Bromcom_John

Thanks to Rebelgirl for the mention but I do need to clarify that while the full version of MCAS (which works off of our own MIS) does include homework and exam results function, the SD (Sims Direct) version of MCAS does not. And, if I am understanding the OP's request correctly they are looking for add ons to SIMS rather than a replacement MIS.

Version 1.5 of the XSLT was released on Monday. Not sure how quickly the SIMS team check and distribute them, but the DfE do distribute these files with the caveat that.. "We are aware at this late stage that some suppliers may not be in a position to implement these changes; please be assured that these will be included in the ‘known issues’ document sent to local authorities and non-maintained schools." The "prior attainment" data on GCSE Maths and English is indeed now part of the new census data. You would have to talk to your specific support team for any guidance though. I could tell you how to do it in our MIS but that information would be about as useful to you as a chocolate fireguard. A link to the government website that contains their guidance though, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-census Bit more useful. Look to page 90 of the census guide for more information.

Happy Birthday Edugeek

Well, new customers are encouraged to engage in the support community. The advice and support people get from the Edugeek forums is generally positive so we always suggest people pop in here and take a look. Everyone has to have a first post somewhere. and seeing as the OP asked for opinions, everyone is allowed one Not our fault that @Stopfords has had a great experience..... hang on, er actually I suppose it actually "is" totally our fault on that one ps. I miss the freebies from BETT

I want there to be a little sign on his coffin "I Ain'tnt dead" RIP Sir Terry

@GrumbleDook, I think you are correct in the "if it ain't broke why fix it" arena, but this isn't about fixing things. I would not agree with a statement of "If it ain't broke why bother trying to improve it." Thankfully for us the IT sector rarely agree's with that statement either. Innovation and change are constantly driving us to improve our products but the products needs to continue to work. @GREED, you are right that change should be driven by Customer Demand. However in a lot of our scope our "customer" is in fact the DfE. So when they mandate a change, in order to stay competitive in the market, the change must be implemented. Luckily we have a "degree" of communication and say in those changes so can champion our "other" customers (you know the ones, smaller than the DfE scattered around the country, I believe they are called schools ) and ensure that what is added suits there wants as much as possible. As for examples of products being changed "specifically" to embrace the cloud structure, well you don't need to go back to 1999 for that. Microsoft has one of the "killer" consumer products for the production desktop in the form of the Office suite. Sure there are competitors, open source players and smaller market share holders but Office is arguably to biggest "go to" product in its type. With untold dollars investment over decades in their existing product, Microsoft totally revised their delivery model and embraced a distributed delivery system with Office 365. They rebuilt from the ground up with all-web based application running in the cloud. I believe they realised that (along with Google, Adobe and many others in the big leagues) that they needed to change in order to embrace the new ecosystem that comes with Cloud. To be able to reach more consumers, with a better suite of tools they chose true cloud over any other implementation. And they've gone even further with Office 2013, yes they still deliver locally based installation (or even LAN based managed systems) but the delivery of Office 2013 is embracing cloud concepts. The first thing you’ll see when you open Microsoft Office is a clean, new look. But the features you know and use are still there—along with some new ones that are huge time savers. The new Office also works with smartphones, tablets, and in the cloud, even on PCs that don’t have Office installed. So now you can always get to your important files, no matter where you are or what you’re using. Microsoft marketing and all of that without a single VPN in sight! Sorry if it comes over a tad "rambly".. but I'll close with a picture to save another 1000 words. http://cdn.leanblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/dangerous.jpeg

Why on earth is the mouse on that list...Still very much in usage world wide. Couple of points I think need to be made on the original subject matter. @plexer, In fear of some kind of automated Google search powered litigation from Apple I feel I must clarify that we do not "produce" iPads, iPhones or any other kind of tablet device . Those days of actually producing thee devices ourselves are past. @browolf, You might be surprised to hear that up until last year (March I think) we still had some customers using older folder devices. That's a functional life span of over 12 years without the need for an upgrade. Let's see a modern smartphone do that and finally, in defence of a robust and loyal range of hardware. These were devices designed in the 90's, to use wireless communication before omnipresent WiFi (hence the RTU's that still remain tucked into the corner of classrooms across the country) and all of this with the attendance interface written to talk to a VERY early version of SIMS (and our own product) well before the creation of the modern SIMS API. and before anyone mentions any difficulty they remember in using them.... Try supporting the software to run the framework on over 800 schools, over a 14,400 baud modem using a Multi User DOS interface layer with 6 virtual screens (in DOS remember) using keyboard short-cuts and no Mouse!! oh and for any who remember the comms software that ran the RTU network was called SERCOM (also SERCOL, SERHAN it had multiple versions). Which allowed us to remotely manage all those RTU's (especially useful when electrical storms would hit and they needed to be reset). but we've moved FAR down the path from those halcyon days of yore!

Without punctuation that doesn't sound like an apology

Yes we are still here and yes the old folders are a significant blast from the significant past. However I would like to remind everyone that most old tech looks clunky and ridiculous when viewed with modern spectacles 80's "mobile" phones for instance. My personal favourite folder is the model that came with an alphabet order keyboard. We have a small display cabinet in the office with a selection of the old models in.

Apologies if it's a bit off topic, but I hate to see something going unanswered when there "is" information out there. This is an excerpt from the Census Tech spec. This field must be used to identify the core aim within a vocational EFA funded study programme for students on roll from 1st August 2013 onwards (including those continuing from the 2012/13 academic year). As the autumn census collects learning aims taken in the previous and current academic year this will mean that a core aim should be returned for each year where a vocational EFA funded study programme is being followed. If a student is following an academic programme a core aim does not need to be identified. The core aim is the substantive learning aim being undertaken in a student’s programme of study. Please refer to the EFA funding documentation for further information about the core aim including definitions of academic and vocational provision. it continues at greater length but I have edited to avoid TL: DR You might also want to double check the documentation at DfE documentation but there isn't any Autumn 2014 documentation up there yet.

Plus this year we have the wonders of Planned Learning Hours and Planned Enrichment, Employability and Pastoral hours added into the mix.. For this year AND the previous year no less!!! John

Missed you at the last A2C meet Graham Was quite an eye opener when one of the AO's was revealed to be under the impression that schools update their Learner record information more than 3 times a year (ie. at census time) Which brings its own lovely brand of hell as your MIS dutifully transmits the exams data which is subsequently disregarded by the AO because the students name isn't the same... and THAT is why we have a 12 month staggered roll out of the A2C interface processes. John

Not everyone is Cloud. You'd be amazed how much rage can be generated by even "1" extra mouse click (actually you're in IT no you wouldn't) Familiarity Anyway, back to the OP's original topic. Nothing more to see here. Move along.

Correct. In Bromcom terms "e-Reporting". The server processes and creates the final document output (which the user will have created as one of Table, List. Matrix or Mail merge format) and delivers it to the user, in this case, as a file in a choice of formats. PDF being the most universally accepted. The only limitation is on the printing. Which instead of being direct to printer would require you use the export option and then print the exported file via whatever app you deem appropriate for the purpose. Regards John

Morning everyone, I can confirm that the Cloud MIS Web merge report production features will work fine on a chrome book. All of the compilation of data and composition of the document output occur on the server. Which means that on your Chrome book it will process and deliver a PDF (or other format) document to your devices local file store for consumption with whatever app you use (such as Google Docs or Polaris office) as well as that output being stored on the servers Document management System (DMS) for later retrieval. As far as printing is concerned, on my Galaxy Note 10.1 I use Cloud Print to interface my document production with a physical print server. Regards John

This got me wondering.. how much "more" damage would all the flood water do if it actually froze...???? Doesn't really bear thinking about.

When its done you can certainly throw it our way. It'll probably involve me answering some of the questions anyway Being half way literate tends to get you dragged into anything even remotely related to your day job these days.

Surprised at the high percentage for systems with over 12gb of RAM and that's "down" from last year.

A new Double oven, 4 ring Induction hob, a small set of decent induction cookware and a lovely new set of "razor" sharp knives from M&S. Which "might" beat the Kenwood chef... it all depends on "what" Kenwood chef you got. If it was one of the top end ones then you may still colour me green However the one thing that cannot be beat is the newly reborn domestic Goddess that has appeared in the home since we got the new oven. She was great before, but the wife's been baking fresh bread and cakes like they're going out of fashion. Bloomers, sandwich loaves, bread rolls, sour dough, fruit loaves... its like living in a branch of Greggs

If you've relocated your users directories to a secondary partition then the upgrade won't even work So sucks to be a home user with a primary "but smaller" SSD drive it seems.

If you can send me the Case Reference via PM then I'll get someone to chase up the progress for you. John

The center very rarely gets any snow, but as 90% of the daily population of the centre comes from the outskirts.. where it DOES snow. and since 5mm of snow is enough for most "modern" rail networks to just roll over and give up! It is pretty much a moot point

Except that in the official Marvel vs. DC crossover event from a ways back Hulk was beat by Supes. Although that whole project was a lot more "character popularity based" and a lot less "Ability based".. Which is why Wolverine beat Lobo. Interestingly they had Batman and Captain America fight each other to a stalemate. Made some interesting reading in the short lived Amaalgam universe series. They literally crossed characters. Super Soldier (take Superman and cross him with Captain America) Bullets and Bracelets (Team a slightly modified wonder woman up with a sllightly modified Punisher) Spider Boy (Spider man crossed with Super Boy) Amazon! (Storm but raised on the same island Wonder Woman came from).. Dark Claw (Wolverine crossed with Batman)

Ahh, Owen Reese, the best character development to come out of the Secret Wars saga! Also, self perpetuating paradox as it was him getting his original "non-OP" Powers that tore the rift between the main Universe and the pocket Universe that the Beyonder came from that started the whole Secret Wars thing in the first place. This of course all assumes that at some point between the late 80's/early 90's and now they haven't completely retconned that entire sequence of events and back On topic.... Batman and Supes will work in a movie, if they do it right, in the same way that Captain America and "EVERY OTHER MAIN MEMBER OF THE AVENGERS" was made to work. Cap & Hulk/Thor/Iron Man is essentially the same dynamic as Batman & Supes.

"guaranteed for life, never becomes obsolete and isn't a pain to configure" Analogy sort of doesn't apply to the iPad then