44DF/$file/Primary+SIMS+case+studies.pdf which seems to detail alot of it. 1
PhilNeal Posted January 3, 2011 Posted January 3, 2011 There are two aspects to Dinner Money. The office retain responsibility for dealing with the money. Teachers when they mark the register can switch to another tab that records what the children want to eat - its all filled in by default so all teachers have to do is make individual changes. 1
PhilNeal Posted January 3, 2011 Posted January 3, 2011 Registration in classrooms will save your school an enormous amount of time and allow your office staff to do more useful things. Interestingly schools also say that children see attending as much more important!
GeeHubb Posted January 4, 2011 Posted January 4, 2011 (edited) We use it. We don't have SIMS in the classroom (don't ask) so it's all done from the office. I do Attendance, my colleague at the next desk does dinner money so we can double check both. Can pick up absences from Attendance (though I think we disabled that bit as I occasionally overwrote her dinner marks if we both happened to be working on the same class at the same time). It records monies paid by the child and produces statements and letters to parents. Works perfectly for us! Would I trust the teachers with it? Well, given that they can't complete the paper dinner registers or attendance registers correctly I don't see why giving them a computer to do it on would make any difference! It can also be used to record staff meals at different rates and can cope with things like Christmas dinner being a different cost to everyday. Should add that we are a Primary School of 320 pupils. EDIT: Sorry should also have said that it produces statistics for the kitchen staff and lists for the mid-day staff. The one thing I still can't get it to do despite Change Requests etc. is print a list of children going home for lunch (listening Phil?) Edited January 4, 2011 by GeeHubb Added a bit! 1
Little-Miss Posted January 4, 2011 Author Posted January 4, 2011 LOL! Blimey, i didnt realise who Phil was until i just had a peep at his "about me". SIMS royalty eh.. lol
vikpaw Posted January 4, 2011 Posted January 4, 2011 (edited) If you've got an undertaking for class registers i'd push out dinner money at the same time. I didn't think it would be an option, if you have it in the office it must be everywhere. It makes sense to push the extra task onto them at the same time so there's only 1 resistance to change barrier, plus they are very closely linked. I, like GeeHubb, struggle to convince primary to do online registers Edited January 4, 2011 by vikpaw 1
Beduffshirl Posted January 7, 2011 Posted January 7, 2011 Do you work in a Birmingham LA school - If so I'm the main support person for Sims Dinner Money and Sims in general within Link2ICT. Happy to answer any questions you have - pm me with contact details and I will get back to you ASAP Mark 1
creese Posted January 7, 2011 Posted January 7, 2011 I support 50+ schools and many have been using DM since the old version. There are a couple of things lacking in DM7 but on the whole it is a good module. Phil (Prince Phil?) says there are 2 aspects, I would say 3. 1. Recording meals. 2. Recording payments and 3. Producing reports, specifically Banking and Catering Returns, although athers are also useful. As with Beduffshirl, you are welcome to PM me also. 1
Beduffshirl Posted January 7, 2011 Posted January 7, 2011 Thanks for PM - hope the techie bit goes OK I can't reply as I haven't posted enough yet ;-) but you can get my details if you need any help with the software side. Mark
vikpaw Posted January 7, 2011 Posted January 7, 2011 Hey guys, instead of pm'ing, if you ask and answer in public then others can gain insight too
creese Posted January 7, 2011 Posted January 7, 2011 Hey guys, instead of pm'ing, if you ask and answer in public then others can gain insight too I'm quite happy to do either and take your point.
Little-Miss Posted January 7, 2011 Author Posted January 7, 2011 Hey guys, instead of pm'ing, if you ask and answer in public then others can gain insight too What if i said no! lol
vikpaw Posted January 7, 2011 Posted January 7, 2011 What if i said no! lol you'll find out on friday there is more than one use for the ban hammer
john Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 you'll find out on friday there is more than one use for the ban hammer Shhh Vik don't let on about that!
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