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Hi Just came accross your post, but can't find the link to the video? Would love to have a peak. Ta

matt40k Our IT person has updated SIMS to the Spring version 7.162 over the Easter holidays and I have seen David Pott's introduction, but I cannot find it in my SIMS (neither as a icon button nor via Focus|Assessment). My understanding is that it is a free integral part of the spring update and therefore it should "appear" automatically, or am I wrong? Is there a special step during installation which our IT man has possibly missed? Any help greatly appreciated.

Finally got through on the phone to RM and apparently a few servers are down, which explains why some of you can access tha data whilst others like myseld can't. Hopefully they "will have fixed the problem by this afternoon sometime".

Hi I also received the email with my username and saying that the password for the 2015 Progress 8 Opt-in Website is the same as the one for the standard checking exercise, but when I try to log in it says that "the school is not valid in the database"! And nobody at RM picking up the phone!! No advisers available at this moment, please send us an email! Just wondering if anybody else is experiencing the same issue?

To seb1780: A system analysing on user defined attributes is just what we would want it to do and an automatic import from SIMS sounds great as well! So definitely will need to have a look at Go4Schools – shame about the poor support. To LosOjos: We also use FFT and teachers’ input for target setting and would be probably faced with the same problems as you when it comes to comparing. But as you say, it is good to know any potential problems or shortfalls one system has over another, before committing time and money to it. I am grateful to you all for sharing your experiences with these software packages, as it means that we will know some pros and cons even before a demonstration and the questions to the rep can be so much more targeted.

Thanks everybody for your responses, very useful. We had a SISRA ONLINE presentation almost 2 years ago and ruled it out then for several reasons: · it didn’t use sub-level in KS3 in subject report analyses, · it wasn’t possible to analyse own criteria (we have aspects such as “Behaviour”, “Effort”, “Completion of Homework” and “Contribution in Class” etc and would like to be able to analyse those as well) · tied into contract for 3 years (if I remember correctly?) and at the time the cost was also a major issue david_craggs: What were your reasons to rule out Go4schools and TASC? Pingleby: I will have a look at MAP Learners and let you know. So far quite some input in favour of SISRA. Anybody has anything more to say about Go4Schools or TASC?

Hi All! We have decided to look into buying a data analysis package instead of extracting and analysing our data from SIMS Assessment and manipulating it in Excel and producing nice colourful graphs. Mainly we want to analyse our assessment data and the package needs to fulfil at least the following criteria: - Web based access without the need of SIMS or the school network - User friendly, so that head of Departments/teachers will actually use it without needing days and days of training - Produce quickly tabular and graphical analyses of data (colours!) onscreen and for printouts - Sync regularly with SIMS (automatically?) - Quick software updates to reflect the changes from Department of Education (such as Progress 8) - The ability to add user defined aspects for analyses - Good telephone and online support I found the following packages: SISRA Online, Go4Schools, 4matrix and TASC. What experiences have you had/still having with these providers? Could you please share your pros and cons with me? Do you use some other provider which you would recommend instead? We are planning to have 2 reps in to do their presentation, so I need to narrow it down to the “best” two. Any info is greatly appreciated

When I check on FFT Aspire and FFT Live it seems to be lagging behind by a year! It gives me names of year 7 pupils who are now already in year 8, and obviously no data for current year 7 students. Anybody having the same issue?

The "category" section is really useful, IF you use it correctly and consistently:) I have been setting up new categories to my requirements (Tools>Performance>Assessment>Category), but I never noticed the following path Tools>Performance>Assessment>System Utilities>Templates>Modify the Category association for a selection of Templates (and you can add to or overwrite an existing association). Thank you Ecclesbury for that. Now I only need some chunk of time to tidy up those templates etc. where the category wasn't used consistently

I was looking for the "core learning aim" and found a paragraph in the "Guide for the Post-16 Learning Aims Module - 2013 Autumn School Census" published by the DfE. It states: "From the beginning of the 2013/14 academic year schools will need to identify and record the core learning aim (the principal or "core" qualification) for those students undertaking a study programme that includes vocational learning aims. School management information systems will be developed to hold a new data item "core aim indicator" from the start of the 2013/14 academic year and whilst this will not be collected in the 2013 Autumn School Census, it will need to be recorded for those learning aims continuing from the previous academic year or started in the 2013/14 academic year as part of a vocational study programme. The data will be collected in the 2014 Autumn School Cnesus and is required for funding purposes. More information on this data item and how it should be recorded is available in the EFA's Funding rates and formula guidance." In SIMS I found this via FOCUS | Student | Courses | and then looking for individual students. There is a new button "Set Core Aim" and once you choose the main course, it stays bold to signify that it represents the Core Learning Aim. I had to do it for each 6th form student individually, for the current academic year and the previous academic year, as this was highlighted in the Validation Errors Summary report. I don't know if there is a quicker way of doing this. As we have only a small group of students for whom this applies, it didn't take me long anyway.

Only trouble I had, was that the website expected me to submit data for less students than what I actually had, as there was quite a fluctuation of leavers and new arrivals between census day and the 13th of May. But I cross-checked my list with the list of students they expected me to have, before simply stating that my figure is the correct one!

I agree with LosOjos that the role of the Data Manager is different from school to school and it will quite possibly be covered by a group of people, but I doubt that it would be called a "data team" or be in fact a dedicated data team (don't see our school getting the financial resources for that). So for instance in our school we have somebody dealing with all the attendance data, somebody else is dealing with the admission procedures and first data input onto SIMS, somebody else is doing the census, whilst I as the Data (and Exams) Officer deal with the assessment part of the data according to guidelines from SLT and our IT technician is dealing with the server and software updates etc. The skills I am trying to aquire are the various modules of SIMS, so that not only do I know how they impact on each other, but I try to get a working knowledge so that I could potentially made be responsible for a wider field of action and become more indispensable. SLT supports me in this and I found Course Manager and now System Manager particular useful to know.

HI cn198 Do you have a Head of Year for your Year 10 students? Does he get marksheets for the whole year group? If yes, as an interim solution, you could ask him/her to export his marksheet with the data you are interested in into Excel and forward it to you. but really, as number34 said, for a data manager it is a dead easy and quick job to set you up. But maybe you have an assessment assistant/operator in your school that would be able to set you up in Course Manager as Head of Department for English and then create a marksheet for the course "English" so that you could see all KS4 students and filter it down to the students you need?

This works fine, thank you! But I will try the colour counting as well - been curious about it for quite some time.

I don't know where to start with VBA - it looks terribly complicated.I'm just using the standard colours red, yellow, dark and light green.

I was going for the COUNTIF, but when when I tell Excel to look for a = (equal sign) within the designated range, it won't accept that. Now if I could tell Excel to count the number of red coloured cells, that would solve my problem.

Hi I was wondering if anybody could give me a helping hand please. I am exporting data from our SIMS into Excel and rather than counting *, =, +, - etc. I would like to count the coloured background of those cells. I can filter the data by the coloured background, but I don't know how to count them (other than manually, obviously). Grateful for any help! Thanks

Hi We have a ceiling mounted projector in our Main Hall. Every time we need to change bulb, we need to HIRE a CHERRY PICKER to get that done as any ladder would be to high and H&S wouldn't allow the care takers to do that themselves on a ladder. And since we don't own a cherry picker, we have to hire it. So be warned about that "hidden" cost!

Hi Phil That was the first place I looked, and looked and looked some more and could not find it! But I found a link from BKGarry in a different thread on this forum. I think he got it from Capita Support Net.

Hi everybody Just joined EduGeek as I was looking for a manual for SIMS DISCOVER. I am a Data and Exams Officer, mainly dealing with Assessment and Exams. But Course Manager got recently added to my list, as now has Discover. Mostly definitely if you show some aptitude, you have a good chance in getting it added to your "area of expertise"! I had a look at Profiles (but SLT decided against it at the time) and have some experience with Admissions (covering when staff left). I like to get an overview of what SIMS can do as all the modules are linked together in one way or other and understanding how, gives me the opportunity to influence decisions which might have far reaching consequences in a different area.