Steven_Cleaver

Only had this release on last week quite impressed with this release. Some nice new features Pupil Premium, also like the Home Page and the Information it allows you to link in and configure more easily.Knew these were coming but always reserve judgement until I see how these work, but these seem to work really well and are excellent. The Information you can easily access for specific students say on Behaviour, Attendance from the Home Page if these are added in and the overview of Student Information as well that is easily accessible from here think this is presented much better and in an easy format for staff to follow, also from here easily linking to specific information, prints in a reasonable format as an overview etc again excellent. Assessment Key Indicators for students is good this may have been their before but I hadn't noticed this as to be honest the refreshing look has made me have another look at this. Well done Capita all in all looks good.

Cheers Phil that makes sense about the Tables to be honest when I first designed the reports with the amount of data I was extracting filterd for just a couple of students thought it would take ages but with CommandReporter ran really quickly so removed the filter and ran it remotely when no one was in and it ran in about 3 minutes for what is to be honest a massive amount of data to export out, it was just after the upgrade was taking longer and I was a bit worried this would be an issue with all reports including individual reports but I have run a few of these and if anything these are quciker to run although no staff are in at the moment still on holiday.It isn't really a big issue as the I eventually intend to run this as a scheduled task overnight so wouldn't really cause me an issue but just wondered if anyone else had noticed anything.I'll have a bit more of a play with CommandReporter and Reports but as I say isn't to big an issue. As regards the upgrade our Deputy Head, myself and MIS Officer are well impressed with the Home Page and a few of the other new features so excellent job.

My issue was really was that it was fine before the Spring upgrade but since then is taking 30 to 40 minutes for the same report instead of about 3 minutes I have created a couple more extracting large amounts of data and again is taking a long time but I am now filtering for a few students as I am only testing for a system we are looking at developing. To be honest I did initially quite refine what I was exporting but have found by opening this up have been able to extract results I hadn't realised were there and at a testing stage to see all the data and what you could use is really useful. I have at the moment two Reports one that extracts the Time table Class\Subject structure although we have an Exporter that sort of does this and imports this into Moodle so could use this or the report and a secound Report that is extracting results, idea being feed this into our own SQL based system and look at our own Tracking and Intervention system and Automate the extract from SIM's into the new system to run on a schedule. By the way think the new home page and some of the new features in SIM's are excellent including the Pupil Premium well done Capita.

Cheers Vik, the report won't run manually as has to much data to extract and SIM's crashes when I try to run it, report did extract but took around 40 minutes as oppossed to the 2 or 3 minutes previously, so I could run it on a schedule, I hadn't heard about the reindex patch so might try this or recreate the report to see if it is any quicker in case as you say some of the data areas have changed and thats why it is struggling ran a couple of Individual reports and these seem fine.

Hi We have just been upgraded to the Spring release of SIM's and I am using Commandreporter to extract a report where as before the upgrade this was taking about three minutes to extract what is quite a hefty amount of data, I have gone to run this report this evening and it is still running the Report 30 minutes later with no sign of finishing. I was just wondering if anyone has noticed any issues with running Commandreporter since the upgrade. Many thanks

Good luck with Frog, I found it to be an excellent VLE along with Moodle probably the best two I have used, the one issue I did have with Frog was everyones expectations especially SLT as with paying so much money they expected this to be up and running and making an impact almost imediately which is obviously not possible as it takes a bit of time to get going and needs proper planning and structure as does any VLE, so would deffinately make whoever decided on Frog, presume a member of SLT get them to drive this with staff to make sure it is used and try to start with a couple of key departments who will set an example and possibly provide training for others, we started with two then another 5 followed by the rest. Opposite with Moodle because it was free, expectations weren't so high so was easier to meet expectations and to be honest exceed what was expected initially and Staff and SLT are much happier with this than the comercial one they had originally but again get SLT on board always key as I am sure you know. If you are any where near us (Birmingham) I could put you in touch with a couple of schools that are using Frog really well for some ideas.

Completely agree installed the last one a week or so ago as you say really easy couple of clicks and I also like the way they don't force you to Install just leave this up to you, if you want new functionality etc.

Hi We use SISRA as well so glad to hear they are looking at SISRA version 2 to be honest we are looking at developing our own so mixture what we get from Assesment Manager Marksheet Analysis\SISRA and the information we get from vast amount of Excel Analysis we do so just try and automate these into one as they are in essence based on the same sets of Data. Then build in Intervention system linked to the data this provides we sort of have all this in three seperate systems so just try and get this into one system now we can see what we want as outcomes, should be interesting as SLT, Myself, Head of ICT, LPG Group, MIS Officer and External Software Developer are all involved so should be interesting.

I introduced FROG at the last school I was at and moved jobs, the new school I moved didn't really want to fund the purchase of FROG due to the cost but weren't happy with their current VLE so we started our own Moodle have to be honest this started off slow and was a bit of work (but to be honest no more than FROG) but has gone from strength to strength. I think either is a good system and to be honest thought Moodle would be alot more work than FROG but hasn't really proved to be. FROG looks very pretty, but if you put a bit of work into Moodle you can make it look reasonable, we have linked in users using AD so SSO internally, with help from another company made our own Subject\Class importer from SIM's so staff can assign resources and tests\quizzes to their classes with these being automatically marked.Built in things like Twitter, Facebook own youtube channel etc which gives it a more modern feel. We also had a member of staff come from another school that were using FROG and really was one of the drivers of FROG at their as I speak to the schools ICT team and we introduced her to Moodle and our Web Development Manager gave her some initial training and support, I left it for a few months then we had a loom at what she had created and I had a word with her about what she thought about the two systems, she said that the feed link in FROG was really good as it displays information to students relevant to them but in general she found Moodle easier to use and their wasn't really anything she could do in FROG that she couldn't really do in Moodle from a teaching perspective. The other thing I found really useful from FROG was the Remote Access to PC's although this had issues with Windows 7 initially but has been resolved now and was an extra cost but found this really useful for staff and students, although we have developed our own where I am now. Two things I wasn't happy with with FROG was their Parental Portal bit was very Poor and didn't work well and the school I introduced this moved to Insight from Tasc the same as we use once they had a looked at it where I work now. The support could also be a bit and hit and miss for a couple on months it could be excellent then for a couple of Months be really poor. Not sure if any of this helps, just my eperience.

I have the Teachers linked to their SIM's accounts (but could be AD I think) for logins, Parents with the Auto generated ones and Students linked to AD, basically the Teachers can see what the Parents and Students can see as in Attendance, Behaviour, Reports, Exams but this is very configurable so Staff can see upto date attendance but parents a couple of days behind so you can configure slightly differen't views for different users quite easily. This helps where a Parent might be querying something as a Teacher has the same view but where a Parent can only see their child a teacher can see any student. Staff can also get some basic information like contact phone numbers etc but basic information that is available in SIM's. You can also use Insight to book Parents Evening Appointments although we don't use this feature at the moment. Trying to develop this in Moodle as regards setting assignments and having these marked one of our History Teachers is testing this out she already sets all Home works in Moodle and is looking at setting Quizzes\tests and having these auto marked by class group.

Insight is excellent as a Parental and Student Portal but not sure you can use it to set and collect Homework you can upload documents to it but not sure you can do much more than this but may be wrong. We are looking at Moodle as regards setting homework and marking we have a few staff now using Moodle to set Homework so have linked Classes and Subjects into Moodle and are looking at using quizzes\tests in Moodle to use for marking we have one of our teachers trying the quizzes\tests and auto marking against classes now Class structure is linked into Moodle so pulls results against class. We can see huge benefits from this if we get this right allocate Resource against class, set quiz\test and gives back results against the class. You could also use this data for revision see where students hadn't quite grasped a certain topic so extra resources or revision etc.

Going by your requirements and limitations HAP does sound like the answer but would just be tempted to have this on seperate Server or VM if possible.

Sort of use RDP Gateway with our own software front end for added security and to force Dual Factor encrypted authentication to any MIS systems, also easy management front end and allows access for all students and staff or whoever you like but also used Home Access + originally which was very good.

Excellent point and is exactly what we try to do automate it if it is repetitive then you have more time developing things and trying to make sure the things you develop have an impact and are being used. Your always going to have the odd thing you can't automate but always do as much as you can.

Our Sim's relicencing cost us around £11,000 to buy the Licences as the LEA had bulk brought these tried various negotitations as a group of converter Academies about 6 of us and got around 30 % off buy going before a certain date. Also as a group renogiated few services with our LEA and got some price decreases for some of the IT Services they provide although was a bit of a minefield trying unpick some of the funding from LEA contracts as things were bungled together, well dodgy.Where we couldn't get a better deal or could do these better or cheaper in house moved away from the LEA.

Have used Crystal a bit at my previous school as it was the backend of the Reporting system we used and as vikpaw has said can be a lot to get your Head round as calculations and structuring the data are very differen't. Thanks to Pico and Vikpaw for SSRS bit looks interesting might have a look at this.

We use PARs for Registers, Behaviour etc and staff enter Grades in here which links back into SIM's Aspects so it feeds into Assessment Manager in SIM's I did look at using PAR's more for this where I was before but we had a diffren't system at the time. We also use Insight from Tasc Software for parental Portal both these products are excellent and the support provided by Tasc Software second to none both in with any issues or helping to develop the use of the system the way you want, Excellent company.

We don't use Profiles but use a cut off data against the Parents Role which means they can only see see reports published up until that date anything published after that they would not be able to see as regards individual reports. So at the moment we have published (uploaded to document Server) the Year 9 Individual reports but set the Cut off date or earliest date to last week so parents or Pupils can't yet see these as yet but Staff can as they have not Cut off date or earliest date. Their is a school down the road that are using profiles if I get chance I'll try and email them tomorrow to check this works the same their.

Really surprised about this as I have found them excellent at responding to stuff, a little slower with Sales stuff but at most a day or two compared to any support issues which is usually straight away or within an hour or so, I would be tempted to contact them again just in case this has just got missed somewhere as this is really unusual.

No problem and thanks for putting this on,have had a quick look at your network monitoring tool and exactly as you say looks easy to use set this up at home, changed passwords etc in a few minutes will be really interesting to take a look at. Sort of realised the bit about dedicated machine and the browser being open as your info on your website was very easy to follow so thanks. I have a VM in work that I leave on for something similiar so might try it on their or create a new VM for this .

Looks good and thanks for this I am off work for a few days but have had a look on your website and installed it on a VM on my laptop just to have a look at the functionality and see how easy it was to set up, was very easy and could see this being quite useful, so will do a bit more testing when I get back to work, so thanks again . particuliarly like the idea of accessing this info by mobile phone as could quickly see if any issues without out logging onto anything at work I know their are other systems that do this but looks good.

Had a vague understanding of how Google Authenticator works, but have had a bit more of a look and looks very interesting, cheers Vikpaw.

Same want to make the DFA as simple for the user as possible one so it isn't a barrier for them using it and accessing the system and two so as you say it isn't something difficult that they have to write down. Still not fully convinced about only fully Cloud based MIS solutions for various reasons but best not raised here on this thread as this has been discussed many times and their are pro's and Con's for both. Another reason we have done Dual Factor Authentication the way we have is we also have our Finance systems hosted internally which is not part of our MIS system and use the same method to secure DFA for this so in essence use the same method to DFA to multiple systems externally @PhilNeal and @GREED really glad MIS providers are looking at implementing DFA into their systems.

Part of the reason I said mine was a different tack so instead of Cloud based hosted internally and all third party communication, authentication is done internally also easy to link into your AD, easier to manage, more control. Sort of taking the point that we shouldn't only be talking about Cloud base systems and DFA but also any internally based MIS systems that we are allowing access to over the web. You could in theory use it on a cloud base system where these weren't just one big database and each organistion had their own virtual server or physical server to host organisations MIS but would need second seperate server or VM to hold the solution and would probably use MIS username and Password and encrypted key to Authenticate but you would have the issue of how you deal with remote third partys and external automated systems in theory anything internally should be ok.

@vikpaw I think I know what you mean by third party access but this is all done internally so things like communication between SIM's and Insight automatically is done internally as this is hosted on site as is anything like this as it is all hosted internally, then with Insight Staff, Students and Parents access this over SSL as are all our web solutions I run penetration tests on anything web facing and so do the LEA using external company I think and I get a report from them after these have been run.