PhilNeal

? If you don’t sign on you don’t use it?

I can’t speak for Capita now but it’s easily available to any subscriber to MyAccount which covers 80% of schools so it’s fairly public!

There is a full description of how this is implemented on MyAccount under “SIMS Parent: Technical Solution Overview”

Speak to your LA SIMS Support Unit - always assuming you use them. They will be able to assist.

SIMS has the official LA import system built in as standard - that is what most schools use as the LA is responsible for managing admissions in the vast majority of cases. Indy schools have different demands as do Own Admissions schools and that is what R&A deals with. As these schools don’t get an ATF from an LA the specialist import is included. It is not a simple import because it has to try to match existing patents, validate addresses etc. I’m afraid competition concerns have defined how products are sold for many years. At one time I would have added new capabilities without a second thought but these days much more thought is required. I’m no longer operational so am not in touch with current thinking!

SIMS includes ATF import as standard. This is a government standard. The R&A Module is a suite of software that enhances the admissions process. It is an extra because there are a number of suppliers of this type of software and Capita has to ensure that competitors can compete. The module will work for any school that manages its own admissions.

You really should get all data into the MIS or you will not be able to easily respond to a parent request for all info.

If you are moving from Capita the fact that direct access is not supported is not an issue as you won't want Capita to manage your data any more. The approach taken that requires access via APIs is normal if you want to be supported!!

I'm no longer an operational director so I can't be sure but I don't think it is possible to block direct SQL on your servers - it isn't supported by Capita and there are legitimate ways for third parties to access the data. By allowing direct SQL calls you are by-passing all permissions in SIMS and it isn't something I would do.

It's never been supported. Some suppliers may have ignored that.

It’s been a while since I saw the control panel but I’m pretty sure the school can chose how much detail is shown.

@MkII At the time you couldn’t do notifications through a responsive web page.

I would be astonished if Capita had dropped Android support for parents & pupil apps. Support was dropped for Android on the teacher app as only small numbers of schools were using android tablets. The phone market is dominated by android so the case is different.

The import file from a flat file is straight forwards - within FMS you define what parts of the strings are where in the import file. (At least that was how it worked when I was there!)

Any solution you chose I would give thought to subject access requests. If data is all over the place it will be hard to collect it all together easily.

A lot of schools run their “hospitals” using SIMS.

It should be a single log in. They might have to glue the accounts together themselves.

@vikpaw - the basics such as attendance, exclusions & exam results are interoperable!! There are no standards for many things such as behaviour, extra curricular activities & formative assessment.

Surely you'd migrate your data to the new system?

I’m pretty sure attendance data needs to be stored for 7 years.

SIMS audits all changes to attendance marks. Sorry can't help with how you get to it - suggest you raise a support call.

Sorry I only contributed because I didn't feel that many of the early inputs were about MAT requirements.

I do agree with you about this but the Regional Commissioners will expect the MAT to know what’s happening in their schools.

The MAT is absolutely accountable for the outcomes and that is how they will be judged.

I’m sure it is!