JDiaz

Hello, Does anyone know a reliable source to get the exam dates that will apply when working out what counts and what doesn't count when the DfE applies the first entry discount rule to calculate the performance tables? I have found that this information is quite patchy on the MIS. I have searched all the official government sources I could find but I haven't found this. An ideal source would be the qualification number, syllabus, exam year, season and the exam date. I guess I could try to find this information on updated exams base data from the exam boards, but since this is not always publicly available, I thought to try to find an official, comprehensive source. Any help or ideas would be appreciated, because if not, I will have to use the exam season. Many thanks, J

This great opportunity closes tomorrow. Last chance to apply!

Hello, Sorry if this is an easy question, I am not that proficient with SIMS. We have entered a lot of results in one column (let's say targets) that I want to delete. If I go to the marksheet, and clear the cell, it doesn't really remove it. I have found a tedious workaround but I believe there should be a quick way to delete the whole column at once. Can anyone tell me the trick? Thanks a lot, you are the best.

Hello, I am frustrated that I have received this email from Advanced Learning a few minutes ago: http://ui.isend-itineris.co.uk/view.aspx?e=ef8e87349a9b479e8b810070d792cc1e&t=57749c99e9&r=6ef5d82b3b telling us that we will need to re-patch our Facility CMIS. We have identified this affects ~12 of our schools, which is not good providing the that Census day is tomorrow. I know that it doesn't need to be submitted tomorrow, but we are still very unhappy about this. For reference our SIMS schools were upgraded during the summer with no further issues. They just released the current version on 1st September. How do other vendors deal with this? Other than SIMS, have you had a smooth upgrade this time? I am curious to know if this is extended or if it is just AL. - Frustrated J.

In fairness I found all this information on their websites

Not all MIS providers have a system status feed. If you are having problems can try to tweet them or check their support portal/forum or giving them a call. UK MIS systems: [TABLE=width: 900, align: center] [TR] [TD]Product[/TD] [TD]Vendor[/TD] [TD]Status page[/TD] [TD]Twitter[/TD] [TD]Support page[/TD] [TD]Support line[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Arbor[/TD] [TD]Arbor Education[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]@ArborEdu[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]0207 043 0470?[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Aspen[/TD] [TD]Follett[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]@FollettLearning[/TD] [TD]Direct support forum on Edugeek[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Bromcom MIS[/TD] [TD]Bromcom Computers[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]@Bromcom[/TD] [TD]Bromcom User Area[/TD] [TD]020 8290 7177 or [email protected][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Click+Go[/TD] [TD]SEEMiS Group[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]0300 303 8592?[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]CMIS[/TD] [TD]AdvancedLearning[/TD] [TD]Locally installed system, check with your IT support[/TD] [TD]@AdvLearning[/TD] [TD]CMIS Support portal[/TD] [TD]0845 6888400[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]databridgeMIS[/TD] [TD]databridgeMIS[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]01476 552 937?[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Double First[/TD] [TD]Double First[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]@DFEngage[/TD] [TD]Support Centre[/TD] [TD]01935 40 30 00?[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]E1[/TD] [TD]Pearson[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]? or contact form[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Integris[/TD] [TD]RM[/TD] [TD]Integris status (via: RM Support > Internet Support Portal)[/TD] [TD]@RMEducation[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]0808 1729 535?[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]iSAMS[/TD] [TD]iSAMS Independent[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]@iSAMS[/TD] [TD]Support Centre[/TD] [TD]01604 659 100 or [email protected][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]PupilAsset[/TD] [TD]PupilAsset?[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]@PupilAsset[/TD] [TD]Support[/TD] [TD]01603 631436 or [email protected][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Progresso[/TD] [TD]AdvancedLearning[/TD] [TD]http://status.progresso.net/[/TD] [TD]@AdvLearning[/TD] [TD]Progresso Support portal[/TD] [TD]0845 6888400[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Resource EMS[/TD] [TD]Corero[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]@Corero[/TD] [TD]Customer Login[/TD] [TD]01923 897 333[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]ScholarPack[/TD] [TD]Histon House[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]@ScholarPack[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]01522 716049 or [email protected][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]SchoolBase[/TD] [TD]Furlong Solutions[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]@SchoolBase[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]01264 354 111[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]SchoolPod[/TD] [TD]BehaviourWatch[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]@SchoolPod[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]0844 544 6685? or contact form[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]SIMS[/TD] [TD]Capita[/TD] [TD]Locally installed system, check with your IT support[/TD] [TD]@CapitaSIMS[/TD] [TD]SupportNet[/TD] [TD]01234 838080?[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Synergy in Schools[/TD] [TD]Tribal[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]@tribalgroup[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]0845 3133 151?[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Wauton Samuel[/TD] [TD]Wauton Samuel?[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]@WautonSamuel[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]020 8318 1700?[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]WCBS[/TD] [TD]WCBS[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]@wcbsmis[/TD] [TD]Customer Centre[/TD] [TD]01458 833 055 or [email protected][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] MIS-related systems: [TABLE=width: 900, align: center] [TR] [TD]Product[/TD] [TD]Vendor[/TD] [TD]Status page[/TD] [TD]Twitter[/TD] [TD]Support page[/TD] [TD]Support line[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Groupcall Emerge[/TD] [TD]Groupcall[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]@groupcall[/TD] [TD]Groupcall Support[/TD] [TD]020 8502 7344?[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Groupcall Messenger[/TD] [TD]Groupcall[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]@groupcall[/TD] [TD]Groupcall Support[/TD] [TD]020 8502 7344?[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Keep Kids Safe[/TD] [TD]Keep Kids Safe[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]0114 2250301 or [email protected][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Truancy Call[/TD] [TD]Contact Group[/TD] [TD]?[/TD] [TD]@contactgroup[/TD] [TD]Support[/TD] [TD]0844 448 4422[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Please help completing this page or correcting the information. Moderators: please help! Credit goes to @GREED for the idea.

No worries, I found what I was looking for: http://status.progresso.net/ Yes. They were down.

Hello, Can anyone confirm that the reporting side of Progresso was down last week (w.b. 17/03/14)? And if so, can you tell me how long this was for? Thanks, J

Yes, it is. @bringmoredata and I work in the same team at ARK Schools, which is a charity running schools in England. We currently have 27 schools and are growing every year. We care A LOT about data. We are not just another academy sponsor. We do things differently to improve the life chances of our students. The problem we have is that, for this role, we need someone who knows SIMS because we took onboard two schools with SIMS last summer (all the others using CMIS) and we lack SIMS expertise at the central team to be able to support them in an intelligent manner. This is the core skill we are looking for and everything else is secondary. For this particular role, we originally thought that it would be helpful to hire someone who already knew SIMS as it would be odd to hire someone who knows less than the schools they would be supporting. SQL, CMIS and everything else is secondary, what we look for is someone techy and with the intellectual curiosity to pick up those things quickly. We are an expanding team with very big plans, and we want to find the closest fit. I have talked to agencies, including ESP, and asked for outstanding candidates, and I have not been satisfied with the responses. If there is any agency reading this, please feel free to be in touch!! You are still in time , closes tomorrow morning.

Hurry up, is closing on Friday!

I think you are right, LosOjos, but in my opinion person specifications are like a wish list. You write in there what your ideal candidate would have and then you see how close the people who apply are. I have never hired someone that was a perfect match and I think is more about assessing how close they are and their potential to get there. The reason why we have some of those things in there -like the SQL- is because we do have other internally developed systems that we will be asking this person to support, but I totally get your point and I think the next JD I write will be very different. Central London: Holborn

Very helpful and interesting answers. Thank you all. I wonder if we approached it the right way when we wrote the JD. Not that far off !! It's odd because we got more interest at £30k than at £35k

Hello experts, What would you say is the best place to post a vacancy similar to "Data Manager"? Does anyone have a story about how they found an outstanding DM (or they where found)? Thanks, J PS: I have already posted it here on Edugeek

Hello! We are half-way through! You still have time to apply :-)

We are looking for a highly skilled SIMS Support Manager to join our Systems and Data team during an exciting period of growth and innovation. ARK Schools is investing considerable time and resource in the team to define a best practice approach to school analytics which blends data from MIS, learning platforms, HR, finance and other systems. The individual will split their time between our schools and the central office, supporting our 27 academies, and work closely with the rest of the team to ensure the highest quality of data management and analysis. The successful candidate will have some experience of SIMS.net. They will work across this and a range of other systems, including several that have been developed in-house. Given the range of tasks and projects undertaken by the team, there is considerable opportunity for professional development and career progression. For the full details and to apply, visit https://application.arkschools.net/vacancy/mGPzVZJc The closing date for both roles is on Friday 7th March 2014 at 9:00 am. If you have any questions, you can PM me or send an email to the email address that you will find on the information pack. Good luck!

Thanks everyone for your helpful answers. This is exactly what I was hoping to get. Thanks again, J

Hello, I would like to get people's opinion on what is an average salary for a SIMS School Data Manager who deals with SIMS, and also what the typical career progression would be (maybe data manager for a school federation?) and what would be the salary range be. Thanks, J

Thanks for your replies, I just get the feeling that there is not an easy-to-use tool out there for this purpose. :-(

Hello, I was wondering if anyone knows of a software able to produce parent reports. What we are looking for is the following: It doesn't need to integrate with the MIS, if the input is a spreadsheet with the data, this is good enough It is super-easy to use, ideally drag and drop Ideally it would produce the output as a PDF with all the reports for the year group You should be able to add pictures such as the school logo and charts. We used to do an Excel "mail-merge", this is, I would have all the data in one tab, the report on another one pulling the details from the first row, and then with a macro it would print the report tab to a PDF printer, and move the next row up to the first row on the data tab. With Excel we had conditional formatting, fit to cell, and fit to page features that are very important when doing parent reports. It used to work fine, but when it comes down to modify it, some of our users who have limited Excel experience were unable to do the amendments that they wanted. See the attached sample. The reason why we have been doing this way is because we found that the reports that you can produce with the MIS (CMIS and SIMS in our case) are ... not up to our standard. I have been looking for a parent report package, but I cannot find anything online. Thanks in advance for your replies. Sample fake parent report.pdf

Just one day left !

As soon as possible but we are willing to wait longer for the right candidate.

Holborn, London

Only one week left to apply! Good luck!

We are currently looking for two people to join our team in two openings that we have: MIS Training and Support Manager ARK Schools is looking for an outstanding MIS support Manager to join our central team and help providing support to our 27 academies. They will take ownership of all aspects of Information Systems training and provide MIS support to our schools' staff and data managers. For this role, we ask for some experience with SIMS.net or CMIS Facility and be proficient in the use of data within education. For the full details and to apply, visit https://application.arkschools.net/vacancy/sPTwWZb6 --- MIS Information Systems Support Officer ARK Schools is looking for a MIS Support officer to join our central team and help providing support to our 27 academies. For this role, we don't ask for much, but ideally some experience with SIMS.net or CMIS Facility would be preferable. For the full details and to apply, visit https://application.arkschools.net/vacancy/m7dNQcxm --- The closing date for both roles is on Thursday 9th January 2014 at 9:00 am. If you have any questions, you can PM me or send an email to the email address that you will find on the information pack. Good luck!