eean

Reflector offered us a 60 day unlimited (I think) trial. Pop them an email.

GAM, which is a command line tool harnessing the Google API to manage Google Apps, now supports Classroom. https://github.com/jay0lee/GAM/wiki/Managing-Google-Classroom It offers a command to sync an existing group with a classroom. If you have SIMS creating AD groups and directory sync pushing those to Google, it shouldn't be too hard to make GAM sync these to classroom. Will still need some scripting to automate the process but it's doable for those not wishing to use paid tools.

Tapestry does have tracking. You decide upon snapshot points, it will suggest a level based upon the information you've given it in observations but you have the option to change it. You can do analysis on the website or download data and put it in SIMS, or equivalent.

In reality, most teachers take photos on the devices then sort out the observation later. In reality, they're too busy to actually type anything up in front of the children. This means having ubiquitous Wi-Fi is less of an issue, so long as there's Wi-Fi in the classroom you'll be fine with tapestry. That said, tapestry doesn't cope well with flakey wifi, and will just time out and lose an observation of the internet connection drops.

It's pretty terrible and there's not a lot to link. The only data it records is number of observations. Tapestry is much more sophisticated and you can import and export data with UPNs. But it doesn't work offline. Also check out Interactive Learning Diary.

Hello, We are looking to implement a BYOD iPad/Android tablet policy in our primary school (probably starting year 4). I've seen iPad programmes work* but adding Android in the mix gives me the jitters. The best education apps are now on both: Explain Everything, Google Apps etc... Movie making on Android seems a lot less reliable. Does anyone (or know of) any schools that have such a policy? I'd love to be able to PM you if I can. Or how about BYOD Android? My preconception of android is that it often bloatware ridden and underpowered. Am I wrong? Any recommendations of minimum specs? Thanks in advance, * I know others on here have a different opinion on that - thanks, but I'd prefer to keep on topic.

You can select which marksheet templates are published to SLG. We were advised that teachers do not enter data into a live SLG marksheet, but that you use a duplicate sheet containing a relevant subset of data. These can be published when the data is ready. It's easy to get a list of default passwords from SIMS so we send them a reminder every time they need to login. (We haven't let them change their password). Although the parents still find that difficult. The accounts are just AD accounts, so it would be possible to reset them using a script. Does anyone know of a simple (cheap) tool that would allow self service password reset to email?

It's mandated for us that we have O365 for staff, however students are on GAFE! Teaching staff, therefore, have 2 separate accounts with 2 different logins and emails. We can sort out password sync easy enough. Is there more we can do to integrate the two? I thought, perhaps, that we could set aliases in GAFE for staff with their primary o365 email and have their email forward on. Would that work and allow staff to log into Google with their o365 address?

+ 1 for Puffin Academy. Is a 'walled garden' so you can only access their approved websites. I thought it would be a problem when we introduced iPads, but actually it isn't. Even though I've set it up, teachers rarely use Puffin. Most educational providers worth their salt are moving away from Flash. Really, it's a blessing: I find those 'handy games' that teachers find on random websites, are usually rubbish! Plus, Flash works badly on touch devices.

In iMovie, you can select the output quality. You can also do 'open with Google drive' from there.

Something important that VicPaw is showing you, but I think you may have missed is unticking 'include records with no such members'. Using this technique, you should be able to avoid using an assessment defined group entirely. To confirm, you should be in the 'Report -> Design Report' part of SIMS, not the 'General Student List' part of SIMS. The former is far more powerful. Once you have created the report, you can save it and simply click to run. If you are not familiar with this part of SIMS, I would recommend reading the lengthy manual on the subject, as you are going to have to deal with sub-queries. To point you in the right direction: The focus should be on the student You can go the the 'medical' section and you can then find medical conditions. There you can apply the filter and untick that box. You'll need to create an RTF report to be able to print the photographs.

The medical conditions section seems pretty good. You've got the drop downs, and then summary and note linked to it. I have now discovered that the medical note is just a collection of any linked document categorised 'student medical note'. You can list them on their own OK. However, if you put them in a RTF report with medical conditions it causes the tables to go all funny and repeat all over the place!

Sports and activities management: CHQ Also: Salamander AlfieCloud is a testing system that pulls data from and writes back

Hi, I am looking to improve the way we store medical information in SIMS. There are 3 main sections. This is what I'm thinking: Medical Events - Event Type Lookups and Description lookups for every type of visit to the nurse imaginable. (This is already in place) - Vaccinations: Hep A 1st Dose (use date field) Hep A 2nd Dose etc... Medical Conditions Have lots of lookups for all medical conditions and their severity e.g. Asthma - Mild Asthma - Moderate Asthma - Severe Allergy - Mild Allergy - Moderate Allergy - Severe I want to be able to highlight severe conditions from the 'oh it makes them feel a bit queasy sometimes' type. Then use Summary to write the symptoms and notes to write the action? I wonder if I should be more specific with the allergies e.g. Allergy to Nuts - Mild Allergy to Nuts - Moderate Allergy to Nuts - Severe Allergy to Work - Mild etc... But then I could have a lot of lookups! Medical Notes I'm not sure what goes in here. I was thinking historic medical events that would be useful for a doctor in an emergency e.g. 'Had hole in the heart as a baby'. Ideally, I'd like to be able to create lists of medications that all the students have so we can make check-lists for trips. I'm not sure how to do this. So... what do you store in yours?

CHQ does exactly what you need and does it very well. We have just started using it this term. It seems complicated to begin with and does things that I will never need, but I am finding an immediate use for many of the features we didn't originally purchase it for. It is surprisingly flexible and will allow us to run a better activities system than we did previously. It will do some of the things that you will end up buying other SIMS add-on modules to do (e.g. InTouch) so you might be able to mitigate some of the cost that way. If you are running 100s of activities every term, then it will pay for itself. I know SIMS well and have managed to beat it into doing most of what I require. However, I can't say I love it. If I were buying a new MIS I would think twice before buying SIMS. It is clunky and heavily reliant on Windows and Office, which holds it back.

Anyone else out there used SIMS Bulk Import Version 2 with UDFs? Would be a massive time saver.

Hi Matt, Thank you for your help so far with this. We have managed to log in with version 1.7 using an SQL user and we can see the UDFs in the drop down. The problem is that is only allows us to see Text UDFs and we need to be able to change a drop down UDF. We can log in using version 2. The problem we have here is that it doesn't let us select any UDFs from the drop down. I can't see anything in the log. Is there anything that we can try? Many thanks, Ian.

We took out a subscription to it but decided not to use it. The features are very limited: it doesn't really do assessment, the iPad app is actually an iPhone app, the only way to get the profiles out is to email PDFs. Having researched some alternatives, we have decided to try Tapestry. It is intuitive, offers ability to work on the iPad and the web, has full assessment features and creates a learning journey that parents can view online and even contribute to (if you wish). Plus it's cheaper. http://eyfs.info/tapestry-info/introduction#overview

Thank you. We tried the new version briefly but it wouldn't update UDFs. We've got a holiday now (cool, I know) but will try again next week and post the error.

Hello, We are trying to get SIMS Bulk Import to work. We are getting stuck at the Login Page! We enter the details of an SQL user (we usually use AD Authentication) and press Login and nothing happens - no error - nothing. I think the server details are in correctly, because when they were wrong it produced an error. This is what we get in the log file: **SERVER** = the name of our SIMS server. Removed 'just in case'. **USERNAME** = the SIMS User (not AD) we're trying to log on with. It's only 2 characters, could that cause a problem? 2014-09-04 11:17:19.6908|Debug|**SERVER**09\SIMS2008 2014-09-04 11:17:19.6908|Debug|Sims_**SERVER** 2014-09-04 11:17:19.6908|Info|Connect.ini directory: C:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS .net 2014-09-04 11:17:19.7378|Error|System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0x80131904): Login failed for user 'Sims_**SERVER**_**USERNAME**'. at SIMS.Processes.Login.GetDatabaseSignature(String username, String password, String module, Boolean encrypt) at Matt40k.SIMSBulkImport.SIMSAPI.get_Connect() in c:\Users\Matt\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Projects\SIMSBulkImport\Release\SIMSBulkImport\SIMSBulkImport\SIMSAPI\Main.cs:line 205 ClientConnectionId:8eb34bea-d5a6-4dab-aebe-8a63c215c3a6 I am wondering why it says ....SIMSAPI.get_Connect() in c:\Users\Matt\Documents\Visual Studio 2012. The logged in user is not Matt (this is the author's name). Any help would be greatly appreciated (and save us 3 solid days of manual UDF updating!).

Thanks all for your thoughts so far. To clarify, the students' details are being entered into the admissions module prior to arrival and the admission date is set as the first day of term. However, they are not being admitted until they actually arrive. We can assign them to classes etc... and see their names amongst existing students in reports if we set the date forward (and I set it to 'all pupils' rather than 'on roll'). But not all of the information (e.g. Houses) can be accessed within the Reports module. Is that a permissions issue, or just the way it works? If we were to press the admit button early, can still set the admissions date to some point in the future?

Hi, Currently, new students get formally admitted in SIMS when they turn up on the first day of term. I understand this is the SIMS recommended way. However, this means they do not appear on class lists and any of our reports before the start of term, exactly at the time where teachers are wanting such lists. Will hell freeze over if we admit pupils a few days early? We are an international school so not subject to the various 'laws' on such matters. Occasionally, a pupil does not arrive. What would the best way be of 'un-admitting' such a pupil? Thanks,

Yes, me to. The other thing I didn't like about the off the shelf solutions was that they stored the iPads in groups of 10 or more. We have our iPads in sets of 5 for the following reasons: You can carry 5 iPads Unlike computers, iPads are often shared in the class eg. Staff may give one per group for video work etc... Sets of 5 mean that staff don't book more than they need. When the trolley stores 10+ the temptation is for staff to go to another class and say 'oh, can I borrow one or two'. That's when they get lost! I'd rather they get booked and kept in their sets of 5, regardless of how many a member of staff needs. So, like @spadam, we are going for a custom built solution. We are getting flight cases made up, with 5 slots and a USB fan. The flight cases are being made by a local company here in Korea (~£80 each) but there are also companies in the UK who will make them. To charge, we have purchased some octofire multi USB chargers. Unlike any other product I can find, they will charge 8 iPads at a full 2.1 amp per port. Get from http://www.octofire.com. ~£60. We will place the octofire unit inside the he flight case with the iPads and the AC adaptor outside, to minimise heat inside the case. I'm not sure how warm it will get inside, but I figure the cooler the better - hence a USB extractor fan. We will keep all the flight cases on a simple tea trolley, so if someone wants all 20 they can wheel them in.

I personally don't know of anything that will give you a certain predicted level, as such. I'd be interested to see anything you find. Progress in Maths and Progress in English, was created by NfER but is now GL Assessment. Progress in Maths | GL Education They are an electronic replacement to the optional SATS, so will give you an NC level and a standardised score. However, they are not computer adaptive like PIPS so 'top out' easily. Also, they stay the same each year. Staff will probably (subconsciously) end up teaching to that test. I know PIPS can be pretty vague e.g. 'they have a 48% chance of getting a level 4 and a 45%chance of getting a 5.' Those numbers, I believe, are based on statistical analysis of how children have done previously. Some folks take the bigger of the two numbers and make that their predicted level, although it's pretty crude. Those CEM people know their stats so if they could give you a more accurate prediction with any degree of accuracy then I think they would. The reason why they are vague is because real children don't actually make that magical 'expected' 2 sublevels progress that everyone goes on about. I'd be interested to see how any product that claims to give a predicted sub-level actually knows.

Rather than explaining the fault, explain what solution you gave, e.g 'User training delivered'. Teachers read and write school reports all the time, they know how to read between the lines.