krtek

Top of the maintainer course screen Dave

mmm if it's a grade aspect, and this works for you, knobble the grade set with a new version with one grade - 'not to be used' a bit of a dodge but hey....

we're looking at the summer term codes here so Y is fine - as is Z for periods off roll

Look in Tools > Setups > attendance setup > codes > maintain codes We've had a couple of schools which have changed the statistical meaning of some of them meaning that SIMS bombs out at the create and validate stage the correct code list is buried at the bottom of this page Dave

Hi there just to add... if the data is stored as a number rather than a grade you can use the Marks to Grade formula Dave

They've been running scheduled maintenance on it today Dave

store their last year in an aspect and stick that in the report as a result tag :-)

create a student focus report with an Attendance Marks sub report- filters of date to be supplied and code is Absent on the sub report - deselect show with no such Dave

Perhaps the easiest way is to leave the pupil in the register they are expected to attend for the best part of the week and show the other teacher the Extra Name button at the top of the register Hello Graham! Dave

SIMS won't let you add the same aspect and result set combination to the same template and as each aspect/result set combination can only ever contain one result, they would end up overwriting one another if on separate marksheets I'd be swinging towards creating a mock result set Dave

Create a new version to allow other grades from a given date

Hi there There's a bulk edit screen at Tools > Housekeeping > Primary Contact Details it is possible to import parent email and telephone details from a csv but you will need a patch contact your SIMS support to get the patch and instructions on the file format Dave

Just a tip Formulas can only work on columns to the left of them - so start on the right Dave

Err admissions regs say you should admit pupils on their agreed first date of attendance - even if they don't show up https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/818204/School_attendance_July_2019.pdf The MIS and associated systems should be able to handle this (in SIMS this means ensuring that prospective students have a status of Accepted - i.e. the parent has accepted the offer of a place and intends to send the child to your school) Dave

Hi there but why would you want to? without Lesson Monitor (which is expensive) you would not be able to record lesson attendance the academic group stuff can be accomplished much more easily and at no cost using Focus > School > Academic Structure Dave

As of 15:03 Capita are working on a resolution there may be a patch made available for schools not willing or able to apply Spring but nothing yet Dave

Capita are consulting with schools and support teams and are to publish an updated roadmap in the coming weeks - this will set out the plans to adopt new technologies At the end of the day it's hugely expensive and problematic to test against all of the various combinations of platform in use in schools and we all know that schools which want to hold on to legacy systems as long as they can removing support for Windows 7 and requiring that 20,000 schools move to office 2019 to use the next release of SIMS for instance would not be popular whilst I would accept that they need to respond to the needs of schools they are listening - please ensure that you speak to your support unit when considering your replacement programmes so that your views are reflected Dave Dave

Just to add a bit more information.... My understanding is that Capita's initial approach to reporting in SIMS 8 reporting relied on Jaspersoft and a data warehouse - fine until they started to build dashboards within the software which required live reporting and analytics. So that's the reason they lost so much work and time (and money) As Mr Pott points out, the product is currently shipping with a suite of turnkey reports which seek to meet typical school and ofsted requirements together with limited list building Each support unit will continue to review the product's suitability and key benefits in the light of their knowledge of their customers' requirements and requests for further information and advice should be routed through them Good support teams will keep up to date with developments and act with the best interests of schools very much at heart Dave p.s. and I am hearing that time invested in PowerBI by MATs and power users in schools will not be wasted

might need to restart SIMS too

Hi there congratulations - you have found the Easter egg in SIMS please contact your support provider and request Consolidated Workstation Fix 1 This will lock you out of CTF functionality but will fix the issue you have found Cheers Dave

As I say things keep changing - version 4 of the script and patch 21457 now released although the instructions on how to use the 99 check are to follow Dave

Hi there with thanks to Andy, it's changed since then and I provide the following update: The fact of the matter is that there has been a problem in SIMS since the Autumn 2017 release which means that any CTF imported with contact information since may have changed the recorded contact address and linked contact for any pupil in SIMS (whether pre-admission or not). Application of patch 24068 or the Summer update prevents more problems being created There is a dbdiagnose script which attempts to identify problems which may have been created as a result of the bug There have been 3 versions of this script, each of which applied the same logic when checking for issues with later iterations attempting more clearly to describe the problems found Patch 24040 was written to autofix some of the issues but it was found that this could not be relied upon and so was withdrawn and will not be replaced Capita is to add the checks to the system diagnostics routine in SIMS - schools should apply patch 21457 to enable this when the patch is released - note that (up to press) the patch adds no more checks and simply an alternative to running the dbdiagnose utility outside of SIMS So we have recommended that schools should: Stop using CTF to import and export contact details (KS2 files from NCA tools contain no contact data) Ensure that contact details are checked before use (both within SIMS and any 3rd party system accessing contact information held in SIMS) Run 24068 / summer update – after which they can import contact details but these should be checked amongst the new records as the file may contain errors generated by the problem in other schools Either run the dbdiagnose script or run the system diagnostics routine to be made available in SIMS (enabled by patch 21457 yet to be released by Capita) and manually check and correct anything reported Once contact data is clean, turn back on the export of contact information Review to what use the contact data has been put whilst compromised and identify any breach which may have already occurred And please be sympathetic to your support provider - this is an incredibly complex situation with information coming out of Bedford changing daily. Dave (OSMIS bloke)

The release is available to all schools and the timing of its application will be managed by your support provider for instance Capita are to apply the release to their hosted schools around the 27th July Dave

Hi there You need to nominate a support provider before Capita will allow them to make the releases available to you (and then they might need prodding) please contact your support provider and be prepared to be asked to write to Capita confirming that you are taking your support from them Dave

still there in 2016 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/564599/school_attendance.pdf Dave