Sivadam

No! Now all those doubters on here know that what I have been saying all this time is perfectly true. ' Simply the best .... Better than all the rest.......!' (Wish I could sing properly!) And look at the grief I got when I first started contradicting all those inappropriate, incorrect and often malicious or mischievous comments about SIMS, that used to appear here! Vindication at last http://support.capitaes.co.uk/newforum/images/smiley32.gif

I am afraid that is the biggest piece of baloney I have ever heard. NT6 is an integral part of SIMS. It produces the Timetable exactly as you want it. This is then transferred to SIMS and everything that is scheduled in NT6 will be there ready for use! The Timetable via NT6 is the basis for every bit of SIMS! So how can the two be unhappy with each other? You do need a Timetabler that has attended the 3 day NT6 Course, especially with Dave Andrews, though (yeah ok - I haven't! But that's another story!) as it is impossible to dive in to using NT6 effectively without training!

I have spent many, many years trying to get individuals to drop Excel Spreadsheets in the waste bin and use the functionality in SIMS Assesment Manager, SIMS Performanace Analysis, SIMS Reporting and, more recently, SIMS Discover. You are missing out massively by not using these live systems! Capita even provide SIMS Tracking and Progress Grid Templates for Primary Schools, so much of the work is done for you. I cannot understand any LA who restricts the use of SIMS. It is not there as an Admin Tool! It should be a tool for teachers - with Admin offering the support behind the scenes so that the teachers can use the data to support T&L! The idea of manipulating dead data in Excel, when it could all be available in a 'live' system, is archaic and anathematic to me personally! (Yes I know that some schools, ourselves included, may want to take analysis to an even higher level in Excel - but I doubt you want to take it to that sort of level from what you are asking in your OP!) If I was in your situation (the school's that is!) I would be contacting Capita and stirring things up with the LA - something that would not be alien to me here! I wonder what relationship there is between Capita SIMS and your LA, if what you say is true!

Maybe somebody ought to move this thread into the MIS Forum. I nearly missed it and would have done so without the 'mention' from GrumbleDook!

Can I ask why SIMS is Admin only? SIMS in the Classroom was a slogan introduced many, many years ago! Any school who has SIMS installed in a school and it is not being used by teachers is missing out so much! I would suggest that you visit a school near you (preferably a SIMS Partnership School) to see exactly how much the school is missing out on! And as to the original question - Yes! SIMS will do exactly what you want re. Assessment Recording, Analysing and Tracking and much, much, much, more besides!

Check this one out! CR No .0902-477833 It's marked as duplicate and 'delivered by Autmn 2011 Release'. It ain't delieverd yet - you still can't Review Profiles via SLG - and 'Unapproved' Reports still do not feed back to SLG. And I was at the last SLG Software Consultation meeting when these CRs were discussed and rationalised with the ex-Product Manager! Now that is one that I might just revive if it is not included after the changes are made to the CR System! It's over 3 year's old now and well supported - to say that few users will go back that far to find it!

As with 'owt else, its success will depend on how customers use it - no matter how good/bad the new system is. I bet duplicates still appear because many users won't bother to 'search' for similar requests. On the current system you can spot virtually identical requests on a visible list (i.e. without scrolling to Page 2 in that section!), some of 'em within a couple of entries of each other!

...... like the rest? Just how many 'out of your area' schools are supporting you, so that you can support your own schools? No wonder your Team has a good reputation with lots of us guys around! I bet you buy the xmas cards in bulk too! (or do you get the schoolkids to make 'em?)

Don't forget my 10% for all the help I have been giving you!

Not logged it yet Matt, my Technical expert colleague was not in school today - need to see him first! As for the Autumn PDF - remember we had already upgraded to 7.144.33! Not sure why ours did not pick up the previously offline machines, this morning. Previously we have had the deployment still 'active' waiting for the machines to come back on line. Over the weekend we got a 'partially successful' deployment. Could that be a time factor issue?

Not automatically unfortunately. Had to use the Redeploy option!

I welcome this change whole-heartedly, which has been required for some considerable while now. As one who has regularly participated in the Software Consultation meetings - where CRs are anyalysed, discussed and proritised - I understand more than most the frustrations that system causes. Both Customers and the Product Managers will benefit from a rationalistaton of the wole system and I agree that a clean start is the best way forward. I will personally lose quite a number of CRs that I have had on the system for some considerable time, but there is no point leaving them there if they are so far back that nobody can/will support them any more! In any case, I know for a fact that some of the areas have been rationalised/prioritised already (I was at those very meetings!) - they just have not been updated on the current system!

Interesting................... All workstations/laptops that were left on over the weekend have upgraded from 7.144.33 to 7.144.36 but users get the pdf saying that SIMS has upgraded to Autumn 2011! Good job I was the first to spot this - at least I can tell all users to ignore it! And the good news is that SOLUS3 has worked perfectly this time, for those machines that were online. Here's hoping that the second stage works when users log their laptops on to the network. There'll be a few that try to access SIMS first tho' before the agent SOLUS runs! Despite my warnings!

SOLUS3 now set to deploy the Spring re-release over the weekend! One expects no problems this time after we finally cracked the deployment of the original Spring Release! All our SOLUS Issues were caused my mismatches as a result of being part of the field trial that we never got to work. Now, hopefully , all will operate smoothly!

The obvious example is the Curriculum Diagram for each Year Group - together with it's Extra Details functionality via 'right click' to show the pupils per class (even via gender!). Believe me - that is a very powerful tool to use pre/during Ofsted - and we have had a good few of those over the past 3 years! I could go on and on ..... and .... on! Also what about the easy 'cherry picking' of Pupils via the 'Search for pupil with name beginning with zzzzz' routine? In just a few mouse clicks you can generate any list you want in a matter of seconds! And that one ain't even reached the agenda stage yet - despite me raising it many times over the years that NT4 has been down as 'redundant'!

I thought it was being removed in Spring but it must be Summer now as we still have it - unfortunately! I wanted it hidden so that only I could use it. As a matter of information, I have recently responded to a personal invite to comment on the reports that are not yet present in NT6 or SIMS, that we still need to use NT4 for! Needless to say, I also commented on the other functionality that NT4 has that has also not been brought into NT6 or SIMS! Yep - I am still trying to get 'em to include the full functionality from NT4 that us old-timers have always relied on! It's been a very long campaign too!

I posted the reference to a KB on Support Net on a Forum thread that asked this exact quetion. It is:- KB64157 - How do I readmit a member of staff? P7 The SupportNet thread is: Member of Staff returning to Work after leaving (35237)

You may wish to also consult the other thread re. this: Capita SIMS

There is plenty of info on the Capitaes website. http://www.capita-sims.co.uk/our-partners/groupcall-sims-emerge

There was a general agreement with what I said. The object of the meeting was to give updates on new functionality and so SLG was not 'on the agenda'. It had become apparant to me that some of the attendees at the meeting were not fully conversant of what SLG could do - presumably because they had not adopted it. Coupled with the fact that it is not now a 'new' innovation (althought new functionality is being added all the time!), and so was not part of the discussion (until I raised it!), those staff new to SIMS, with little knowledge of SLG or Emerge, might have left the meeting with an unbalanced view of the best way forward for their school!

From what I have seen and heard, it is an excellent app and more functionality is being added all the time. My argument here has always been the extra cost entailed in purchasing it, and the devices, when SLG is so functional and we already have it! Most people have not tried it on a WP7 - and that includes the majority of people here! Whenever I raise that fact on Forums such as this there is usually no response from anybody - evidence in itself of how few people have tried SLG on a WP7! At a recent Capita Software Update meeting, I did query the Capita Staff as to why they were pushing Emerge so much without sufficient reference to what SLG could also do! They are actually in danger of promoting Emerge at the expense of SLG!

SLG is fine for Teachers marking Registers, entring data into AM7 Marksheets, entering data for Profiles, adding Ach/Beh Incidents etc etc etc. All the Ach/Beh etc links from the Registers are available. There is far more functionality in SLG than there is currently in Emerge. And, if you already have SLG for Parental Reporting, there are no extra costs!

Who....? http://support.capitaes.co.uk/newforum/images/smiley5.gif

That is the bit I posted on SupportNet last Friday but omitted here! One has to prioritise SupportNet doesn't one? Can't leave all the nuggets here! SupportNet Post, Friday 16th March at 10.12pm: Hmmmmmm..... A further delay in releasing the Updated Spring Release due to another Support Case. One wonders if it is 'owt to do with mine .......... http://statich.cdngeek.net/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif It'll give our Staff a respite from deploying (or re-deploying) upgrades. An extra day to pursuade 'em all to get those laptops logged on to the network and leave 'em there ready for the appointed deployment time! http://statich.cdngeek.net/images/smilies/smile.png A lot of 'em won't tho'! http://statich.cdngeek.net/images/smilies/frown.png No - it wasn't me that crashed SupportNet later that night/following morning!

Thanks Matt. I reckon I beat you to that by 38 minutes! I obviously couldn't be bothered with the details as it had been on SupportNet for a while before then!