Sivadam

Tools, Setups, Attendance Setup, Letter Definition! You could also use AM7 Individual Reports!

That is correct.

Nah! That's for having a go at the SIMS knockers! Mind you - there appears to be a lot less than there used to be!

SLG works absolutely brilliantly with a WP7 mobile!

Duly Supported! I wish I could see LA forums on SupportNet and that LAs could see the School Forums. It would help with this sort of topic!

Nice observation Phil! Now that is something I CAN certainly agree with!

Would it be practical to get ALL the Classroom Staff to mark their Lesson 4 Register at the END of Lesson 4? Then you would get what you require - a PM Mark transferred to Attendance Registers in the PM. The snag is that there is then no time to chase any unmarked register before the end of that lesson!

I have to respond to a previous post that I find very insulting. Quotes, when taken out of context can be extremely misleading! The document is from an LA Site and the 'extra ICT Service support' refers to the extra support provided by that LA (Not Capita!) to their supported schools. Capita Partnership Schools only receive 'enhanced support' for two specific reasons. As explained in the document aimed at LAs, as per this quote: 'Although the schools do have some access to the Capita support teams this is not to bypass the excellent support they receive from the LA but is more of an emergency system to move issues on that have been escalated to us by the LA and is designed to help both parties resolve these more urgent and serious problems. This is a service that most schools will only use perhaps once a year.' Many Patches, KBs etc have been raised as a direct result of my personal inter-actions with Capita Support and the Forums on Supportnet, re. major issues affecting all schools & LAs! Bear in mind that we are a SIMS Direct School as well as being a UAT Associate School and a SIMS Partnership School! Some Partnership Schools often trial new functionality in advance of it being included in new SIMS Upgrades. As you are all no doubt aware, changing the functionality in one area of SIMS can adversley affect other areas. If this happens during the trialling of new software then an immediate 'enhanced' response is required from Capita support. This support has to be of the highest priority else schools would not risk using their systems to trial the new software. Apart from the above, new Support Cases from Partnership schools are accorded the same priority as other SIMS Schools & LAs.

This link should explain it for you:-

I think that I need to correct that misconception! Partnership schools do not get extra support from Capita. All cases have to be logged in exactly the same way as other schools and the cases are assigned exactly the same priority. The level of support is also determined by which support contract you buy into! There are no 'extra' favours! In my case I probably spend more time supporting Capita than the reverse!

This has been an issue for a considerable time. We have reported it via Cases a number of times and increased the Attendance workstations spec to a ridiculously high standard. We are still trying to isolate the real cause but at this time of the year the problem is minimal. The problem is made worse by:- Continual use throughout the day - we believe there is a 'memory' leak. It even crashes SIMS at times - especially later in the year. Using Schoolcomms at the same time as editing a whole school (we do a final a check before sending off the first day Absence Texts). Progression through the year as the Attendance part of the database gets bigger.

Maybe you should visit a school that is using it successfully! No doubt you will get a totally different evaluation Capita will be able to point you towards a SIMS Partnership School that is a Primary!

I'm afraid that what you want is not possible. As soon as the Register is taken in the specific lesson then it automatically writes back to Attendance. You cannot delay this. This would be at 11.30 in your example. All you could do is tell the staff to delay marking their Class Register until 12.00. Trying to get all the staff to conform, in the middle of a lesson, would no doubt be an impossibility though!

We have notices in several offices around school, the original copy of which came from my office. The notice says 'Isn't SIMS Wonderful .............? If anybody dares even think of answering in the negative then I always point out the error of their ways!

Yep, me too. Less than one hour at 7.15am. Several hours if started during the day when all Sheffield Users are on the very poor Broadband connection that we keep subscribing to (now there is another issue!) We have quite a large database! Though I expect larger schools will have bigger ones!

One would assume that one would have to re-zip that file anyway, to include the level of encryption required and reduction to as small as size as possible, as per Winzip v15.5 can produce? Or is that automatisable (is there such a word?) as well? If it is then I would have to wait to see the tekkie to find out what each encryption password was! I am one of the few that was glad when Sysman stopped producuing automatic zipping because we still had to re-zip the zip, to encrypt it, before an ftp upload!!

The pleasure is all mine. Glad you got it sorted ok!

No Thank you. I prefer my Backup routine from Sysman! Why should we have to use functionality that has worked for many, many, many years when there is no real reason to do so. Coincidently my Technical colleague agrees with me. And so did others at UAT including some of the Capita Staff!

Because I need them on demand! I checked my Email at Home on Wednesday evening and by 7.30pm the next morning a dataset was on it's way to Capita Support, via ftp upload, in relation to the Home page issue! I had backed up SIMS via Sysman6, copied it to my PC, zipped it up via Winzip v15.5 and it was uploading well before there were any other major demands on our broadband connection! Had the request been made for the data mid-day then I would have again been able to do it immediately!

It is very good. However, as I pointed out when testing it at UAT, not all System managers are on the Technical Team of a school. Indeed, some of the better ones are not! ..... Now that should illicit a few responses!!!!! Such System Managers do need a way of producing SysMan backups before Sysman6 is turned off. I need them, amongst other things, to send to Capita Support and Capita UAT as and when required. I do not want to rely on one of the Technical Team doing this when they are not too busy (and that is meant in it's kindest sense!). Also, the Report in Sysman6 that gives default Passwords ought to be in System7 as easiy as it is in Sysman6. And I did said this in UAT before the release of the software, and I will continue to say it at each and every opportunity!

Thanks Phil. That's great news.

If you get a (1) after any field in SIMS it invariably indicates a duplicate. I doubt that this is any different. I would still pursue this further if you can. The Pastoral Setup and Promotion may not have been mapped correctly last year. As I cannot see your system, I am not sure how you would do this, being as you say the 'duplicates' do not show.

Is the following of relevance from 'Solution Search' on SupportNet? :- KB30664 - When a report is run to Excel the output is BLANK - SIMS .net Reporting

Have you checked the following in 'Solution Search' on SupportNet:- KB53778 - EOY - Old Reg Groups causing problems in Attendance

I have had a request for a copy of our dataset because the proposed fix needs wider testing/investigation.