SilverFox

Shame that you had a 'unfortunate' initial experience with the personnel concerned. We've been running SLG, hosted by our LA, and it has really helped engage parents. Teachers benefit too. It really helped us out during January when the school shut because of snow, and happened to coincide with spring report writing. I wouldn't let one bad (conversational) experience put you off.

got all teachers in to SIMS; got students & parents engaged via SLG; ; got teachers working from home (should they wish to); seen other schools, "poor users of SIMS" get much better at using it and seen their school improve; seen poor users of SIMS (& poor school performance) jump ship and are still poor performing schools, despite the clear focus on using an IMS better. To be fair I've seen a couple of good schools make the same move, and they're still good schools. Meanwhile, I've seen what used to be good schools decline, prompting a return to SIMS after a very expensive strategic move CMIS. So, what do you want, how do you achieve it, how will you be able to tell &, finally, is it good value for money?

Best use is when a school has a firm/sound Assessment policy and uses all the AM functionality to the full. Here is a quick list of how we mainly use AM: Creating 3 year subject specific and school specific regression (Progression) lines for use in the AM Prediction formula to generate Indicators/Targets. Showing all historic data like KS2 SATs, CATs, FFT, last academic year's grades and target comments, whilst having all this year's reporting home grade columns available inc. Indicator/Target (see previous) and traffic-lighted "Progress" columns etc. etc. etc. HoD course marksheets with similar. Performance Leader (vvertical House) marksheets with similar. Columns for flagging up importance of meeting parents at Parent's evenings etc. etc. Departmental marksheets (big job but well worth it) cleverly linking ongoing assessments to the more categoric reporting home grades. The latter goes down well with teachers who do not wish to duplicate things. Needs coordinating at HoD level though. Range of individual reports for Reports to Parents, Exam success interviews, for student showing projected grades & Indicators for their ROA/Personal Profile etc. etc. Performance Analysis used for instant value added graphs for current students as well as reflecting back on last summers results; this by cohort, year group, class etc. etc. Chance Analysis proving particularly useful in terms of Key Stage Progression, again for year groups, classes, SEN, AUDG eg "GradeWatch" etc. etc. Profiles for extended text reports, drawing in useful grades/marks even reading age for example. Huge longer term benefits from having AM individual Reports & Profiles available via Document Management Server Could go on and on but part of the firm/sound policy is to include data entry that is valid, accurate & reliable. Next is to communicate school wide (arguably beyond the school if you include other stakeholders like parents, Governors etc). Next is to ensure suitable intervention/support mechanisms. We have found a range of these is the way to go. Finally, if you know what you want to get to but are concerned about how to manage introducing things, consider priorities, essentials, desirables etc. etc. Some of my points have been mentioned in previous posts, never the less I hope it helps.

We are converting our teachers across to SIMS Mobile and it is clearly becoming a winner. The whole point about mobility is that it has to be portable, quick and reliable. SIMS Mobile is proving to be a super bit of 'kit', and one can expect some of its rough edges to be smoothed out soon. Some teachers have commented about some of the issues mentioned but to be fair they are not that big a deal. We use the "Mark All" then just quickly change the few that are different; click "Save" & the job is done.

SIMS .net Profiles 7 "leap-frogs" CMIS here as well, then.

Good of you to declare your interest !! Colours your judgement somewhat.

looked in to different systems and stayed with SIMS that then became SIMS .net. We retain our goal of one IMS and giving all staff immediate access to any information that they have permission for. Got a new IT teacher this year who was previously at a CMIS school and she reckons there is no comparison because she can access so much more and faster and whenever and wherever, including remotely. I could go on and on but I sleep well having not wasted time convincing the Governors to spend considerable sums of money changing IMS followed by all the pain of transition, only to change back a few years later. Meanwhile we focus on "improvement"; and I mean for the students.