pleipper

Hi Guys, Our school would like to set up an external dedicated server with the intention of storing "some" information about students in a database on there, used for a web application. My question is, does anyone know what protocol our school will need to follow in order to do this all legally? I heard something about a data sharing agreement? Not quite sure how it would all work though. Kind Regards, Phil.

Hey Guys. My school currently uses SIMS for its MIS, but apparently are using another company (Credit or octavo or something) to manage all of the dealings with SIMS. What usually happens is the network manager will phone up a contact in "Octavo" and they will provide updates or assistence where required. My school wants to be able to download an install for the latest SIMS AND a training database from the sims e.g. : https://myaccount.capita-cs.co.uk/login/?returnurl=%2fNotifications%2fSIMS-Spring-7162-Release%2f However, the account is not linked to our school... Does anyone know how we can either get our old account information (lost ages ago) or how we could link this account to our school or something so we can download any updates? Kind Regards, Phil.

Hi Guys, Thanks for the great and indepth responses! Couple of questions: Isn't getting Insight and PARS connect quite expensive (I heard 5k per product?) is it really worth that much?? Also, One of the main problems in my current school in regards to recording all behaviour incidents is that teachers find it very time consuming to record behaviour incidents on SIMS and so generally they try to avoid it... this ofcourse means a lot of things are not monitored... How easy is it to add the say the same behaviour incident for a group of 20 students? / Can an incident be adding easily in class (Less than 5 seconds to input?). Many Thanks, Phil.

Thanks for the info FN, Seems strange why schools wouldn't want to use this... SIMS is very basic and cumbersome for teachers.

Hi FN-GM, Thanks for the speedy response! Can I ask, why haven't you used PARS in a long time? Also, is PARS entirely web based or do you need to install client software? Thanks again, Phil.

Hi Guys, I have been looking at these 2 behaviour management systems and it looks like TASC PARS has a lot more features? I was just wondering to hear from different schools who have bought either of these what made you choose 1 over the other and why? Kind Regards, Phil.

only 77 pages? Why is it that its going to have to be sent via a CD then? oO.

Hi Bryan, Yea we want to create a Detention management system. There are some solutions available to this but nothing as extensive and convenient / powerful as what I have in mind. In regards to coding experience, well, my degree is in coding and i was a professional coder for 4 years before i started teaching.. so yea.. not too much of an issue there. When you say the documentation is spare.. are you refering to just the TPID or the whole documentation provided to Capita partners. Kind Regards, Phil.

Hi Guys, After re-reading this I realise it may be painting Capita in a way that was unintended. To clarify: Capita have been very supportive since our first contact with them, they provided us with a 40 minute phone consultation about our proposed project. The confusion about the 'resistance' came about as Capita were just trying to best advise us as to the best course of action that we as a school should take in order to save the most time. To answer my own question: The TPID is a form of documentation that provides all the header information of required in order to interface with SIMS and use the Business Objects. This is available FREE OF CHARGE as long as an NDA is signed. There is however further documentation available which explains how to USE the Business Objects and giving example code - something which would save a lot of time from a programmers perspective. To get access to this documentation SIMs require that you become a 'Partner' - which costs around £2,500 initially.

Hi Guys, I have been trying to get hold of the documentation from SIMS for the Business Objects (or anything that will let me read/write to the SIMS data) but seem to be meeting a lot of resistance from Capita (we are a school). Can anyone clarify whether the Documentation mentioned here: http://www.capita-sims.co.uk/files/sims/downloads/interfacing_guidance_notes.pdf is refering to the Business Objects documentation which is freely available or is it referring to something else? David Grashoff assures us that the documentation we have to sign the NDA for is not usable by programmers. Kind Regards, Phil.

Cool another language I can add to my 'CV'