[sims] Using Tiers in Pastoral Structure

[PaulBilbrough]

Hello

 

Does anyone on the boards have any experience of using Tiers within SIMS.

 

We are a three site academy and would like to use tiers if possible. Currently the only way we can do reporting is by using the registrations groups as the first letter of the group denotes the site (i.e. 7Sxxx, 7Bxxx, 7Rxxx). I understand that tiers would allow easier and clearer reporting and also all for the setting of appropriate Heads of Year etc.

 

We have five year groups within each site so in effect we would need to have:

 

Tier R with Year groups 7,8,9,10,11

Tier S with Year groups 7,8,9,10,11

Tier B with Year groups 7,8,9,10,11

 

Is this possible and if so any ideas how to go about it?

 

I am creating the new academic year on the 28th.

 

Thanks

 

Paul

[Sivadam]

Just set up the Tiers in Pastoral management, with the appropriate Reg Groups attached to the Tiers.

 

The Tiers are normally KS2, KS3 etc but I can see no reason why you cannot use this sytem.

 

'Tier' is a field that you can use in SIMS.net Reporting.

Edited June 17, 2011 by Sivadam

[vikpaw]

I think your concern is whether you can add multiple year groups to the same tier, and you can add multiple year groups that are based on the same curriculum year [i just tried it] but they have to be named uniquely, both long and short name. I imagine the same would need to be true of the Reg Groups, so your convention would need to be used still.

 

The issue might come when you want to run a report on Y7 students, as the year groups would be Y7a, Y7b, Y7c etc. you might have to tailor reports to look at curriculum groups as a whole, rather than the individual year groups which would just be a subset.

 

I've never done this, just played a bit on a test server. If you can, perhaps you could test it out on a dummy installation, to make sure you're happy with it.

[PhilNeal]

Tiers are really for schools with lower, middle & upper school structures. We are about to introduce the ability to have separate timetables for each tier. I'm not convinced that they are for the purpose you have in mind - this sounds more like houses?

[vikpaw]

If it#s for physically separate buildings maybe it#s more like a partnership exchange solution required..

Can#t wait for tiered timetables, hope we can have 5 with shared resources inc. teachers..

[number34]

Tiers are really for schools with lower, middle & upper school structures.

'Student totals by tier' is one of the options from the Pupil icon in Discover. In this 11 -18 school I have recently defined two tiers, Years 7 -11 and Years 12 & 13. I did this because I could not find a way of looking at attendance data for pupils in compulsory education in a straighforward way and I am sure I will find other uses for the tiers.

[vikpaw]

'Student totals by tier' is one of the options from the Pupil icon in Discover. In this 11 -18 school I have recently defined two tiers, Years 7 -11 and Years 12 & 13. I did this because I could not find a way of looking at attendance data for pupils in compulsory education in a straighforward way and I am sure I will find other uses for the tiers.

 

You may find it useful to structure it so each key stage has it's own tier. It's not what it was intended for, but works well.

[number34]

Morning Vik,

I did think of doing it by KS but wanted to have years 7 - 11 in one distinct group. A separate KS3 and KS4 did not do what I wanted in Discover. (An aside - I found that defining my own Discover group containing years 7 to 11 was next to useless) As to tiers I could really do with sub-tiers with Year 7 -11 having KS3 and KS4 below and then the years attached to the Key stages.