Anorak

It is yet another dillution of standards, tradition, etc - its the association I suppose with the slang , casualness of the word - but then I am of that age I suppose (50+)

Called me old fashioned or what why is that almost all people and media refer to children as Kids !! - it drives me mad - grrrrrr............... presumably then the DCSF will soon be renamed DKSF - or is it just me ? BTW Seasons Greetings to you all

A related question but not just for SIMS but all MIS systems - what facility is there, especially in a large High School, to know which members of staff are present ? - we have a visitors book , but only a card system on the wall for staff which not every one uses !!

Norfolk LA are apparently continuing with the rollout to aover 400 schools - perhaps it may be worthwhile contacting them ? Project Information (e1) Hope this helps

Bit dodgy that ! - must be a local Census. we are preparing for the DCSF School Workforce Census Pilot next term - Religion is not a field that is required

Heard this on the BBC news this morning - say no more !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - clearly "Naked Gun" was'nt filmed in Scotland

Russ Interesting - is this across all schools sectors , i.e. state and Independent ? or just State schools ? Does your source have any numbers of schools for each product or % figs, if so would be interested to find out Are there any figures for Pearson (Phoenix Gold) , as I am led to believe they focus on the independent schools and have alarge market share in Scotland ? Cheers

I have had a Victor Meldrew moment after hearing the latest re writing of our culture !! See this article for more details - "The Three Little Pigs" has been suggested that it be called "The three Cowboy Builders" by a panel of 70 - mainly Teachers reproting to BECTA - WTF !!!! - no wonder our society is falling to pieces (Rant over !!) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7204635.stm What is Animal Farm going to be renamed as ?

Yes please - can you post an image of them please

Norfolk LA are rolling this out to their schools to replace Phoenix Gold - see link http://www.eficts.norfolk.gov.uk/SchoolManagement/e1/e1ProductInformation.aspx

We currently use Phoenix Gold as our MIS and are happy to continue to do so. Since the latest CD Release (V1.39 ) in April thi s year we have had 12 patch files to correct sotware / amend to DCSF , assessment and Exam Boards reqirements. I cannot recall having had so many in such a short space in time in previous years. Is this the same with other MIS software ?. (I did note in some earlier threads that SIMS have monthly patchs). Is this a consequence of National Data collection specifications / reealses or poor software testing ? Are we all in the same boat ?

Back at the start of the thread reference was made to to Phoenix e1. I understand that this is a true web based system,- is this the way forward ?- has any had any experience of the product in their schoool ?

Thanks for the replies so far Can see that printing off the registers is OK for a planned fire drill but not for every Registration period (let alone Lesson Attendance) Not sure that if in a real emergency - the leaving of a "sacrificial lamb" to stay and print off the class registers for 1900 pupils is a safe option. Chances may be that the Network is down , the server and router have gone down or the printer may be out of paper !! Perhaps the old Class registers should be completed as well as electronically ? ;-) Will have to check with DCFS/. LA Attendance guidance perhaps ? - no douibt this is years out of date !!

Hi. Networked or web based MIS provide for input of attendance data direct from the classroom rather than by the Class registers. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who uses direct input what your procedures are, for taking a roll call, for fire drills , and god forbid in a real emergency, when no manual registers exist ? It has been suggested that the registers are printed out from the MIS every session ? - this would go down very well with our hard pressed office staff !!!