PhilNeal

Why aren't you going through the normal support mechanism?

Look up user defined fields

I still think this is not a SIMS issue. We have not hard coded the date/time format if we had then SIMS would not be affected by the registry.

@Cache as far as I know, this is nothing to do with SIMS which picks up the date format from the Windows settings. Something has almost certainly changed the Windows settings on the PC and this will affect any software that takes its date/time format from Windows.

"Capita ES are amateurs" We have one of the most senior engineers from eBay working on our next generation - we have the expertise!

It is by design. The O365 lasts for 12 hours. There is sensitive data on the tablet and this was one of the protections that we have implemented

It's really fast to enter house points directly into SIMS from the register. Multiple select pupils and click behaviour.

Peter we do have discussions with partners about their requirements. I'm surprised that @GREED hasn't picked up on this thread - I'll alert him to it.

Here's what our product manager says: The issues being experienced are likely caused by the configuration of a firewall the school's internet connection is going through. We have seen this at a few schools where either the firewall at the school, or at their internet service provider has a restrictive configuration, or has been configured incorrectly, the result is that it blocks or restricts the data services needed by the Teacher app. We have had several schools recently that are thinking the Teacher app isn't working - and in each case it turned out to be the school's firewall configuration, either being too restrictive or actually configured incorrectly We've also seen instances where Smoothwall has been configured wrongly at schools and this blocks the Teacher app data services.

I know the desk has had a flood of calls owing to start of term "can't remember" type issues but they are getting through them. I've asked the Product Manager to take a look at your posting to see if he can assist. I believe that the problem you describe is down to some of the port requirements not being opened.

Have you raised a case via MyAccount?

I understand that a possible solution has already been sent to you?

TP = Third Party (sorry for terminology) Admitting pupils before they have arrived isn't really how the "system" works - AdNos should only be issued to pupils that turn up. There is absolutely no reason that a third party can't see all of the classes in advance of their start date.

You can set the start of term early and mark days as non-teaching. However I think most of the issues with TP products is that they link with data items that aren't available until children are admitted and/or have UPNs.

It's definitely not any setting in SIMS

Sounds like the country setting is wrong

Please drop me an email and I'll chase.

Have you reported the issues? I've not picked up anything from cases?

I'm pretty sure it's all dated and you need to re collect it. I'm sure your service desk will be able to advise.

Schools across the country have different "start of year" dates. Our software will cope with that and report attendance accurately to the DfE etc. The issue arises when TPs link their systems to fields that are not filled until either the children are admitted i.e. the AdNo or the UPN which may not be known when the child record is created. Also the UPN is also supposed to be a hidden number used to link at the Department and not openly used within the school. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/270560/Unique_Pupil_Numbers_-_guidance.pdf

I assume you've posted on MyAccount or raised a case?

We release patches to support units. Support units release to schools where they feel it is required - most patches affect only a handful of schools so units don't want to inconvenience schools unnecessarily. Capita's own supported schools are handled similarly so although the escalation team have released a patch it doesn't automatically flow to schools.

It's written to the BASDA standard: Standards | BASDA http://www.basda.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/eBIS-XML-3.09.zip No need to pay us anything unless you want a copy of FMS/extra advice!

School access to APIs is planned - the trick we have to pull off is being sure that access is secure and legal. GDPR makes us a Data Processor (as well as the school) which will have to be factored into how we approve access to the database. For example if a school grants access to a TP are we jointly responsible if data leaks out? Can a school legally write extensions to SIMS and use it's own data in a test environment? We're talking to the ICO to establish what the new law will mean in practice.

I've been resisting saying very much on this thread but looking at some of the speculation, I thought I would update the community. SIMS8 is a complete rewrite of everything; there is a new database design that allows scaling. There is no way we could manage upgrading 22,000 separate databases regularly unless it was multi-tenanted. We're using agile methodology and are determined to get it right - several technologies have been discarded because they didn't give good enough end user experiences. APIs are RESTful and partners will get access in the autumn. Piloting will begin in January - we're pre-piloting with primary schools now. It will be released to primary schools in 2017 although we will limit numbers. Secondary schools will get an “8” version of Options in early 2017 and Exams Analysis hopefully in time for 2017 summer results. The complete package for secondary schools including a new Nova is expected for 2018/19. “8” is not simply “7” in a browser – it’s a top to bottom rethink of everything! Every change request has been considered although not necessarily implemented. I'd like to think that many of the ideas and approaches will delight users. I’d love to say more but that would cross into promoting!