CaterinaAnna

Printing from display marks means producing it for one student at a time and, even then, it still includes the whole year (ie lots of dates not yet relevant) and goes untidily over pages if someone has had a lot of absences. Unfortunately, I don't have the expertise to amend the template - it asks for an xslt file, about which I know nothing. I did try our support team, but got nowhere.

Thank you CAM.

Thanks for the digging: once they're amended to show the published values, they'll all say 20% (if they count at all), but we know that, so that's not the issue. I suspect they haven't changed it because most places don't care anymore whether it's 2 or 3 GCSEs worth - but I want them to either admit they've made a mistake or explain why it isn't one (it would feel so good to get one up on the DfE)!

My understanding is the same as Normal Distribution's: on the face of it, for any vocational qualifications size now only matters for telling you how to scale points down to 1 GCSE equivalent. However, we're still counting 'old way' as well for internal analysis and that's led to a problem of its own. Pearson BTEC Level 1/2 First Certificate Courses are listed on the Register of Regulated Qualifications as requiring 240 guided learning hours, which agrees with the spec and what our Head of PE was told at a board meeting ("it's worth 2 GCSEs"), BUT the Performance Measures list a contribution of 60% to Level 1 & 2 thresholds, rather than 40%. The points scale appropriately, but since we're using' total points old system ' as one of our measures it's a frustrating discrepancy. Have had no joy chasing it down - is anyone else even bothered?

We do that (make additional user groups with one or two permissions) too. It doesn't help that the spreadsheet is formatted for printing (although goodness knows what size bit of paper you'd need) rather than filtering.

That's what I like about being here, always something worth 'hearing'! Thank you for the tips.

'Fraid not: had a good google round and couldn't find any way to include data from a merge source in graphical format on a Word document: one of Phil's did include some, but that was completely SIMS generated and, even if we had our progress data in AM, we wouldn't want the raw current attendance/conduct mark on such a report (would need to be to the end of the previous week, rather than to the moment the report is generated, in case of glitches from missing marks). Every solution I've been offered to getting an historic attendance figure involves pulling data from lesson monitor reports into a spreadsheet which then becomes the merge source - ie what I do already - but that precludes including graphs, so back to square one. Think it might be do-able if only I could write macros in Word, but I haven't found enough time to learn about those.

Impressive cv.

Our LA has a data team. Not sure anyone on it gets paid any more than I do though, thanks to single status pay agreements and the small size of the team (to be higher up the scale it's how many people you manage that counts, not how much you need to know).

The version made available in mid-October is based on the 2013 KS4 results.

Oh I agree the targets set based on KS2 APS are often dubious, not just because of the averaging but also for the reasons the staff I referred to above advance (at least when the appropriate reason is given for the subject concerned), but since it's what the powers that be use we play along.

Takes a bit of mashing up of data from various sheets, but the level 3 VA ready reckoner has the relevant coefficients.

The average KS2 points score up to now has been available in the Key to Success searchable data and that's our baseline for non-core subjects, since that's the figure used in VA calculations. Art shouts loudly about it being unfair - but not from the 'academic performance has less to do with this subject than talent' position that I would expect the PE bods (who don't argue) to take, but instead from the 'they didn't do this subject at primary school' perspective that would be more appropriate perhaps for the MFL teacher. Meanwhile she protests at the trajectory, but always gets them there - and beyond - in the end. Sigh.

I used to be able to take a week off around now - initial target setting and stuff done, everything set up for first batch of reports, go away while people fill in the mark sheets, come back to chase, collate and analyse. This year, as last, performance table changes mean lots of new courses (some changing well after term's started) and having to count things differently, so looks like February half term will be the next pause ... except our reports contract runs out in April, so we'll probably be setting up a new system for them then. I will get a decent break over Christmas itself, of course, but if your family's anything like mine, that's not a rest!

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. I wasn't really after anything that long or involved, because the starting point was even further back than that: I'd no idea how to access CommandReporter, let alone start using it, and I suspected the same might be true for Gorf. But that's probably because I jumped straight to the links and ignored your first two lines Given the uses you've suggested, it sounds like it is something I should investigate. I tend to pull the data into Excel and can usually beat it into submission there with the help of a little self-taught (and therefore probably very messy) VBA, so officially I know nothing about coding - although that hasn't stopped me editing what's between tags in the odd xml file. Coincidentally I was looking at online Python courses the other day, but I'd rather jump straight in and learn what I need to make things work - I'm less likely to get side-tracked down interesting blind alleys that way. Thanks again

Oh I'd worked out they were Word templates: I'did' advanced reporting (many moons ago), and I'm a reasonably competent mail-merger, so the tables don't phase me, but I've never included graphs. Had a quick play, but I can't work out how to link the chart data source to the report results. Looks like I need to go away and learn how to do that. (I'm sure it's find out-able, it's just not something I've done.) Also when I generate a report from outwith Lesson monitor which includes attendance totals I can (= last time I tried) only get the current value. In theory, of course, that's what we'd want, but if I'm generating reports to cover all of term 1 a couple of days into term 2, or only want attendance over a particular half term, not the year as a whole, then things get more awkward. But all of this is getting into nitty-gritty of Word and SIMS (which may not even be needed) and off the original topic, so I shall head over to SupportNet and Word support places when I've got time to play next week. Thank you all once again.

I was typing at the same time as Los Ojos, so apologies for the repetition. I've never used command line reporting however - just the inbuilt report generator. It has its limitations, so the option of doing more is intriguing. However, Los Ojos, when I look at those links they're referring to things that are past my starting point: I wouldn't know how to begin. Where would be a good place for someone who knows the report generator, but not a lot else, to go to get started with getting more out?

We haven't got the bit that allows you to record homework and feed it through to SLG, but we do have Lesson Monitor, so have cheated by recording homework as an achievement with a zero-point tariff. Defining a report that lists all homework set then becomes a matter of tweaking one of the standard ones for achievements. Of course, if you want to use those reports for their original purpose as well, you have to remember to tweak them to remove homework.

Thanks both once again. Phil, I'll show TPTB the interim reports you sent as part of the campaign to make use of AM7 - but the sticking point is that they don't show attendance or conduct graphically and that's a key requirement. Steven, what I meant was a way of integrating graphics into the report and then printing off a class or year at a time. Sounds like at least Insight is printable, but it would still be on a student-by-student basis. While it would be great to not send reports home to everyone, our catchment area is somewhat different to yours (even allowing for you to have students from Solly'ull as well as SoleyHahl) and a very small proportion of parents use slg, so we'd still be printing a significant number. Current suggestion: "We could copy and paste the graphs from SIMS in at the end, that's an admin job, shouldn't take too long." Hmm. 'Print' reports (which makes html file); convert to Word (checking margins, page sizing, borders etc); call up student-teacher page; screen snip, paste, size, align for attendance, then achievement, then behaviour; check that other text boxes haven't jumped around; save; repeat for next student; print reports for real.)

To Steven again: CCCC looks pretty and TPTB may be interested in that. Of course they'll want all the assessment stuff too, which means starting to use assessment manager. Hooray! Been pushing for it to happen for years, but been given neither permission nor time. On the other hand ... Yikes! Settting up from scratch in term time to match our current systems is a HUGE job.

Steven, from what I can see Insight is an online system - can you get multiple outputs from it too? That's where the issue is: the parents can see attendance and behaviour graphs on slg, staff can see them on SIMS, but TPTB want them on the annual paper reports too.

Ah! Changing browser did the trick. So, dear moderators, can this thread, which now just makes me look silly, be deleted? Pretty please?

Thank you all for suggestions - will follow up and pass on to relevant people. (This is nth attempt - trying a different browser to see if I can escape the error message that has prevented me posting thanks until now.)

Thanks to those who replied to my other thread. Apologies for starting a new one, but I seem to be blocked from posting a reply or contacting the administrators to tell them so, so this is the only action I seem to be able to take!

Not sure if this is the best forum in which to ask this - if it isn't please re-direct me. We've used i2Q reports for several years, but now the powers that be would like a package capable of producing 'a more visual output for parents'. They've seen reports produced elsewhere that include attendance and behaviour graphs as well as colour-coded progress charts and so on. I suspect these were produced directly from that school's MIS - although I've no idea which one it was. We use SIMS, although, for historical reasons, not for assessment or reporting to parents (bar a connection to SIMS Learning Gateway). TPTB can see the sort of graphs they would like as part of the reports on the student details page and in SLG. Does any part of the SIMS system allow these to be included in a well-laid out, preferably customisable, pupil-level report with other information pulled from SIMS, imported en block (eg targets) and by individual staff (ie staff comments)? If not, is there any package of which people are aware that does? I've done the google thing, but too many things are coy about screen shots or exactly how well they integrate (or not) with an MIS. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.