AlistairB1983

I've refrained so far from adding to this conversation, for not wanting to make it feel like I'm 'piling on' when this is clearly a decision that wasn't taken by yourself. But, as one of said admin users (currently a Data Manager and oversee the Exams Officer), I would just add that almost every admin role is immeasurably quicker and easier with Arbor than it is with SIMS (and I'm sure would be with Bromcom or any other MIS that's not stuck in the dark ages). Yes, there is a learning curve (but it's not particularly steep!), but in reality they'll have made back any time spent training within the first term of use. Just for exams alone, being able to copy/duplicate seating plans saves the EO literal hours as compared to SIMS. The census takes me minutes instead of days. The list goes on. I appreciate this very much isn't your decision, and it's one that's already been made, but honestly it's really frustrating to witness admin staff in schools being so belligerently closed-minded as adopting new approaches that they force the rest of the school's user base to continue to use a sub-par product and, most likely, end up costing the school thousands of pounds in terms of extra fees for a multitude of products that would be entirely unnecessary if they just allowed the school to use software developed in the 21st century.

Probably not that helpful/insightful, but my son's nursery uses Family and it seems to be a very intuitive system and we've never had any issues regarding receiving/paying invoices. Obviously what it's like to run/manage from the other end, I've no idea. But the nursery has been using it for years, so I'm going to assume it's not THAT bad at least!

The students themselves? They have to learn that the system is not 100% effective (neither is using a manual scribe - which I know to my own cost through personal experience in previous exam seasons), and so they need to learn where the system has gaps and how they go about overcoming them. So in my above example, after that initial instance where the system struggled to understand what the student was saying, she learned that sometimes it has a problem in which case after the 2nd or 3rd attempt to say the word, if the software still didn't get it she put her hand up and asked the invigilator who told her how it was spelled and she typed it in manually. Is the system perfect? No. It is going to be helpful for every student? No. We have one student who has MS who the system flatly couldn't understand, so she will be using her laptop that has predictive text enabled to allow her to type fast enough to complete her exams. But even with it's non-universal coverage, it's still saving the SEND department hundreds of pounds in terms of man hours, and allowing our (ever decreasing) pool of TAs to actually support existing students in lessons rather than be continually dragged into exams to support Year 11s/Year 13s (as they have been in previous years, and are being for the current summer season. We're losing over 100 man hours of TA time just to accommodate readers/scribes for our outgoing Yr11s/Yr13s).

Their legal team definitely aren't the sort who like puppies.

We moved to Arbor a couple of years ago in part due to my (as Data Manager's) repeated insistence on it being better and cheaper than SIMS. When we eventually got a new Deputy Head (and my LM) in post, who also happens to be a Computer Science teacher, the switch happened fairly rapidly. We're unlikely to move away from them any time soon. For all their faults (and there are indeed many), they still seem to be vastly superior to virtually all the competition - either because of MIS design (for SIMS) or for uptime/lack of daily issues (for Bromcom).

We've just started using it - so have trailed it in the Year 10 mocks that just took place and will be using it for one of our upcoming Year 11s who needs a reader. As a word processor, it's without issue. Does everything it needs to do. As a scribe, it can get stuck with certain words. One student spent several minutes trying to get it to type 'dimming' without success before having to think of another way of saying it. This was unfortunately partially caused by the student's relatively strong Indian accent, but even some of our White British students have struggled at times. As a reader, it has some issues. It can't read mathematical or scientific formulae correctly (e.g. pronounces H20 as aitch twenty, would pronounce y = x - 3 as why equals ex three (yes, it misses the minus symbol), etc.) and - particularly if using scanned - it can have difficulties when trying to highlight the words you want it to speak. However, all that said, it's still going to save both the exams team (i.e. me) and the SEND team time and resources when it comes to exams. And considering how cheap it is, there's no real reason not to get it.

Decided to try and get a new army ready for 11th, and found some nice 3D minis to go with instead of the official (and ludicrously expensive!) Tyranid range. So here's my new Norn Emissary, Zoanthropes and Neurotyrant.

Unfortunately I can't help but echo some of the other replies. Whilst sticking with SIMS NG to help refine the product and make it a viable alternative is a noble act, it requires schools sticking with an evidently sub-par product when superior (and often cheaper!) products already exist. If a school is happy and/or committed to continuing to use SIMS, then absolutely they should try using SIMS NG to help improve the product, but we shouldn't be trying to coerce/suggest people stay with an obviously inferior product just to be guinea pigs to try and help it improve.

Now that's a show I'm willing to tune in for!

Which, if that is indeed the case, is at least reassuring that they know where they're headed. Whether that turns out to be any good or not still remains to be seen.

Eh, I'm kind of on the fence about it. I always have somewhat of a question over shows who seem to abandon their entire premise to go down (seemingly) random alternative paths that seem very far fetched. Will definitely be interesting to see where they decide to go with it in S3, but I'm definitely more cautious about it than I was S2!

Just in case anyone wasn't aware, here comes 11th Edition: Warhammer 40,000: The new edition is revealed at Adepticon Preview 2026

That's not a new computer, it's the same computer just with different bits ....

Would that I could. Not booked time off work for a computer game since the original Space Marine was released back in 2011! Sadly parental responsibilities (both financial and time-wise) means I doubt I'll even get a chance to play this one, nevermind taking a day off for it!

Just got around to watching the first 5 episodes and yes, totally agree with your reaction regarding episode 4. Also feel like the 'hate' (for want of a better term) around the series so far has been wildly overblown. Is it the same as the first season? No, but then it needed to be slightly different anyway. And it's clear that the stories are clearly leading somewhere (some have already started linking together), so it's all 'relevant'. Some people really just aren't happy unless stuff is exactly the same/how they imagined it.

Yep, we do the same here. Don't use either of the other two.

What are they planning to use SchoolComms for that Arbor itself can't already do?

I get most of my 3D prints off of myminifactory.com although this is for models rather than terrain, but I know a few of the creators I buy from also do terrain so it should be possible to find.

Can wholeheartedly support the recommendation of Firestorm. Between them and Element Games, they're pretty much my two go-to's if I'm buying anything official (although, truth be told, since my friend bought his 3D printer that's becoming less and less these days!). But agreed that there's absolutely no reason to buy from the beast itself, as virtually every 3rd party store either has what you want in stock, or can order it themselves from GW. So it might take a couple of weeks longer to arrive, but it'll save around 15-20%. The starter sets are usually great for several reasons - usually they're pretty good value, plus they include all the basics you'll need. Wargamer did a decent article on the various flavours of starter box currently available: What's the best Warhammer 40k starter set to get in 2026? Though I would definitely highlight the '11th Edition' paragraph as worth paying attention to - chances are the rules are about to change in the summer (though probably not massively), so it might be worth holding out if you can as there'll probably be new starter boxes coming in the summer.

Because once you move over you'll want to spend some time checking the accuracy of your data/getting everything embedded etc. September is obviously a month when you'll have a whole bunch of not only new data (with new Year 7s/Year 1s joining) as well as new staff members. It's just an extra complication on an already stressful month. But, things will pass. It's not the end of the world and everyone will get through it. The main thing is to make sure your Data Manager is up to speed with it all in time for the census in October.

What sort of areas are you looking for pointers on? Having completed the move, twice, most recently a couple of years ago over Easter, I would say that their migration team/process is extremely thorough and handled pretty much everything we needed to know/ask, and the few things it didn't we were able to get direct help for. I think perhaps my main piece of advice would be to ensure that all relevant staff complete their training programmes BEFORE the summer and, if possible, utilise as much time on the 'dummy site' as possible to try and become familiar with it. Although they might forget some of it over the summer when the actual transfer takes place, they'll be quicker to find their feet in September. That and make sure to manage people's expectations (especially teachers!) effectively. Arbor does not work EXACTLY like SIMS, so staff need to remember that and rather than trying to repeat the process, they need to find a new way to achieve their end goals. i.e. rather than running 'their' report from SIMS, they might now have to run a slightly different one in Arbor, but net result is they get the same sort of data to achieve their goal (e.g. reporting attendance/similar). Launching in September isn't personally what I would ever chose, but a local Secondary here made that switch this year and, apart from a couple of emails from them (as I offered to help answer any questions) it seems to have been a relatively straight forward process. Happy to try and answer any questions you might have about the move. Although should clarify I'm a Data Manager rather than on the IT team, so I can't answer any of the 'back end' type questions.

Have to admit, the reviews I've heard about it so far have me ... nervous about watching it. I still will, as I often find myself disagreeing with 'professional' reviewers (and a large portion of the viewing public too it would appear), but yeah ... not a great start.

We absolutely loved that show. The first series was very emotional towards the end. The second series has also been done amazingly well to allow for the continuation of the story past it's 'original' end point.

You can buy a separate footrest for the Ikea high chair - they're available on Amazon for like £15.

My wife isn't/wasn't quite that old, but we also knew it was going to be our only baby for various other reasons. Spend the money on a pram/car seat, sure. But a high chair really isn't the place for a 'name brand' to hold any sway.