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Sivadam

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  1. Sivadam
    As do SIMS Upgrades if you use SOLUS3! You do have something to do though - decide which workstations you want to upgrade and when - i.e. it is totally under the control of the school. In my book that is a massive advantage. If you are in the middle of a big Reporting Session then you may wish to delay that upgrade until that Reporting Session is complete - especially if you know that there will be changes to the software in that area!!
  2. Sivadam
    It certainly should not have happened with SIMS - at least it has never been a general problem to my knowledge! No doubt CMIS Users will be able to comment in a similar vein re. their experiences!
  3. Sivadam
    If you check the specifications you will see that during 2011/12 the statutory requirements will change for 16 different areas. If you are a SIMS user then these are listed in Section 4 of the SIMS Entitlement Document (I assume that other suppliers have a similar document!). These changes all have to be written into the software in time for each Upgrade. And the list does not include any new changes that the DfE has not yet published. With a new Government there could be many of these! One wonders if this indicates that the software is not set up to it's optimum in the first place. Apologies if my thought is incorrect, but this sort of issue should not occur with either of the MISs that you mention.
  4. Sivadam
    As the one that first mentioned this - the argument I put forward is that the updates have to be done - not that it is difficult to do. As you say - you have had to do them for January Census! What does take a little longer are the new innovations that are often included in the software - innovations that have often appeared as a direct result of customer consultation and testing. Just look at the enhancements in SIMS Spring Release to see examples!
  5. Sivadam
    That does not mean that their opinion was a fact! Had my opinion been canvassed then they would have had been presented with a totally opposite view. And it isn't the only Becta opinion that I have disagreed with in the past! It seems that the Government also did not seem to value Becta, else they would probably have retained it ........ wouldn't they?
  6. Sivadam
    Which is exactly what I posted earlier in my first response. There are some of my analysis reports on Supportnet, as indicated!
  7. Sivadam
    Do you realise that this inavariably has to be done? There is now a school Census 3 times a year and the data that is collected is validated via the DfE Rules which invariable change for each census. This automatically eans that the MIS Providers have to upgrade their software to enable the validation rules to be included in the Data Collection part of the software! I wonder how many of you guys worked, or even taught, in schools in the days before there were any computers to administer pupil records ....... As one who did, I regard the amount that we now spend on our MIS to be well worth what we have to pay. It is a tiny fraction of the overall school budget and is very good value for what it provides!
  8. Sivadam
    Stagnated? One can never say that about SIMS. It takes a great deal of time and effort on my part to keep up with all the innovations. And it is all the new functionality that keeps me still interested in working, after over 4 decades serice in schools, rather than subsiding into retirement. I am always eager to see what is around the corner. Ever seen any demos of SIMS Discover, Alternative Curriculum, Extra Curricular (as per CHQ - the new Capita SIMS Partner)? The first two projects aren't even on general release yet (Spring 2011) and the third is a brand new concept that very few schools yet have access to! As a side thought: it is possible to publicly thank User Posts. I reckon that there should also be a way of doing the opposite, 'Unthanking', or some such appropriate term! Yes - I know! I would get most of 'em. It would be well worth it though. And before anybody gets back at me, this comment is not aimed at RichH for his previous posts!
  9. Sivadam
    No concerns for me! Capita address any faults & evaluate omissions with SIMS on a regular basis! It is obviously impossible to keep up with current demands anyway - especially when DfE move the goalposts all the time and expect the software houses to respond virtually immediately! One wonders at your motives and which company you represent - you have been very quick to ensure that nothing shows on your profile!
  10. Sivadam
    Also welcome to Edugeek, Entrepeneur. To answer the question you pose - Yes I do - with a capital Y and written in bold & underlined! I am probably one of those that Greed refers to when he says be prepared for arguments! That is because I am a SIMS User and proud of it! One wonders at your motives and which company you represent - you have been very quick to ensure that nothing shows on your profile!
  11. Sivadam
    Because Attendance recording for Sessions is Statutory then the system simply has to include the AM and PM Register - unless you tell it otherwise because the Session Marks are being taken from a lesson - which is exactly what that part of the Lesson Monitor Setup is for! Some schools do have the AM and/or PM Session Reg in addition to the lesson registrations and this is the default mode. SIMS training is an absolute must for those that have not used some or all of the software before. You would also be wise to try and find your nearest SIMS Partnership School so that you can visit them for advice on the various setups and procedures. There are always approx. 50 of these schools around the country and there are now also SIMS Partnerships Acadamies, though I am unsure of the actual numbers of these.
  12. Sivadam
    Glad you got it sorted Andy. I hope my screenshot helped! Maybe you should refer to SupportNet as well as here for finding solutions to SIMS issues. This was rather a simple one and Cache did actually give you the solution earlier - as well as rh91uk pasting the whole of the KB that I referred to early in the thread re. the NT6 set up. I must admit that you did start to make me doubt myself ..... but only for a very brief moment - I should have known better!
  13. Sivadam
    Why have you again mis-interpreted my words? I have inferred that the Quote on the impending SIMS Brochure has been publicised - hence the use of the semi-colon! It is obvious that anybody can browse the Ofsted Reports and my school name is readily available to users of these Forums! I have also only intimated what SIMS can do and have in no way interpreted this as an attack on SIMS. I just responded to a reasonable question by a new user of this Forum, by actually agreeing with him! I have made no attack on anybody! Please read my posts as they are written and not how you wish to interpret them!
  14. Sivadam
    Dunno! I ain't the geeky one!
  15. Sivadam
    As if I would ever devalue the work of my colleagues by just attributing our success to a piece of software! That would be a great insult to them! The brochure headlines the contribution that SIMS makes, however. Look out for its release if you have access to it; you have already publicised the Ofsted quote. I cannot say whether other MIS systems can or cannot! Others will have to comment on that - as John has done above for another MIS, although extrapolating that to all MISs is a little beyond my conception! However, some of your new colleagues seem to imply that none can, which is obviously not the case for at least two MIS Systems!
  16. Sivadam
    Well I suppose at my age I don't qualify to be a geek! I better not Tweet that! As an ex-Head of Science I am more used to the mathematical symbol ≠ to mean 'not-equal-to'. Far more understandable to us old-timers than some 'geeky' symbol not widely recognised by others! It's also only one symbol rather than the 2 that you have used and so it takes less effort to type it!
  17. Sivadam
    It certainly ought to be! However, I cannot comment on other MIS Systems that I do not use as to their ability to do this. One wonders how many more employees from this company will join this thread to make comments specifically to myself ........ Isn't one enough? Good luck in your new job, Richard, but don't bother trying to pursuade me to adopt anything but SIMS. I apologise for not adding you to my Twitter Account either! Talking of Twitter, @spschools ain't got many followers has it?
  18. Sivadam
    Totally 'Baseless accusations' is the answer to your question, often as a first post from a 'new' user!. They seldom appear now!! And it was your post that first appeared to equate Edugeek with Supportnet! "Perhaps Supportnet != Edugeek though ?" So, obviously, I had to respond.
  19. Sivadam
    Sorry, I edited my last post before you quoted it. You are obviously not aware of the 'campaign'! And Edugeek can NEVER equal SupportNet. There are some knowledgable SIMS users here but there are very many more on SupportNet and they include many of the former anyway!
  20. Sivadam
    Then those 'other members' may well be greatly missing out then! If my reputation precedes me then it ought to be very good, because any preceding reputation can only have come from SupportNet, and it is highly regarded there! Have you also noticed that those very suspicious posts, by relatively 'new' members that were regularly attacking SIMS, have also virtually dried up? Then again, you maybe won't be aware of that problem that this site had, as my campaign against this sort of thread started way before you became a member!
  21. Sivadam
    It's interesting if you do an advanced search for posts by myself and then analyse the last 15/16 threads (I didn't bother to look further!) that I have contributed to. It does highlight how much 'help' I have given to users as compared to the times I have been 'controversial'. The 'controversial' ones seem to carry far more weight than those that I have tried to 'help' in! Still - 'Red' does not really bother me at all!
  22. Sivadam
    I can check this out again for you Andy, but not until January 5th I am afraid. I didn't think they did show on the timetline but maybe they do appear from 'Take Register' or 'Edit Marks'. In the meantime check out thread 'Time line errors in Lesson Monitor (27917)' on SupportNet. The last post appears to describe the same situation that you describe and is one that I never responded back to. Maybe the Session Reg should now show! The Thread does show you our Lesson Monitor set up which works as it should do!
  23. Sivadam
    I have been saying for a long time that Schools ought to have access to the LA Forums and that LAs should have access to the Schools Forums. This is just another example of how the two could help each other!
  24. Sivadam
    Check out File 847 on SupportNet, User Posts, File Sharing. This is set up to report on Reg Groups but can easily be edited to produce Year Group, House etc. It does produce accurate figures, as does the Behaviour Report 848 that I also posted there! Since posting these you can now use the extra Student Conduct field that is in the Reporting Dictionary (SIMS 7.136), when producing Ach and Beh Reports - though it is still difficult to do this across a date range within an Academic Year. By the way guys - thanks for the Red Square - that sure looks better than the green one - and just in time for Christmas too! Jamie, If you want help with SIMS then you can always give me a shout on SupportNet or directly at school!
  25. Sivadam
    If you really are taking the Session Register during Teaching Lessons 1&4 then you should not have set up any additional Reg Periods in NT6. By the way guys - thanks for the Red Square - that sure looks better than the green one - and just in time for Christmas too!
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