number34

We do very much the same as Steven. All reports are done using SIMS AM with text comments. Only the annual main report is printed, which is quite a saving as all grades and behaviour are colour coded. For the rest parents are sent an email when the most recent reports is available to view online using TASC Insight. We do print copies for those without accounts for Insight but have found that around 20% of parents do not use it and we are not sure how to get over this.

The diagram I posted on 4 Feb does show the relationships between the modules.

I find it easier is to use A* as the grade. Does not cause any problems in SIMS and I don't bother doing any analysis in Excel.....

PARS has nice option whereby you can send a message to all teachers of a pupil and also select that it is sent as an email as well. Not sure if SIMS does this unless you have Intouch.

We used Schoolcomms before Intouch was introduced and I would agree that it is now not as good. That said much of the functionality required is now available in other products other than Intouch or Schoolcomms. For example we use TASC Pars for registration and Insight as the parents' portal and emailing all teachers of a pupil, emailing teachers who have missing marks etc is available in the former and timetables and reports are viewable in the latter. Here I am trying to re-evaluate what we can already do and looking to rationalise our use of the various products that we have. The one advantage I miss is that if we used SIMS.net. SLG, Lesson monitor and Intouch that we would have a single interface but the disadvantage is that it would add significantly to our annual licence and maintainance costs.

Just change the dates in the select effective dates range that comes up at the top when you add a new mark sheet. You will also have to set the membership date once the mark sheet has been set up but it is relatively straight forward.

This whole topic is a mine field as you need to have good data on all of the KS2 results as a start. There are also the low, middle and high attainer groups that have to be considered as well. As Vik says it is possible to do all of this in SIMs but I would advise getting some training. Here the LA provide none but I have had been on a lot of excellent Capita courses that have given me the confidence to try to get to grips with this.

I would agree with Sylv3r about Capita support, we buy it through our LA but deal with Capita directly and find the service to be very good. It can be annoying to wait for the upgrades but site specific fixes are normally sorted out quickly. The cost is quite good when compare to the fees charged by some our our other suppliers. If we become an academy we would stay with SIMS and Capita, that is not to say it is the best but we have too much data and too much experience with it to even contemplate the costs and upheaval involved with changing.

That is a vey nice summary for a class, how often is it updated to reflect changes and how easy is it to do?

That table from SIMS can probably be duplicated in most secondary schools and I would agree that sometimes I add aspects and columns which seem to have no relevance at all, are hardly looked at and not understood by the vast majority of staff. My main worry is that hardly any of the people have any idea of how to interpret even the most basic statistics that are generated from the data and use them in the wrong way. However they are only doing what OFSTED and the DFE do all the time so perhaps it does not matter, especially as the various exam and curriculum sytems are changed so frequently that no valid comparisons of any sort may be made. On the subject of pretty mark sheets keeping them happy I find that lots of colour coding satisfies my SLT!

Ok, here we go: School 1200 pupils across KS3, KS4 and KS5. MIS is SIMS but we use PARS for registration and behaviour management, INSIGHT for parents' portal and SCHOOLCOMMS for email and some texts to parents. (Staff do not have offsite access to the MIS as we do not feel we can guarantee compliance with data protection at present) AM is used for all assessment data collection and analysis as well as all reports to parents. (We decided that profiles did not suit the school way of reporting) KS3 targets are mainly based on 2 levels of progress from KS2 but CAT data is used to inform subject leaders KS4 targets are 99% based on FFT D estimates using a formula decided by SLT that is based on the probabilities given for the grades. ALPS is used for all KS5 targets but ALIS is being considered. ALL tracking against targets at ALL levels is done in AM using both mark sheets group, result set, aspect and chance analysis where appropriate. Summaries are prepared in Excel only because I can format the layout but I refuse to do more in Excel. Discover is being used more on the pastoral side at present as the configuration involved in showing data from AM is both tricky and time consuming. Finance is all on FSM but bursar would probably like to move if we become an academy. TUCASI is used for payments. On a personal note I measure use of SIMS in decades not years but have only been the full time data manager for 4 years.

Normal, I did say get involved in as opposed to do it. If it is done using SIMS then I have ultimate responsibility so I make sure I can do it as well. I used to do all of the patches and upgrades but the network is so complicated with virtual servers, thin clients etc that it is now all done by the network manager. Ecclesbury, your title explains why you do so much with KS4 targets etc. I produce all of the comparisons etc but the decisions are taken by SLT, although as I have a maths and statistics background I try to make sure they view the data without too much bias, especially when setting performance targets..... More generally if you are involved in the SIMS curriculum setups in the school then it is essential that you work very closely with the timetabler and also find out how to use NT6. Again schools differ, for example here I control everything that goes back to SIMS.net and will therefore 'advise' on many aspects of the timetable.

This thread seems to be concentrating on setting up and analysing assessment data. There are many other areas that you will get involved in, eg attendance, census preparation, personnel, absence cover, online reporting, communication to mention a few. I do spend too much of my time on the assessment part and feel that most schools require a separate assessment manager to get the best use out of all the data collected.

I managed to wean them off this by making sure that they could find the mark sheets in SIMS, especially as they seem to have a constant need to identify EAL, SEN, FSM and pupil premium groups in amongst all the other stuff. Getting them to use Discover is good but it does need percentages to satisfy their craving for statistics.

I found the diagram attached when giving a talk to a year 12 ICT group. You may find it useful.Curriculum - User Forum - November 11 7.pdf

I've been a data manager for too long and agree with Phil when it comes to Excel. We have 1200 pupils and it is impossible to keep Excel up to date. For example our science department has Excel wizards and some very intricate and complex spread sheets but they have given up trying to track KS3 and KS4 progress in them as they were constantly having to alter the classes as pupils came and went or because of demotions and promotions. In SIMS the data is always there in the right place. I do use Excel for producing final printed versions of mark sheets but that is all. In general I would advise keeping close view on this forum and also the Capita support net. Also worth doing the Capita courses if you can get to them and can afford them.

I agree with Vik that it is a good idea but at the same time it can become unwieldy, especially with KS4 and 5 groups as they study a wide range of subjects and the mark sheets can contain 20 or 30 columns. Presenting a tutor group view/individual view of assessment data is a major weakness of SIMS and we tend to rely on printed reports based on the mark sheets.

May help to report that my windows 7 pc running Office 2013 has no problems with individual reports using AM.

Here we use SIMs backed up by INSIGHT as the parents' portal. INSIGHT has the parents evening functionality but we have not used it yet. Perhaps someone here can give some feedback on it to help both of us?

I can endorse Steven when it comes to the support that TASC offer for both PARS and INSIGHT. We have been using PARS for over 5 years and INSIGHT for 3.

I do use SIMS for the conversions and staff just have to enter their test marks. It is much better than using Excel.

A couple of points to make here. If the UMS associated with an exam module changes then it is highly likely that it is a new course or syllabus so I would not change the conversions and instead use a different aspect. Here I record the actual score in a separate aspect to the UMS. You may also find that the relationship between the actual score and the UMS changes from exam season to season, witness the recent furore over GCSE English, and it is not always a simple scaling conversion as the gaps between grades are not always the same.

Using Insight is a no brainer when it comes to the cost and the level of support. You can easily host it on your own IIS server. My only caveat would be about the wiki-based documentation; it is not always easy to find what you want.

I always make sure that they add up - who checks them? I have never been asked for proof and if there were any questions about them guess who would be asked?

We use PARS for registration and there is an option for a user to export and import .ics files. I have also noticed that it synchronises with outlook and shows appointments etc on my PARS homepage.