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Thanks for the info folks. I think we'll try and output as a spreadsheet and amend marks after that.

Hi all, We need to edit marks for up to three years worth of data on our previous MIS as much of it is still on paper. We could use Lesson Monitor > Edit marks, but for 4 year groups and 100+ weeks each this would take time we don't have. I've found the SIMS tool that archives attendance data, but I stopped the process when the wizard advised that historic data couldn't then be edited in SIMS. It doesn't mention the format that SIMS outputs, if its .XLS or .csv we're fine but need something we can easily amend. I didn't want to use SIMS Support as we've changed MIS and stopped paying for their help, which was never that great in the first place! Any solutions on this greatly appreciated.

Is it possible to see what SIMS users have been accessing whilst logged in? Its nothing particularly sinister but a potential safeguarding issue worth exploring.

Thank you folks, I have a keen colleague already looking into those methods. We're going to use an offline backup copy in case of calamity

Morning folks, I have a bunch of SQL scripts that I want to run to extract data from SIMS. They are custom made by iSAMS and contain all the necessary tables/fields, etc so we can package all relevant data up prior to migrating everything to iSAMS in a few weeks. My question is how can this be done? The IT guys seem pretty busy and haven't done it for a long time, and as I'm project managing it I thought I ask here instead. Many thanks

True, I could, that was going to be Plan B. I was hoping some magic could be worked in SIMS.

After about 4 hours searching and failing to achieve this I'm posting as my final hope. How do I find or create a report that totals every lesson that has occurred between 8th Sept 15 and 11th Dec?

Hi folks, I'm having trouble finding/making a SIMS report of % and/or total number of attendance registers not taken by teaching staff since September 2015 to current date. The ones I've found and used in SIMS appear to give me lots of pupil names and an almost random date order. Direction and advice gratefully received.

Afternoon wise old folks of SIMS, We have two systems, WBCS PASS for enrolement/billing, etc which the most up-to-date collection of pupil details. Then we have SIMS for everything else, with a massively outdated collection of pupil contact details. WCBS dont offer any syncing to SIMS, so I'm trying to find a system that will do this as a bulk update. Can I upload an XML or CSV file to SIMS containing this info?

Thanks Matt40k. I'll give it a try tomorrow, I only have 125 to add but need to add more data than the minimum so anything is better than manual.

Afternoon folks, I'm new to SIMS admin and trying (failing) to be efficient! We have all of our new pupils registered in WCBS PASS, used by the Registrar and Finance. However the rest of the school uses SIMS for everything else, not sure why its like this. I am trying to use Data In > CTF in SIMS, having created an XML file using the various data fields I thought were necessary, i.e. those specified as 'mandatory' by SIMS documentation. Anyhow SIMS rejects every variant I have attempted as 'x Select a valid CTF file to proceed'. I have 150 + new starters to enter and doing this every year could be so much easier, I hope!

Hi Branislav, I too am looking to implement a link balancing solution. we already have a Fortigate firewall and will be updating the content policies soon for different users. we probably need to obtain an additional ADSL line as cannot get one faster than we have, hence the need for a link balancing solution such as PEP Link. Can you tell me how you got on with your project, as our ideas sound similar.

Yep, thats being investigated tomorrow. We were waiting for ages for fibre optics that didn't arrive, hence the ideas about link bonding, balancing, etc. I guess we should spend the money on the source of the problem.

Thanks FN-GM. We have one Ruckus AP that provides wifi for 90% of our users, so perhaps at the moment a controller shouldn't be top of the list. I'll research proxy servers and see what that can do for us.

Hi folks. We are having an Internet provision crisis. We have two schools a) one with a Xirrus WLAN with fibre optics up to 10 meg for about 70 users (very fast!), and b) a Ruckus WLAN with up to 3 meg with about 200 users (very slow!). A couple of questions if I may.... 1- The company that provided both solutions offered 'wireless controllers' of which i have no experience. How will they improve the existing networks? Is it speed or security? 2- Will installing web servers be worth it? Will caching content reduce the demand on the ADSL connections? What I also want to understand better is how much of a difference it will make if we handle the ADSL connections better....the controllers/load balancing/web servers, etc. I have a boss who during the past year didn't want to spend any money on a complete solution, now is blaming the technician (and me) for things going wrong : (

Hi Folks, Does anyone have any experience with ManageBac? I missed a web-demo of it today so am looking for some brownie points by someone in the know. We presently have no students whatsoever so are researching what to do when we go beyond Y11 in 2013. Thanks

Thanks to Sparky and Michael for the above info. We had a company in today to flog us a new licence for our existing Fortigate 110C firewall as it has expired. It seems it is insufficient for our 400 + users, and they'll quote for a new one. They reassuringly advised they could load balance both ADSL lines, and set up separate policies for the users to stop the pesky video streaming from hogging our bandwidth. It may cost us a fortune in hardware and licences, but at least i feel better advised now. We may even have a go with teachers and Facebook : / Apparently both lines are 4Mb, but the guarantee is only 640Kb for each. In reality we are somewhere near 2Mb, although feels like 56Kbps at times.

Forgive me, I have an idea but it might be complete nonsense. I am the HOD, and my technician is Italian. And sometimes things get lost in translation, and he's no expert with Internet technologies, nor am i. We have two lousily slow commercial ADSL lines, both under 1Mbps. We cannot yet afford to upgrade and in Italy it is a very expensive and slow process anyway. Our router is old and I fancy something with load balancing features, as we sometimes lose one of the lines. Will it also increase the bandwidth if they are joined together? Or am i dreaming? We have less than 10 admin users for one of the lines, and then more than 200 for the other! Thats because the Admin guy is too selfish to let us use his line, so I want to join them and divide up some of the bandwidth more appropriately. Any suggestions on hardware/software/explanations would be gratefully appreciated. I have plenty of suppliers trying to sell me solutions but they want to charge a lot for what might be a marginal gain.

There is clearly way more to think about than I previously assumed, thankfully our users are not very exploratory or mischievous. But there are now a few scenarios more than i previously had considered, I will have to translate your responses and send to my technician. Its his first year in a private school as was previously in a commercial role. We are learning far more with every new stage. In terms of data loss i'm not so bothered as almost all is created in and left in Google Apps. We will have to reinforce our user policies to try and prevent some of the customisation that will obviously occur somewhere eventually. Hopefully the x130e Lenovo we are getting has some kind of BIOS setting that is school friendly as thats where they have been designed for. I'll chat with my tech this week, you've given me plenty to think (worry!) about. Thanks again.

That was quick, many thanks. Every laptop is being redone as far as i know, I'm not too worried about the Macs but the Windows laptops cause me a bit of worry. Y8 and 9 are Win 7 Pro, and the new 7's will be Home Premium.

We will handout 60 x Y7, 60 x Y8, 60 x Y9 and 35 x Y10/11 laptops next year. each year all have different models and Y10/11 a new Mac Book Air. Every student has access to 'their' personal laptop 24/7. Previous years and including this one (i started after this years config and handout) have been a disaster allowing students full admin access, installing games, open doors to viruses and spyware, you can imagine the range of repairs the technician thus has had to deal with. This year i want them fully 'locked down' with almost no control of user settings, etc and only document creation and management, wireless accounts and passwords, applications, etc. I only have 1 technician, split sites, and 35-50 more machines than last year. students only access a wireless network for the internet, and have no access to visit file servers, printers, etc. I am trying to anticipate avoiding overload for the technician, although i realise we need another! I wish to understand the further things we can do, implications of the above, and so on. We have a bit of a low confidence in IT support here so need some help with raising! My technician will take possession of all of them next week so is ready to start hauling through the image ghosting and setup. Thanks in advance.