RootsSchImp

Hi, In the Administration module there's a routine called 'update mailing point' which you can use to set the flag mailing point' to be true for oldest children in a family. After you've done that you can use mailing point' = true as your filter. Ed

Hi, Does anyone regularly pull out really big reports from their MIS - I'm thinking specifically along the lines of a results backup of every assessment result for every student. I've done this recently for a SIMS school to make up a back up archive which came through eventually after about half an hour. I've tried it on a cloud system (Bromcom) and not been able to pull the data through because it affected other processes and had to be killed. If you generate this kind of big report (300k+ rows) what system do you use, how long do you expect to wait and will it affect other users? Cheers Ed

In my experience Bromcom can struggle to handle *very large* reports, like say pulling out every assessment result for every student. For ordinary reporting it's good: interface is simple, reports can be scheduled with dynamic time periods (e.g. beh incidents last week) and you can pull (some) data directly from within excel so it's kickass if you like spreadsheets.

Removing them from the Timetabler group in System manager should do it (although depending on your IT set up they might still be able to run it via windows explorer). What did they do?

Good call @jcooke16 that's exactly how I would do it, should be fine.

If you haven't already I'd recommend doing a cost benefit of sticking with self hosting vs moving to a cloud based solution. Plus with a cloud solution you're safer from ransomware attacks which I think are a non-negligible risk now.

Hi, I've not seen that error specifically, but here's a few things to check. 1, there's a 2017/18 academic created in Sims 2, you're sending the new cycle to the dates of that year (ie in the future) 3, you've entered the correct start times of periods for all days of the TT 4, there are no lessons from the old timetable. This shouldn't matter, but if there are I would export the old TT and check the 'export band structure only' box to clear them out. Then try again exporting the cycle. Good luck getting it sorted Ed

Facility autoschedules better than T6, but like @NotSoFast I don't think that is a very important attribute of a timetabling program as most of the decisions and trade offs as to who teaches what, when it's better to make yourself.

If you jump to model where does it take you? If it takes you to a block without the class in it, it might be worth noting the subjects, teachers and rooms of the block, deleting it and remaking it. Re: better software than T4: T6, with the added bonus you're already paying for it. I've used Scheduler, Keith Johnson's Timetabler and e-Timetable and IMO Nova T6 is the best of those.

Oh Mark, If you only knew the nonsense that spills out of Facility Scheduler, you'd sacrifice a goat to T6, Lord of Blocks, every summer solstice just like I do.

Hi Gareth, Do you get any options if you right click it? Does it appear in Reports| Unstaffed Classes or Unbuilt blocks? That would drive me nuts too, and if you send through 'orphaned' classes with no staff or rooms it can cause SIMS problems too. Your real problem is that your timetable's still being done in T4 which is pretty much the digital equivalent of finger painting it on the walls of your cave - I'd sort that out if I were you. Good luck Ed

Hi Andy, This may not be the most accurate solution, but I think I'm right in saying that for each class assignment screen there's a column showing the block assignment? If you order by that column then use shift-click to select all the students of a group, right click and select all highlighted, then you can at least assign each class really fast. Good luck getting it sorted Ed

Has the new academic year been created in Sims and the timetable sent through from T6?

I haven't timetabled with Bromcom so I don't know. Nova T6 is pretty good, though if choice of MIS for whole staff is being swung by convenience for 1 or 2 timetablers, I'd say the tail was wagging the dog.

The reason the add in is better than exporting a marksheet is that the data arrives in the sheet where it's used with one click, you don't have to export, copy and paste

Correction - you can filter marksheets on Bromcom

Hi I'm an independent consultant and I do work for Bromcom (on the tech side, not sales). The advantages of Bromcom over SIMS in terms of data out (from my point of view) are: Scheduling Reports to run automatically is easier. There's an excel add-in so you can pull data in directly to a spreadsheet that does other things. The Analysis tools all work with subject, assessment type drop downs so it's much easier for a data manager to set up analyses for everyone than in SIMS where to use Perf Analysis either your HoDs need to know what aspects/resultsets are and how they are named or you have to set up lots of individual subject analyses. Not strictly data out but master templates for tracking are WAY better than what's in SIMS. You could set up your tracking system in Bromcom for KS3-5 in under an hour. Bromcom also innovate faster than Capita. Disadvantages: The actual reporting engine in Bromcom is not as good (IMO) and sometimes struggles with big reports. You should get hold of a demo and try it out before making the switch if that's what you'll be using a lot. Assessment marksheets don't have filters on like SIMS ones do, so if you have users who do analysis straight from marksheets they might complain about that. There's a whole other debate about pros and cons of Cloud (Bromcom) vs your own servers (Sims, for now) it would be worth checking out. Good luck Ed

Is it important that they don't appear on student timetables? On the classes screen if you drag the new teacher on the class it will ask you 'Do you want to replace XXX' click No and they will both be assigned (and the class will go pink to signify it has more teacher periods than periods). I'm pretty sure both teachers will appear, although if you dig around in print timetables there might be a 'first teacher only' option or something like that.

Fraid not - I just had to add zzz to the front of the aspect names and leave it at that. Closest I've got to a tip for clean system lovers is don't download Programme of Study cos that imports another pile of sh%te you can't get rid of.

Hi ddevey, Go to reports, design report, new and click next until you get a screen with a list of fields. Choose the student fields you want and also the blue contacts subreport from below the fields. Subreports contain multiple records in their fields per student. Once you add them to the report a little book icon appears, click this to filter these. Next screen filter the students you want to see. Then click through to default output and choose what you want. If you're generating an excel list and want all the data on all the rows you'll want to untick 'suppress duplicate s'. Good luck Ed

What's Progresso support like - are they on the case too?

As someone whose worked with schools using Bromcom I'd push back on the idea that the add-in is useless. It won't replace every report but in certain cases being able to pull through, say, attendance percentages and breaking them down by years/contextual factors I think is a significant time/effort save on exporting and pasting, plus more reliable if the person using the sheet didn't build it. That said, I definitely wouldn't roll out to all staff as it's only useful for ppl who're fairly advanced excel users so my approach would be to let it be known that it exists and give it in a case by case basis.

Hi Mark, If you run it with no 1pd then run optimise set to I care mostly about spread you might end up w a de facto 2pd rule. Quick and dirty but then autoschedule so often is...

Have you checked that the staff name appears as the marksheet owner (sometimes SIMS doesn't recognise staff from nova) also that you don't have two similarly named courses eg. PE (gen)/PE (KS3)?

Good call- if I remember right it's Tools, Academic management, update course memberships Often magically fixes this kind of problem