trackers

This is not exactly a critical problem but I'd like to hear some opinions nonetheless. I'm using SIMS to create individual reports - I usually export them as PDFs, but also upload them when they are completed. The subject reports can run on to several pages in length. At the end of the subject reports, I have applied a page break in the template, so that the Form Teacher comment and Headmaster signature - which come after the subject comments - appears on a new sheet - this was avoid the situation whereby sometimes the Principal's signature could appear on its own at the top of a page if the line count in subject reports fell in a certain way. I am happy enough with this compromise except for one thing.....sometimes the subject comments are just the right length to cause a blank page to appear in the report, between the end of the subject comments and the start of Form Teacher comment. Adjusting margins and borders could solve this problem for these few sheets but inevitably results in other reports which looked fine with the original margins now looking poorly formatted. In my other work I have always been a big proponent of MS Publisher in which each page is a standalone page and adding text does not result in a bumping down of material on subsequent pages - I suppose because I use MS Publisher so much I have not learnt a great deal about formatting of word documents. I wonder if any of you have any suggestions?

Thanks for the reply. It turns out that when I was trying to change "Class Teacher" at home I wasn't getting the menu that I got when I tried it again in school. This did indeed contain a date section which I was able to set from today so it picked up the new pastoral structure. I was a bit surprised that it seems impossible to go back and change pastoral structure "historically". - it seems that even if it is wrongly set up it can only be changed from the current point on.

So I generated Assessment Reports on SIMS as usual. Didn't notice that 4 of the Form Teacher names had been replaced by another teacher's name. Looked at the pastoral structure and noticed that 4 of the classes had this new teacher name assigned as a supervisor. Removed the assigned supervisor. Saved the structure - which it seems is only active from today. I thought regenerating the reports would solve the Form Teacher labelling but when I preview the report the rogue name is still there. ( I can't export fully to check if this does anything - because this does not work on my home system) It doesn't seem like the FT name is date related. The field on the report says<> Any thoughts or suggestions welcomed.....

So - thanks for the suggestion - it is now working. I set up the additional columns with value formula and used them to calculate the overall average properly - and in doing so I discovered why it wasn't working previously ! I feel a little foolish - I had set up the original sheet properly - the only reason it was working out the average properly was that I wan't hitting the Calculate button. I realised this when I hit this button after adding the new columns and formula and saw that the original average changed to match the new average I had set up. I had thought that the value appearing on the original sheet had been averaged already but it hadn't. D'oh. Anyway thanks for the help. Off on summer holidays now. This forum has been a massive support all year. Thanks.

I still regard myself as an L driver on all of this...but while I am not certain about what your reply specifically says to do - I do get the general idea, and I'll give it a go as soon as I can. Thanls T.

bfelton: The same gradeset for each subject eg key stage 3 gradeset current- apart from Maths which seems to have a different Gradeset referenced - but which ultimately has the same values in it. This one subject - Maths -does not have (and I don't know why it is not there) anything filled in the Description column like the others do. The aspect it is getting saved to is Year 10 Total Grade Score Which says the Type is Marks-Decimal and a Min Value of 0.00 Max Value of 300.00 - I am not sure why the number has been set at this - perhaps it should be set to 100.00.

In reply to cw222 This is what I originally thought might be happening but he fact that the top 9 averages are all 90, then there is a group averaging 87.50 suggests that it is more likely that the standard numeric values for the grades are being applied - otherwise I would expect to be getting lots of unusual numbers rather than these rather neat ones. I realise we could use the cell values /100 to get an average - but we decided grades were fairer, given the number of teachers marking across a subject - they would be very likely to give the same grades for student work while numeric scores may have more fluctuations.

Pic of screen -

I have looked at the aspects as suggested and eg an A* is valued at 90 - this should mean that the only way to get a MEAN score of 90 would be if every result is an A* - but this is not what's happening. I have students doing 16 subjects and want the grade average as a score for ranking but eg one student has 9A*, 5A, 2B and he is getting a score of 90. This should give me (9x90) +(5x80) + (2x70)..............all divided by 16 = 84.375. So I am not sure where it is going awry.

So the grade values are based on what? if for example an A* is 90+, does that mean that an A* is valued at 90?

I set up a marksheet template based on one previously designed. The sheet shows tracking grades for all subjects studied and an average score at the end. I know I could do this by using the tracking scores rather than grades but went with the existing style of using grades. The average score seems to be based on A* - 90 A -80 etc. I am not getting a consistent correct average though if this assumption is correct. The idea is to eventually have a rank order sheet for prize awarding. I am using MEAN. I am not sure how the MEAN formula determines the numerical value for the grades - is it based on the grade sets that are being applied to the aspects that I am averaging. Another thing is that I have a different marksheet that I set up in the same way for another year group and that seems to work fine. I can't see the difference in how they are set up - so any pointers about where to look for discrepancies would be appreciated.

Thanks for the confirmation.

Just had a further look and I am guessing that the answer lies in pastoral structure...?

I have a marksheet template open. I can see that the teachers have access to the appropriate marksheets. I also selected Year group so that the Year Head can see the combined results for the particular course. I feel a little foolish because I can't recall how I set the Year Head in the first place. Perhaps that was done somewhere else by someone else.... Anyway what I really want to know is how do I give someone access to the marksheets who is not teaching this subject. I thought I could temporarily change the Year Head or perhaps make the Year Head supervisors a shared thing with two people at once. What I would really want is an option for SMT in the group selector drop down menu with options to select the Senior Teacher required. The reason for this is that there are 3 Senior Teachers with responsibilities for Key Stages that I would like to be able to assign marksheets to when needed. I guess it is possible to assign all marksheets to someone...after all it was done for me to give me access to all....but I think that seems like overkill and adds potential difficulties in terms of unnecessary access.

Thanks for your reply - I am not using profiles so it would seem I might be good to try out this approach.

The school VLE is not something that has been used much for several years. If it was a used resource I guess this would be a reasonable workaround. - - - Updated - - - InTouch is not something I am familiar with - I'll see what I can find out.

I took your advice and range the support desk today and was told that I will not be able to do what I want to do with my home access computer.

I have a c2k enable school laptop which allows me to work on SIMS assessment and reporting from home. I seem to be able to do most things but, when I try to change a field on a Individual Report template using the right click and Result option nothing happens....the if I reselect it I get "The dialog cannot be opened. Please close any open dialogs first." Perhaps what I am trying to do cannot be done using remote access?...or am I missing a step? - trackers

Self replying in case anyone has any thoughts

I am looking ahead to next year with this question. We have what we call consortium subjects - these are subjects taught to our students in neighbouring schools and vice versa. I have alluded to my question before but am still not clear on the best approach to solving it.... If a subject is taught fully in another school then we don't have a teacher in our school timetabled for it. When this happens I still need to report on results which are sent to me by the other school. In order to create a marksheet for this class, I have (as instructed by our school timetabler) had to change the timetable so that a member of staff who is free at the same time as the subject is taught is assigned to that class eg a vice principal. As the person who looks after tracking and reporting, I do see all the school marksheets and can set myself up as a supervisor if I need to. I am wondering if the suggestion below is a workable solution.... ....I see that there is an option to create User Defined Groups which will then appear in the pop-up box when I tray to assign classes to the marksheet template. Is this a valid way to create the marksheets that I am looking for?

When the current academic year comes to a close I'll get in touch with our SIMS support people and see if I can do some house cleaning. It did take some time to get my head around the substitutions. I thought that the best way to leave it for now in case someone had to pick up from me was to write out a page that outlines the changes...which has made it easier for me and would be passed on to the next person Thanks for all the advice and pointers.

I have created aspects before for things such as subject comments and teacher initials. I still think I am not articulating my question properly. I have been told that the tracking pack that I have access to does not have unlimited subjects. This is why the custom has been to use some preset subjects but just rename the marksheet headings to say what we need them to. So if I want to create a new subject, do I have the facility to create one from scratch rather than borrow from the provided "tracking pack". It seems from CAM's answer that I can. but perhaps it is difficult to do, or can give rise to other conflicts/problems and maybe it is easiest to just do it the way it has been always done before.. I just liked the idea of tidying up the assessment approach.

Bobsmith - I think I have explained what has been done poorly.........The aspects have not been renamed - it is the column headings on marksheets that have been renamed so that while an aspect might be eg TR1 Latin - it is seen on the marksheet as perhaps Digital Technology. Does this make sense. I think it has been done on the understanding that a limited range of subjects are currently available, so new subjects just use aspects of subjects that are not taught in our centre.My thoughts were that if I could have each subject, that is newly brought in, set up as its own name without the need for taking unused subjects are renaming the column headings it might be better in the long run.I am not sure what bfelton means by "categories".

So - I am looking ahead to next year and the way marksheets and reports are to be used. Several new subjects have been previously set up to use subjects that are not taught, and then the aspects renamed accordingly... eg while Digital Technology Multimedia is called Digital Technology, Digital Technology Programming uses Child Development. Is it possible to create a "new subject" so that I can have subjects properly matched to their required labels ? - rather than "cosmetically", as above with DT Programming? The current approach doesn't sit well with my need for order in the universe!

Thanks. I'll talk to our Nova T guy.