Steven_Cleaver

Could try this a free tool from a company called Burconix been using this for a year or so works seamlessly link below. Reset Student User Password Free Tool for Schools, Business and Education - Burconix

We have been asked by one of our Primaries at supporting them both with strategic development of IT strategy and direct support as we have some good IT support staff where we are and have tried to automate as much as we can of the day to day stuff as well as brought some systems in house. I think what you need to do if someone could advise you strategically first as I think you are saying and try to put in as much as possible low maintenance solutions as these will require less support and will have reduced costs long term, this may require some initial investment but will pay off longer term. It might also pay to see if a few of the other Primaries in your area were interested in perhaps getting together to look at a solution between a few Primaries.

We are just adding in students with Tasc's AD link as well, as we keep getting students asking us if they can access Insight for various bits of information.

Nightmare on Elm street dont know why as Horror films don't usually bother me too much but the first time I watched this really spooked me second time round I was fine, I did watch it on my own with no one else in the house so may have had something to do with it.

I even had one member of staff give me a Hug when I showed her how to use this to extract some infromation she requied because she could no longer get Nova 4.

Had a bit of a panic after the last SIM's upgrade all of sudden no Nova 4 staff phoning we can't extract Time tables etc etc as only our Time tabler accesses Nova 6 and they are off at the moment, so have had to have a bit of a play with Reports (Time Tables) and Reports (Student Lists) in SIM's and I have to say I am very impresed with the amount of information I can get out of this easily as regards Time tables and Class Lists and with the Formatting and adding extra information functionality I know this has been there for some time but I hadn't realised just how powerful this was me being lazy and really not investigating this earlier. So well done to Capita and SIM's for this.

I have used Vanilla, RM, CSE and Ranger to some extent in various roles over the last twelve years all were fine some better than others for certain things, I prefer certain management tools to make things easier so things take less time so I can develop other things. I now use Burconix and there BCX tools they also provide various levels of support and setup anything from just there tools to complete Network rebuild\migration, Virtualisation etc. you could take a look at these as an alternative. Burconix - Professional ICT Solutions for Education and SME

Completely agree, support is excellent.

Yes we have it running on a seperate Virtual Server and is really best to have it running on seperate Server and works well.

We have been using Insight for around 18 Months and it has been very good, can display Attendance, Behaviour and Assessment and any reports uploaded to the Document Server in SIM’s are displayed on Insight. At the moment we are still producing paper reports as well but are looking at only having these on Insight and only supplying paper reports on request, which another school in the borough has done with great success. It is also very configurable in that you can display different information for different groups for example we have Attendance displaying completely up to date information for staff, but for Parents displaying a week behind so giving us chance to deal with any unexplained Attendance. We are also looking at letting student’s logon as well as checking Attendance, Behaviour and Assessment they can also access their Timetable and Exams information up to which seat they are sitting at if this information is in SIM’s.

Cheers Phil we are using assessment and I can get the information out but not quite in the format I want so by class on one page whole class showing Student Name various Targets in Assessment Manager and FSM,SEN etc in a sort of table for each student on one page all class on one page. Idea being it shows key assessment points and staff could enter data on this to show how they were doing between these key assessment points it is only one way we are looking at of doing this we are also looking at setting department tracking points in Assessment Manager for each subject long term but this is a big job if that makes sense as well as the current school wide Assessment points again if that makes sense. Thanks again Phil.

Cheers Vik, your right I want each student lined up side by side and your right tried individual reports but because per student can't quite get the layout. Just wondered if I was missing something. What we kind of do at the moment is we do as much analysis in Assessment Manager as possible then export this into Excel and key asessment points and do extra analysis on this and link this to a tool bar so member of staff logs into the Network and a toolbar pops up displaying buttons to link to the most recent data with graphs etc so couple of clicks have data for Class, Subject or all subjects whatever they want. We wanted to use this data to sort of produce a sheet in class layout that they can print off so all students with relevant targets and then staff could add extra information like grades in between key assessment points if that makes sense. Your right as well about the Mail merge as you say it is getting the structure right is fiddly but might just have to go this way and as you say it is a bit like your photo lists just with the other information. Thanks again.

Hi I am trying to work out if it is possible in SIM's to create a Class Plan structure with the following information on one or two pages per class in a particuliar format, Students Class, Year 7 Target, Year 8 Target, KS3 Target, SEN, FSM, G&T and EAL and these would need to be by Class if that makes sense. I have looked at Individual reports but although I can get all the information into individual reports I am not sure I can get them in the format I require using this method. I have also looked at exporting and Mail merge but not sure again I can get it in the right format.Also into access and create reports but again looks fiddly to it into right format. Just wondering if anyone had done anything like this or could point us in the right direction. Many thanks

Probably me being dumb but would of thought it would be a good business idea as a lot of schools are going to be moving from CMIS to either Progresso (replacement for CMIS), SIM’s, or Aspen or alternative MIS that other companies would make the transfer of data from CMIS to alternative systems possible and as painless as possible even if it is as Michael26k has mentioned exporting data from CMIS and importing it into the new system matching data where possible or tweaking it slightly field names etc, but not expect schools to re-input data. If some company has taken the responsibility of doing this process surely they are responsible for making sure all the data is transferred accurately.

You could also try Burconix they provide complete Managed Service or partial so setup then provide some remote support but have various levels of support contract, I have used RM, CSE, Vanilla and Ranger at various schools and only Secondaries and while these are ok I found Burconix's systems better for performance, price and functionality and the fact that they tailor the Managed solution to fit you as much as possible and are pretty flexible to what you want. http://www.burconix.com/

Hi Excel would do this since you are in Birmingham school presume you are using CMIS if not SIM's should be able to Export most of the initial information Student No, Surname, Forename, Class, Year, Gender etc from these systems in a report into Excel. Add the extra Columns to the exported information so other after school activities. Use COUNTIF to count criteria so =COUNTIF(C3:C9,"M") to count male =COUNTIF(C3:C9,"F") Female, to get percentage use =male Total (cell reference)/Total Students (Cell reference)*100 example =C10/C12*100. You could also use Pivot Tables to produce different reports on different criteria.

Remote Access to Folders Home Access Plus ABtutor should do the rest.

Web based hosted internally with External access I am not so concerned with and we run a few systems along those lines, it is just Cloud based where everything is offsite. Your right as regards pricing of MIS systems per user pupil etc it is just if hosted offsite, I just feel it is more difficult to move if you aren't happy as you need to either get your data moved between suppliers or purchase equipment and get the Data moved internally onto your new infrastructure which I just feel would be difficult. I know a couple of companies that schedule upgrades without discussing with the customer and because of their size really people can't argue so lose all access to MIS while the upgrade is underway again Cloud based systems or externally hosted. Your also right about bandwidth as regards if designed right this shouldn't be a problem but I wouldn't be hundred percent confident in this. Issues coming around the Exam season where everyone is trying reports or extract information. MIS cloud company becomes successful 200 schools move to use their system all of a sudden companies infrastructure can't cope system unusable I haven't seen this with MIS Cloud based but have with other web based\Cloud based systems taking a few weeks to resolve fully.The school wouldn't be happy if this happened with MIS system, No Attendance,No access to Pupil, Parent info, Time Table etc. If the Internet goes down you can still access everything in school so wouldn't normally effect your MIS system during the day which would happen on a Cloud based system.

I am completely opposed to Cloud based MIS for a number of reasons and sorry if this is a bit off track. Ties you more into an MIS more.(all hardware offsite) Have to buy all MIS modules from one supplier instead of perhaps purchasing other modules or functions that work with your MIS "no one supplier is the best at everything". At some point charging by user or amount of data stored a possibility etc. Internet down no access to Data. The Provider decides if the system needs to go down for maintenance upgrades etc. (No Access and could be at critical time for the school) Loads of schools data on one system "Hackers thankyou very much one system to target to get Millions of pieces of information."Data protection and who's responsability" Uses up my Internet bandwith running Reports, taking registers etc. The above is why I will be staying away from Cloud based MIS systems if at all possible.

Another vote for Hap Home Access Plus by Nick on thses forums.

Done and some good questions on the Survey. I would also be interested in the results.

Hi Completely agree with Glenda as regards Virtualisation and looking at this so would definately look at the different solutions VMware. XEN and HyperV. Would also tend to look at VLE and various solutions and understanding of this. As well as various remote access solutions as these are becoming more prevalent in schools from access to Files to access to everything Terminal Server, RDP Gateway etc.

Hi Peter Pretty sure they now do a trial Licence.They also have a lot of experience in helping sites going from CC4 to there Software and can help you with the whole process if you like and support you with this even if it is just advice if you wish.I have found WDS execellent and the way their system works with building stations is excellent saves so much time and effort, I had a look at SCCM but to be honest with the Burconix Software and other things we use couldn't see what benefit it would give me. Steven

Hi Can't the guys at Burconix suggest anywhere closer or offer you a free demo, I can't recommed this company and their Management Tools highly enough. If you have any questions please feel free to ask, I have been using there Tools for around four years at two diffrent schools now and found these excellent, but youre right best to see these in action in a live environment if you can. Many thanks Steven

Hi and welcome Wired vs. Wireless To be honest I think you would be better off with a wired Environment and just increase the number of PC's in the classroom wired is always going to be quicker and more reliable than Wireless.I think you also have to take into account that this is a small school and managing laptops or tablets can be more labour intensive to manage moving these around setting them up, and more likelyhood of being damaged etc. I have been inolved in a number of Wireless systems with various success but feel if you have a choice wired is better, obviously wireless seems good for flexibility moving laptops to rooms etc but this needs to be managed well. To put in a decent Wireless system with enough coverage, proper security depending on the size of the school can be expensive.