Sivadam

Also, Make sure that you have Updated Course Memberships in Academic Management so that the Y7 pupils show in the Class/Reg Groups Registers!

It is linked to the Optional Homework Webpart for SLG. It became available to use via SIMS in the Summer Release (if you buy into the webpart that is!). Without the Webpart you won't have the License for the SIMS bit! The Autumn Release sees another webpart to allow the same functionality directly via SLG, in addition to that in SIMS. I'll be testing this at Capita UAT next week! Then all I need is to somehow get our Hosted service to buy into the Optional Webparts somehow!

It is defo to do with the Detention panel. I have the issue too and also raised a Case with Capita Support. I have referred them to the thread on SupportNet. Anybody tried setting up a new Detention Session for the New Year? That may even resolve it. I can't try that until next week as the servers are down for building works!

If you open any spreadsheet timetable in NT6, then you can add any spare staff to any timetabled class. These staff will then not appear in the classes screen, so they cannot be the main class teacher!

I would guess that you have added the TAs via the Classes Screen in NT6. I assume that you have ensured that the Main Teacher has been assigned here! I never add Class Support Staff (either Teachers or TAs) via this method. I always add them via the Timetable Screens. Doing it via this method does not produce the issue that you describe in SIMS! If you transfer to NT4 you may get the issue there however! It is normal practice for the Class Support Staff to have access to the SIMS Registers, but not as the main Class Teacher!

This has been well documented on SupportNet. I would advise everybody connected with exams to follow the Notices and Forums on SupportNet. The same can be said of all aspects of SIMS! (And that is not decrying the support that is often given here!)

Sivadam working for Capita? That should make a few on here smile! No! I am just a high-end SIMS User in a SIMS Partnership School which is also a SIMS UAT Associate School. As such I work closely with Capita in the software consultations and testing to try to help them develop their products in a positive manner. I have now responded to your post on SupportNet, but we have a fundamental difference of opinion on this one. This just shows the difficulty that Capita have in meeting the 'needs' of all schools. We all have our different opinions even within individual schools themselves. With so many schools using SIMS it is simply impossible to suit all!

We can't actually 'make it happen'. The best course of action is to raise a new Change Request on SupportNet. I would also publish it there as the SupportNet Forums are more appropriate for getting this sort of message over and for getting support for a CR (with apologies to all SIMS users who contribute here - I know there are now far more here than there were a couple of years ago!). Your best hope is for it to appear on the plan for 2012/13 as it is now probably too late for 2011/12, though there are others with similar thoughts on SupportNet. Phil has already indicated that they may well be looking at the Conduct section of SIMS next year. If there are any consultation meetings re. this area then I would hope to get a place on one of them! However, there is no guarantee that such a request would ever get approved anyway. We are but two Users in nearly 22,000 schools - not to mention the views of the LAs and other Support Groups!

I agree that, in this case, it would be better if some of the basic setting up was done by an Admin person. Your original post did not refer to the original setting up of Detentions. However, it is a rather simple matter for any member of staff to set up a detention and some schools (in particular Primary Schools) simply would not have the admin resources to be able to setup and administer all the Detentions that might be required. A school may well be running Individual, Department, Year Group and Whole School Detentions. To actually remove the rights of Teachers to setup and use Detentions themselves would be a step backwards. To have a blanket 'You cannot do this because you are a Teacher' is most unhelpful to those schools that might be successfully using the system! If your CR asked for the school to have the Option of switching off this functionality for Teachers then that would be another story. If it could be added to the permissions in System7 so that you could use your own cloned Class Teacher Group then that would resolve the issue for you. CR No 1106-906831 already exists on SupportNet. I am the only one that has voted against it and do not mind divulging that information! To remove the Permission would not suit some schools! If the CR had been worded so that the school could choose to do this, rather than it being a blanket request, then I would have supported it! When I first introduced the concept of Department Detentions in SIMS some of our HODs bit my hands off to get hold of that functionality. They could see that it would be far more useful and easier to operate than anything they were using at that time! The myth that Teachers do not have time to do some things directly in SIMS needs, in some cases, to be destroyed. In many situations it is far easier and quicker for a Teacher to input the data directly into SIMS than it is to produce or complete a pro-forma for somebody else to do it for them. (Wow! I can now paragraph my posts again from IE!)

I am afraid I will be voting gainst such a CR. What about the scenario where Individuals and/or Departments hold their own Detentions as an interim or first measure, before the higher deterrent of Whole School Detention is imposed? Teachers themselves would maintain these sort of detentions! This serves as a good example of what I said above about CRs - they may suit one school but on the other hand they may not suit another! The functionality of the software in this case allows individual schools to use it to best suit the school's needs. Removing the right for Classroom Staff to edit Detentions would be a massive step backwards, as far as this school is concerned!

Maybe we are talking at cross purposes. Solving Problems with the software and Change Requests are slightly different. If there is a problem with the actual functionality of the Software then Capita Support will react to this accordingly. CRs are exactly what they say they are and so need discussion as to whether they really are enhancements to the system. You would be surprised how an 'improvement' to the software for one (or more) schools could be seen as a 'degradation' of the functionality to others. I have been there many times before! And I do appreciate that you are being constructive in your criticisms. My use of 'tied-down' was aimed at those that have used this term before when knocking the SIMS software when, in fact, the reverse is true!

The system does, in a way, work as you suggest. It does need some improvement however and Capita are well aware of this - especially in the CR area. The problem is that nearly 22,000 schools use SIMS in thousands of different ways. Contrary to many opinions that appear in some Forums, SIMS is a extremely flexible system that allows schools to configure it in a way that suits their own school best. If it were 'tied down', an expression that some un-enlightend critics use, then it would be far easier to follow the pattern that you suggest. As for contributing - the Software Consultation meetings are always advertised on SupportNet for any User or LA Support Unit to apply to attend. If the numbers that do apply are too high then Capita 'select' participants that will represent as wide a view as possible. They would also favour those that they know are high-end users of SIMS. You can also apply to take part in UAT, where schools and LAs trial new updates in advance of them being released. This is becoming easier to do now that UAT can be carried out on-line. Again, see SupportNet for details - there is a Sticky Item about this on the Homepage of SupportNet.

You have made no mention of the changes that some some customers would want that would seriously impact in a negative way on other customers. (I often very vigorously oppose some CRs that request changes to procedures, for legitimate reasons! Nor have you mentioned about the fact that what some customers would want may be at variance with the demands of external agencies such as the DfE. Such demands are often very late in being delivered to Capita as we regularly see when new Upgrades are released Maybe that is just two basic reasons that Capita consult their customers via Software Consultation Group meetings whereas other organisations might not follow that route!Unless you attend such meetings to see what discussions do take place then I think it is unfair to knock such a system (and apologies to you if you do participate!)

The Output from SIMS Learning Gateway Consultation July 2011 in now available on SupportNet as Resource 18270!

Because all the NT4 Reporting is not yet available in SIMS.net, Capita will still support Reporting from NT4, though nothing else is supported. I maintain NT4 in exactly the same way that I have always done ever since NT6 first appeared. As long as you maintain the Staff, Room and Subject databases in NT4 then you can export directly from NT6 to NT4 in the usual mannner, via the Transfer directory! And long may it continue - until all of NT4 Reporting is present in SIMS! This will obviously not help with a fresh install but have you not got a historical dataset that you can use that contains most of the info, which you can then update? Update Apologies - I just read the bit that says you do not have any previous NT4 data!

After two years with Capita Hosted SLG we moved to the Sheffield LA MLE/SLG hosted by Civica. I have been instrumental in helping them get it up and running with full functionality up to and including the Spring Release. It was too late to get the Summer upgrades done after Capita had to delay their release because of the DfE issues! We are currently looking at that now but the LA has not bought into the Optional Webparts (currently Homework) and I am trying to get some movement on that theme! May I add that my expertise is the use of the software and NOT the technical side of things!

Graham ................!!! I am shocked!!!

Currently there are 27 Pages of CRs in the Learning Gateway 2 category and 4 Pages in the ADPS category. (Searching from January 2009). At the Software meeting, the spreadsheet of CRs took up 14 pages of an Excel Spreadsheet! They had been divided into different Sub-categories e.g. 8 CRs for Parent Dashboard, 10 CRs for Profiles etc etc. Bear in mind that there would have been some combining of duplicates in this process! (I personally have 8 CRs for Profiles in SLG - one of which is supported by 106 votes). So a great deal of work had already been done prior to the meeting to collate the CRs! The relevant CR sections on SupportNet have not yet been edited since the Software meeting! I assume that this will be done once the SIMS development plans for next year have been agreed on!

And don't forget the most important people - the pupils themselves.....................! Why would a school purchase it and then not use it for Parents and Pupils?

Wherever possible the duplicates are amalgamated into one before the meetings. That in itself is a massive job and the participants of the meetings often spot others that need to be combined. Some CRs have already made it into the development stage before the meetings. The CR list is then tidied up (hopefully) for the following year! Some are removed as a result of explanations/consultations (as happened to a one of mine the previous year when I could not attend that meeting - even though it was fairly well supported!). Other CRs are adopted and added to the development schedule and some are left to run!

The link to Homework Record from Class registers in SIMS has been delivered with the Summer Release. In the Autumn release this will also be available via the class link of SLG Registers. I'll be having a look at that in September UAT! If you wanna take part you can still book for it on SupportNet! All I need to do now is somehow get the Sheffield LA MLE/SLG service to adopt the optional webparts either as a whole or for individually for schools that want to opt in! How you could check the staff are checking the pupils sounds a bit problematic though! Maybe I'll raise that one at the meeting!

The most recent Software Development Consultation meeting I attended was the recent Nothern version of the SLG Consultation, run by the Product Manager. The summary of the views of the two meetings have been circulated to the participants for further comment/clarification and information should be published on SupportNet shortly. Seeing the views of the two different meetings demonstrates the exceedingly difficult job that Capita have in prioritising their development plans! I have many priorities, which I voice quite regularly, but so has every other user of SIMS. Obviously those priorities differ for each individual! The number of votes on a CR is significant, but some less well supported ones are often prioritised. This can be as a result of the Capita staff understanding the issue in advance of a meeting. Or it could be pointed out by participants of the meeting why that particular CR should be a priority! And Capita Staff do listen! And I can vouch for the fact that they do react to the advice and requests of users!

System7 allows you to clone the default groups, such as Class Teacher, and you can edit the permissions in these cloned groups. These Groups are upgradebale via future releases. unlike in Sysman6. So............... If the functionality does not suit (error or not!), then you can have your own Groups with Permissions tailored to the school!

We have upgraded SIMS before SLG about five times over the past couple of years. There have been no ill effects on any of these occasions. Capita will still insist on their Advice - to Upgrade SLG first - so take your choice!

Surely it should be set up to 'Wipe it's a..e' first! A good first login at 6.55am..ish, each morning, works wonders for other users!