skunk

Next Gen is now back up, interesting reading on the SSL certificate:

And yet still not showing on their service portal as having an outage!

This is truly dire. I've come to run the census this morning to find out that we not eligible, the company is resorting to dodgy business practices to retain customers, the support portal is buggered, and there are long queues on the phonelines. Happy SNAFU day everyone.

The personnel in the office have now been re-named: WinSock RackStud SpaceBar DragNDrop

Irrespective of whether the DfE say the UPN can be shared. The onus is on data processors and controllers to ensure psuedonymity, so if the UPN (sensitive data) db/table is breached, this would not be stored in the same table and/or database as other sensitive data. e.g. name and contact details, FSM, etc. We should all probably have our own unique identifiers to match data with each supplier. Otherwise multiple breaches outside our control as a school could match our student's details together and then.........lots of fines for all involved!

I haven't run the upgrade yet, did you find the interventions system? Has the update had any unexpected side effects?

Hi George You can run an SQl statement against the DB and many do, but it is not supported and if you bungle it up, you're on your own. The Command Reporter runs reports you have defined within SIMS from the command line. We use it automate exports, usually to XML, and then run various scripts against the data. You can get all the relevant switches by running

If they speak a language other than English and joined the school during Y10 or 11 then you can ask for them removed from your performance tables completely during the June & September data checking exercises.

I have been a staff governor, was very insightful. Being data manager was no barrier.

Facepalm, should have guessed really.

Thank you aking99 solved my problem!

This is the current briefing paper that the Ofsted inspectors work from when judging e-safety: Ofsted | Briefings and information for use during inspections of maintained schools and academies I suspect these phrases are the ones currently inspiring fear and ill-judged investment. Good and Outstanding practice: Indicator of inadequate practice: To be honest, the average inspector will not understand nor care about the exact technology or process being used. What they care about is that whatever the school is doing, it is doing consistently and that it can show this through evidence of policy review, policy consultation with stakeholders, effective and regular training of staff, students know how/where/who to report problems to and a good e-safety curriculum. If there has been a problem, was it dealt with effectively. Companies will jump on phrases that could be construed to favour their product and then inspire fear in the hearts of LA's, Head's and schools with a big fake Ofsted stick. By the way, the NSPCC online eSafety training, delivered in parnership with CEOP is an excellent place to start if few staff have been trained in your organisation....................and I don't even work for them ;-)

I have been through around ten inspections in my time and been directly involved in four of them, as backup to a senior leader to explain the finer details of why we produce targets as we do, or exactly how our tracking works, or to confirm their figures as accurate. As long as your data systems are robust and everyone knows where your strengths and weaknesses are then they usually won't bother you directly. They are more interested in interventions based on the data and what impact the interventions may have had. In terms of the specific groups they were interested in when we were inspected back in November: 1. Deprived students (Pupil Premium & Children Looked After), including Value Added, Levels Progress and "The Gap". 2. High Achievers 3. Groups and subjects they have identified as weak during their discovery (the school had better know these groups before they ask, and have the evidence of the interventions, impact of the interventions, likely outcomes, etc) 1 & 2 are government areas of interest at present so Ofsted are doing as they are told. An interesting point I have picked up is that Ofsted do not have access to FFT data unless the school chooses to share it with them. If they get to see it they know it is good and if they don't get to see it then they draw the conclusion that the school is hiding something. Ofsted have a tendency to ask for some very random analyses, so be on standby to produce anything they ask for. Beware if, in your last Ofsted report, data was an area of weakness, they like to see improvements where they have identified room for improvement.

I am responsible for all things IT (non teaching) in the school, so I manage the Network Manager and his team and also the Data Team (Me and part time assistant). Responsible for recruiting, and ensuring provision for all apprentices within the school. I also double up as part time building architect, systems architect, SIMS manager (I love them updates) and Support sales. I sat on the Extended SLT whilst it existed, but never made the leap up to full SLT. I not sure the SLT requires a full time data representative at present due to its current makeup of data savvy assistant/deputy heads, but that may change. In terms of progression, what would you offer the school by being employed at a higher level with more responsibility? Work that out and sell, sell, sell!

All you need is patience, a whole lot of patience.......

Give a time they have to out by and then kill the pulsar.exe process on all machines on the network at that time. Can be done via pskill or we use Impero.

@NormalDistribution I have just printed that out and put it on the wall, a very nice piece of work. Thinking of basing some of our exam analysis on it this summer. What does your student view look like?

DfE Performance Tables Data The Department for Education - Performance Tables - 2012 Download data

@sparkeh I know , I was following the discussion in 2007, I was just being facetious. I like @matt40k's comment in that discussion: Oh, you Nostradamus you Just deployed Discover via SCCM across the network, worked like a dream............................*hint*

Was hoping SOLUS3.5 was going to be the answer, ho hum, guess I will wait for 3.6 or 4.0 before attempting this again. I know Capita monitor this board so can I ask the following: Please can we just have MSIs for the upgrades? SCCM will handle the correct deployment. Ta muchly.

4Matrix is a really useful tool, but it is in no way a substitute for all the analysis needs of our school here. I learned that from bitter experience here last summer. If I could persuade anyone that not all analysis needs printing and get them to use 4Matrix on the screen, it would be a much better fit for our needs. However, our SLT, from their own bitter experience, like everything printed for OfSTED as OfSTED seem reluctant to believe anything on a computer screen is as effective and useful as a piece of paper. 4Matrix (last summer) was not great at printing reports for the SLT.

OfSTED are a nightmare, we have even had one inspector look at our analysis, say, "There's too much red, not enough green, this is a bad system". We just changed the colour meanings in the system so that shades of green appeared. Did it help or hinder the students, no, but OfSTED loved the same system from then on. But they are given their remit from the Govt, so we can all bring the blame back to Mr Gove and his pals! In terms of MIS, we are looking at ASPEN next month to see what it can do for us in place of SIMS, for a whole host of reasons, not least data analysis and management. And Arbour have come up with a neat marketing trick by analysing all schools raiseonline data for free which looks very nice. Capita have sold as many licences as they are ever likely to for the base system (although the academies conversions must have had them rubbing their hands with glee) and their sales guys clamor for further add-ons to sell, gotta get those bonuses. There is little drive to improve the core system as it will not bring in a great deal of sales or additional revenue so development effort is spent elsewhere. Just look at the FFT tool for a relatively pointless add on which brings in additional annual income for Capita. Just a cynical ancient user of SIMS. But it could be so much more and it frustrates the hell out of me.

Hi All School : 1200 - KS3, KS4 & KS5 MIS: SIMS (for now) including lesson monitor for registration and profiles for reports. Data Analysis Tools: SIMS AM, Excel, 4Matrix, ALPS, Discover (but not found a great deal to use it for yet) Finance: SAGE 200 We set KS3 and KS4 targets using the FFT, expected progress, historical trends and a great deal of intense negotiation with individual subject leaders. But mostly FFTD Data. KS5 I look after all the data, but also manage the IT team, coordinating the ICT strategy for the school and generally poke my nose in where I feel it is needed. I have been looking after data for the best part of a decade now, I fondly recall Assessment Manager 5 and filling in OMR sheets and feeding them by hand into the single sheet reader by the thousand. Never happy with any of the tools I use and usually change the way data analysis is done at least twice a year to try to get better information to staff. So any suggestions welcome.

@BKGarry like looking at a carbon copy of our "Progress" marksheets. If I were Apple I would sue.......... @LosOjos Probably teaching you to suck eggs, but I get in front of staff as often as possible and show them how to access class lists from the reports, photos from the class lists, photos from their registers, filter their own marksheets, etc. I do not know if you have something like Impero, but it is great for showing staff how to get the data themselves. If anyone tries to get me to print data out I put it on a shared drive and email the link (unless it is for discussions between teachers and students when I occasionally relent). I have started adding commentary to group data analysis to perhaps point to areas that I believe are a concern or show positive or negative trends. Although writing "The data are showing that those who attend less do less well" fifteen times a year is getting wearisome. Still I do far too much printing (i.e. any) my opinion. We have had decent screens for decades, why do we still rely on paper so much?

SIMS is okay, but take a look at some of the newer offerings (if you have any influence) as they may have more features. That side of things is probably not your concern though. Technically, it works most of the time. Just don't be the first to install an upgrade........