krtek

I'm not the expert on this but I do recall the sainted Terry Keane introducing a requirement for schools to admit students on the day on which the admission was agreed with the parent - irrespective of whether they crossed the threshold. The school is then required to maintain an attendance record until such times as the reason for absence or location of the child at another establishment is established. http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130103050349/https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/UKSI-20061751.pdf Don't think that this has been rescinded since. Dave

keeping records of changes made to attendance marks became statutory in 2006 and a child is either there or not and so I have never heard a convincing case for using anything other than 'original mark recorded in error' I support Phil's observation that the register should be taken at the start of the lesson but we have many schools recording information other than behaviour by nobbling the codes and very happy doing so

Just in case Phil missed the reference My understanding is that, if you are a secondary school and referring to the KS3 POS entry screens, these will be activated by application of a database patch to be made available over the summer break and then an import of the resources to SIMS and you will need to update to summer (7.164) if you are to make use of analysis and reporting functionality Cheers Dave

Hi there I've been running SIMS on Windows 8 in my training environment for a while now with no issues However, we should be mindful that SIMS on Windows 8 is not officially supported until Spring 2013 Cheers Dave

Hi there My name is Dave Cattlin and I am lucky enough to lead a great SIMS Support team in Rochdale and also be involved in the Discover Field Trial. WRT performance our feeling here, and with the caveat that we have been working with a pre-release version which may not be as efficient as the released product, is that the min requirement to make use of Discover may not be as high as previously stated. Sure it runs a bit slow on underspec workstations but we have found that it remains very usable. Direct on one of our school servers which has 4Gb RAM but no dedicated graphics card it runs like a train. I would suggest that colleagues here may be best served by awaiting experience of the released product whilst maintaining options in planned replacement of kit. I am sure that there will be many factors which will affect the user experience, not least their expectations and the quality of the data available as well as hardware and other systemic limitations but I feel that SIMS should be congratulated on making the investment in what will be, I am sure, a step change in the way in which MIS will be used in schools. It's bold and the support implications terrify me - not mainly the support of discover itself but the work required in widening and maintaining the breadth of data which it will encourage schools to make use of. The implementation of discover at a time of such change within the education sector and particularly as the government's spending review bites hard will need to be very well managed indeed. Dave

I'm afraid that I doubt that you will have much joy current report definintion files have the extension .rpt.def the dbf files went out some time ago Regards Dave

I hope that your issue is resolved You're not a Lesson Monitor user are you?

Zbysiu I think it best if you give me a call next week Regards Dave

Hi the zbbbzzzuuuu (sp?) All propsective bidders, whilst the main focus of the tender was in the primary sector, were asked to submit per pupil and per solution costings for secondary schools and all did. I am not sure if I am able to share the submissions with you directly (commercial confidences and all that) but if your school is interested in coming on board, please register the interest by dropping me an e-mail. I am sure that it makes a great deal of sense for a secondary school to share a VLE, collaborative working and remote access solutions with its feeders and would be delighted to do all I can to support you towards this. In terms of take up, we have no monopoly and schools are free to do what they will. I do understand that the LA has committed to fully fund the intiative in year one and that elements of it are to be made available to all sectors (replacement intranet and so on) without charge. We may therefore anticipate all schools having access to the solution from April although to what extent the facility is used from day one is open to some informed speculation. Regards Dave (technically on leave until Monday)

Apologies for the pseudonym with which I chose to register some time ago. My name is Dave Cattlin, Information Systems Manager with Rochdale's EDIT team. The team operates within the IMPACT partnership http://www.theimpactpartnership.com and provides an integrated range of ICT support services (hardware, infrastructure and MIS support) to Rochdale schools. The selection of a preferred solution provider was made during the last term by a panel consisting of school representatives and LA advisory staff which was supported with input from BECTA and from officers of the IMPACT Partnership. My particular role was to inform the decision making process from an MIS integration / technical perspective. At all stages leading to the selection of an integrated VLE / remote access / communications network offering colleagues in Rochdale's primary, nursery and special schools were informed and encouraged to participate in the decision making process. I would like to reassure anyone reading this forum that the solution under development is to meet the identified needs of Rochdale schools (a principal focus is an improved Rochdale Schools Intranet) and that at no point in the selection process have I been aware of any discussions relating to the implementation of the solution in any other LA. The selection of the preferred supplier, made just before Christmas, is merely the first step in a process leading to the implementation of the integrated suite of systems required to support the identified needs of those working in Rochdale schools and in line with the Harnessing Technology agenda. There are many paths to be chosen and decisions to be made and I would welcome any opportunity to discuss with any affected party their particular aspirations for the project. I can be contacted on Rochdale 365676 or by e-mail to [email protected] and I look forward to working, in an open and honest partnership with LA and school based colleagues, on the development and implementation of these exciting new systems which will see Rochdale schools continue to be best placed to maximise the benefits of their investment in ICT in raising achievement and opportunity for all pupils within the borough. On the Rochdale / Oldham issue raised above, I would comment that the EDIT team exists to deliver best value in supporting Rochdale LA and its schools. Oldham schools receive their MIS support direct from Capita and there are no proposals for the EDIT Team to deliver MIS support to any school not currently supported. The Rochdale schools WAN makes use of corporate infrastructure which precludes us offering technical services to any school outside the borough. With best wishes for 2008 Dave