© Herts for Learning Ltd
Welcome
SIMS Administrator User Groups
Academies, Secondary and Middle
Schools
Jennie Davies & Jackie Kirk
Data Management Consultants
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Agenda• Exams PI Data – RAR Pilot
• Feedback Follow up
• School Census
• Spring 2018 Release
• GDPR & Privacy Notices
• SIMS Parent Lite
• General Updates
• Questions from the floor
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Evaluation Forms
You will find an evaluation form in your packs.
We have made changes to the evaluation form.
Please remember to complete the evaluation form and
make notes of any queries/questions as they arise!
• We appreciate your feedback
• Any suggestions will be considered
© Herts for Learning Ltd
SIMS Exams – RAR (Results
Analysis & Reporting) Pilot
• Online POC (Proof of Concept) – Capita need feedback
• Please email [email protected] to express an
in interest in RAR engagement for Summer 2018
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Yes - We have changed and
have a new name!• No longer SITSS, MIS, Information Services…
• No longer part of ICT Services
• We are now:
Data Management Services
• Over the next few months we will be updating all of our
documentation etc.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Feedback Follow up
“would like to be able to clone seating plans in Exams
Organiser”
Unfortunately this is not possible in Exams Organiser.
Seating plans for each component must be completed
individually.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Feedback Follow up“It would be helpful to have role specific user groups..”
Schools have numerous support roles with varying
responsibilities often bespoke to their establishment.
Meetings aimed at specific roles may involve the same
person or become ineffective.
“A Special Schools User group would be better.”
We would not offer any different advice or updates to
Special Schools. The content is often relevant to all
settings deemed to be Secondary.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Feedback Follow up
“Would be good if you could search the document number
on the grid to find a document”
This functionality should be available. The team is
reviewing how the document properties are set and should
include key words and document number.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Feedback Follow up
“Have Capita commented on whether there will be a
change to prompt SIMS users to change their passwords
as part of GDPR security?”
There is no built-in prompt but should be part of the
school’s data protection and security policy/protocols.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Feedback Follow up
“Can we have a refresher on mail merging or is there a
manual or quick guide on the grid?”
There is a reporting handbook in the SIMS documentation
link via the Homepage:-
http://simspublications.com/946641/assets/report.pdf
Training course available on 25/04/18 – 18SIT/005A
https://booking.hertsforlearning.co.uk/actweb/WDC/sseo/te
mplate_001.cfm?pageID=8&template=courseDetails&cours
eID=18SIT/005A&eventCode=18SIT/005A
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Feedback Follow up
“New Options Online – any update?”
Many schools now using the new Options Online.
We recommend setting this up to ensure works ok for 2019/20.
Some fixes and enhancements introduced by Capita since launch.
Software evolving.
Fixes are not SIMS release dependent but applied to the platform.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Feedback Follow up“Miss the Case Log On-line especially when their phones were
down!!”
Email us at [email protected]
• Your email will automatically raise a ticket in our Incident
Management system
• ICT Portal account holders can raise a ticket 24 hours a day,
352 days a year via our customer portal
https://support.hertsforlearning.co.uk
• To apply for a portal account, please download and complete
the form
http://www.thegrid.org.uk/info/traded/sitss/support/service_de
sk/index.shtml and return to us at the above email address
© Herts for Learning Ltd
ICT Service Desk Feedback
New! Sunrise Customer Survey live wef 12th Feb 18.
• Auto email requests for feedback generated randomly
when closure of incidents
• Survey really simple
• All feedback to be collated and analysed and monitored
daily to enable us to respond to issues
© Herts for Learning Ltd
School Census – Spring 18• New document on HGFL S1655 - School Childcare
Explained (For School Census Purposes)
• ULNs – problems with DfE S2S website. Required for
pupils age 14+. Year 9’s turn 14 throughout the
academic year. Recommend obtain these as early as
possible. i.e. Year 9’s from Sept and in-year admissions
as they join
© Herts for Learning Ltd
School Census – Summer 18
• Census date 17/05/2018
• Attendance Data 01/01/18 – 01/04/18
• Exclusions Data 01/09/17 – 31/12/17
• FSM data 19/01/18 – 17/05/18
• Learner Support 01/08/17 – 17/05/18
Census documentation on HGfL after Easter break
© Herts for Learning Ltd
SIMS Spring 18 Release
SIMS Spring 2018 (v7.180) - Expected close to the Easter
break – needs to go through testing by our team.
Change Requests include but not limited to….
• Print button enabled in Bulk Update
• Ability to print student's timetable selection by class
• Option to hide National Identity field
• Communication Log - ability to record the name of the
person who dealt with the communication
• Pupils Registration Certificate will display the pupils
highest priority contact details
© Herts for Learning Ltd
SIMS Spring 18 Release
• Users can now manage linked Document Types in Tools
| Lookups | Maintain
• Warning to user when entering a Date of Leaving >14
days in past
• Warning to user when adding a student as a contact
• Record the history of enrolment status
• Bulk Update UDFs
• Enrolment Status field in Registration panel now read-
only
• Lookups – Obsolete/Inactive lookups displayed in colour
© Herts for Learning Ltd
SIMS Spring 18 Release• Pupils who are imported via CTF without ethnicity
information are now assigned the ethnicity code UNC
(No Ethnicity Recorded) by default instead of NOBT
(Information Not Obtained) Applicable to NI only.
Course Manager
• find course browser now displays results for all course
descriptions that contain search criteria rather than an
exact match
• When in Select Class, can now sort by any column
• Highlighting multiple students in Memberships and
Results panel clearly identified by blue outline
© Herts for Learning Ltd
SIMS Spring 18 Release
Personnel enhancement
• Bulk update of the completed flag in a staff training event
Staff Performance enhancements
• Highlighting all instances of a member of staff in the line
management structure
• SP Administrator permissions group
• Transferring relationships on the line management
structure
© Herts for Learning Ltd
SIMS Spring 18 Release
Staff Performance enhancements:
• Recording self evaluation details
• Adding staff review comments
• Addition of Staff Performance Objective Details sub
report (School Objective Summary and School Objective
Detail fields added)
• Staff sign off area on objectives, observations and
reviews
© Herts for Learning Ltd
SIMS Spring 18 Release
Additional fields available in the Student List reports:
Quick Note Telephone Numbers
Registration Tutor Email Address
Head of House Medical Conditions (All)
Date of Leaving Medical Notes Summary
Address Block Country of Birth
Parental Salutation Nationality
Parental Consent Proficiency in English
Contact (now includes contacts email address)
© Herts for Learning Ltd
SIMS Spring 18 ReleaseGradesets - Updated Examinations Grade sets in
Assessment Manager for the most commonly used
qualifications.
Manage Performance Indicators
• Functionality to update grade details for similar QNs
• Ability to add L2 Technical quals for 16-18 performance
tables (PI reporting of this will be included in Summer
18)
• New report for missing QNs – QN Correlation report
• Discover – KS4 Grade distribution graph amended to
display new 9-1 grades for Maths, English & English Lit
© Herts for Learning Ltd
General Updates
• Exclusion letters were removed. These have since been
updated including new contact information and are now
available on the grid at -
http://www.thegrid.org.uk/info/traded/sitss/data/sims/excl
usions/
• Updated Single Service request RptDef on HGfL
• CTF issue with Service Child indicator – patch 23553
authorised 09/01/18
• CTF issue removing contacts addresses – patch 23690
authorised 14/03/18
© Herts for Learning Ltd
General Updates
• The Exchange e-Bulletin: new weekly HfL publication
with latest education news and best practice from Herts
schools, as well as latest updates from HfL. Will be sent
to all Herts Headteachers every Monday. To subscribe
email [email protected]
• New DfE statutory guidance Careers guidance and
access for education and training providers
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/
attachment_data/file/672089/Careers_guidance_and_ac
cess_for_education_and_training_providers.pdf
© Herts for Learning Ltd
General UpdatesCAS KS4 Analysis Resources
• Several updates of late
• please keep eye on website at link below for updated resources and
documentation
http://www.thegrid.org.uk/info/traded/sitss/assessment/sec_ass_mgr/
• Recent updates include but not limited to….
– New Progress 8 by Subject Report
– New KS4 Inspection Dashboard Report with Outliers
– New GCSE Combined Science (9-1) Aspect
– Various corrections to formulas
We are setting up a New Assessment Data Managers email group
specifically for these resources – please opt in by providing email
address to [email protected]
© Herts for Learning Ltd
General Updates
Errors accessing or issues with out of date version of
Documentation Centre
Focus | Homepage
Can tell which version of SIMS release when access
documentation Centre e.g. SIMS Autumn 2017.
If experience issues with Documentation Centre following
SIMS upgrade, see Capita’s solution in your packs and
liaise with your Network Manager.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
dataENGAGE – Coming Soon• reporting tool that enables schools and academies to
bring together various types of data from within their own
SIMS database, into one simple, graphical display
• running completely independently of SIMS,
dataENGAGE includes functionality so that users can
filter which items are included in the display
• several data types also include the option for a 3-Year
Comparison chart, to show trend data and all of the
panels can be zoomed to full screen
• currently in the final phase of the pilot project and would
welcome other schools to join at this stage
• Cost to be confirmed
© Herts for Learning Ltd
General Updates
• BM Reports were made available in the Autumn Term please could
you feedback to Jennie any enhancements/changes that your
school would like to see? [email protected]
• In readiness for the SWC or to use Interventions fully please ensure
that the subject mappings are set correctly. Tools > Setups >
Subjects to check that every subject in use by the timetable is
mapped to the DfE Subject Code and set as Active. This must be
done after the timetable is sent and new subjects are offered. On
Demand Patch 21915 resolves the error referring to the SWC link
• Vacancy for two Data Management Services consultants – advert
out now!
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Options Online• Options Online – New Features
Capita have made some changes to Options Online as a result of
feedback. These changes are in the live system
– Priority Choices
– Parental Login for Approvals
– Reserve choices are no longer counted in class totals
– Performance improvements
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Options Online• Priority Choices
– It is now possible to nominate a list as containing priority choices
using the List contains priority courses check box on the
Pathways and Lists page. On the Student Choices page, these
courses are displayed in the Priority Choices tables. Courses
selected from the priority lists cannot be ordered by preference
• Parental Login for Approvals
– With the Parent permission assigned in School Administration, it
is now possible for parents/carers to approve their child's
courses
– The system will cater for parents with more than one child and
parents who are also teachers at the school. Parents can also
make comments back to the school
© Herts for Learning Ltd
GDPR• The DfE have posted a really interesting video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y09IHXv6u6M&feature=youtu.be
• We are offering information sessions for DPO and Admin or Office
Staff
• HCC are funding these sessions for maintained settings -
– One place for Office/Admin Staff and
– One place for the DPO
• The cost to Academies and VAs will be :-
March 2018 = £75 (shareholders) and £85 (non-shareholders)
April 2018 = £76 (shareholders) and £87 (non-shareholders)
• HfL are offering the opportunity to purchase a GDPR Toolkit for
£300 per site (£150 per additional sites)
© Herts for Learning Ltd
GDPRInformation sessions:-
Course Codes -17SIT/135A – 17SIT/142A for March courses
© Herts for Learning Ltd
GDPR
• Capita will be introducing in the Spring and Summer
releases new functionality (to name but a few) –
– Parent App Lite – app for parents to update data
collection items for students. Available to all schools
at no additional cost! More information later….
– Additional fields in the reporting dictionary to assist
with Data Protection i.e. Student Forename and Initial
of Surname (e.g. Karen P, Karen T) or initials (e.g.
KP, KT)
© Herts for Learning Ltd
GDPR Cont’d– PDO Report can be generated for Student, Staff and
Contact
– Permissions for Data Protection Officer (also needs
Personnel Officer to run the Person Data Output
Report for staff)
– Log of Person Data Output Report
– Bulk Student Data Deletion Routine – data selection
and academic year range parameters
– Awareness of sharing data – e.g. reason for
absences on cover notice board
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Supporting Data Retention Policies
– Permissions of Data Protection Officer (also needs
Personnel Officer to run the Person Data Output
Report
– PDO Report can be generated for Student, Staff and
Contact
– Log of Person Data Output Report
– Bulk Student Data Deletion Routine – data selection
and academic year range parameters
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Supporting Data Retention Policies
While this screen shot shows just ‘Behaviour’, in deleting a student’s details
there are 17 domains in total: Conduct (behaviour and achievement); Attendance;
Interventions; Exclusions; Admission (applications and enquiries); Curriculum/Timetable; SEN;
Performance; Dinner Money; Homework; Alerts; EMA; Partnerships; Returns and Transfers;
Concessions; Fees Billing; AD Provisioning
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Privacy NoticesPrivacy Notices for Students and Staff have been updated
by the DfE in line with GDPR.
• Available on the grid at
http://www.thegrid.org.uk/info/dataprotection/#fair
• DfE link
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-
protection-and-privacy-privacy-notices
• Do not have to physically issue to current
Students/Parents or Staff but must make them aware of
update on your website or staff notice board
• Issue to new Students/Parents and Staff
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Privacy Notices
• Write and present it effectively:
– Use clear, straightforward language;
– adopt a style that your audience will understand;
– don’t assume that everybody has the same level of
understanding as you;
– avoid confusing terminology or legalistic language;
– draw on research about features of effective privacy
notices;
– align to your house style;
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Privacy Notices
– be truthful. Don’t offer people choices that are
counter-intuitive or misleading;
– align with your organisation’s values and principles;
– follow any specific sectoral rules;
– ensure all your notices are consistent and can be
updated rapidly; and
– provide separate notices for different audiences.
Templates for different audiences are available in the HfL
Toolkit.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
SIMS Parent Lite
• New Software from Capita with no additional cost!
• Meets the GDPR principle for accurate and upkeep of personal
data
• Reduces need for paper data collection sheets and manual entry
of data
• Ensures data collection information is not misplaced and student
data remains accurate all year round (e.g. contact numbers,
allergies)
• Gives cost and efficiency savings
© Herts for Learning Ltd
SIMS Parent Lite
• Accessible via App and website
• Allows parents to easily update their children’s and own
information
• Administrators approve before changes are made in SIMS
• Full audit trail in SIMS of all data collection sheet requests
and actions
• Only Contacts with Parental responsibility AND living at same
address as student can access the Data collection sheet
• Parents can also access School Contact information and
Term Dates from the app and website
© Herts for Learning Ltd
SIMS Parent Lite• Data Collection Configuration–The Administrator can select which
areas are available for a parent to modify through the data collection
sheet. An additional configuration to hide other contact’s info is also
available allowing schools to easily manage complex family
situations
• Data Collection Submission–The Administrator can see a list of
parents who have approved their details, whether changes are
pending approval, including when the parent last submitted, or if
approval is still outstanding. The Administrator is also able to push
reminder notifications to specific parents
• For more information on Parent Lite please email
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Questions from the FloorQ: “I wonder if the issue of the new Data Protection policy and any
impact on SIMS could be discussed? I’m thinking along the lines of
performing housekeeping tasks and removing historic data records for
students who have never attended and / or contacts who have no
students attached to them. I don’t know if this exercise has ever been
done in my school. There must be other implications as well.”
A:
• Routines > Housekeeping – Delete unlinked contacts
• Bulk Student Data Deletion Routine – data selection and academic
year range parameters
• Record management toolkit - http://www.irms.org.uk/groups/public-
sector/resources/134-records-management-toolkit-for-schools
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Questions from the FloorQ: “We have had two cases on the service desk with
regards to importing the school’s new year 7 pupils from
SEAM. Jennie spoke to one school and they were adamant
that they have always been able to import from SEAM and
another was asking if it was possible. Jennie suggested
that this should be brought up at user groups for a group
discussion.”
A:
• CTFs generated by the Primary Schools – traditional
method
• Any other processes?
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Questions from the FloorQ: “Interventions. We wondered if anyone else has worked
out something a little less clunky than the module within
SIMS. What is everyone else doing?”
A: A few schools reported that they use Interventions.
Suggestions were made for using ‘Initiatives’ in
Behaviour Management.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Questions from the FloorQ: “We have A LOT of Student Leavers with leaving dates
that go back a long time !
With GDPR in mind – what will be the best way to delete
them and do we keep the rest for 7 years ?”
A: Capita are working on functionality for a bulk student
deletion routine – hopefully Summer 2018. See Records
Management Toolkit for Schools on IRMS
http://irms.org.uk/page/SchoolsToolkit (includes retention
policies)
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Questions from the FloorQ: “RAR reporting; will it be possible to run reports for all
subjects in one go?”
A: Good question, we will feed this back to Capita.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Questions from the FloorQ: “PI - Manage Performance Indicators: still have to do all
the same work as 2017?”
A: Yes. The points, equivalencies and attributes for QNs
have to be set in Manage PI. Will be easier; Clone 2017
QNs and add only new QNs in 2018 e.g. new GCSE (9-
1)’s and new AS/A Levels. We will update the
documentation following the Spring 18 release.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Questions from the FloorQ: “Do we have to validate students addresses?”
A: No. UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number) is not
mandatory for school census and the DfE have not
specified a date when this will be required.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Questions from the FloorQ: “RAR – will it include International Baccalaureate
results?”
A: Not initially in the first release but will be at some point in
the future.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Questions from the FloorQ: “Will consent Lookups in SIMS change to collect date
consent given for GDPR? And will SIMS Parent Lite allow
parents to update all consents from schools own Lookups?”
A: Capita are looking into possibility of providing
functionality for a Consent date. SIMS Parent Lite will
include all schools own Lookups for Consent.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Questions from the FloorQ: “SIMS Next Generation Primary and Secondary – where
do all-through establishments fit?”
A: The first phase of Next Generation is for Primary phase
schools. The second phase is referred to as SIMS
Secondary and this is what an all-through will use as it
will contain all the primary and secondary modules
required.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Questions from the FloorQ: “I have a tip when printing PDO (Person Data Output)
from SIMS as can have many pages! Change font size to
something smaller e.g. 8 before printing”
A: Thank you for that tip.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Questions from the FloorQ: “Can Data Collection sheets be sent via InTouch?”
A: Unfortunately, it is not possible to send Data Collection
sheets via InTouch and this is unlikely to be made
available. Schools should consider how to provide these
to parents – e.g. in a Parents evening as emailing such
information has the potential for it to go astray.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Questions from the Floor
Q: “Have other schools gone to Windows 10 and if so, are
you experiencing issues with SIMS? i.e. some fields greyed
out”
A: A few schools reported using Windows 10 with no
problems. This seems to affect some workstations and
not all which points to an environmental issue. If you are
experiencing such issues, please liaise with your
Network Manager to troubleshoot.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Questions from the Floor
Q: “Advice on how to deal with OV&’s and OV8’s for school
trips. Will not be able to continue issuing paper copies with
student names – contact phone numbers and medical
conditions to staff to take with them on trips. Also –OV7’s
were previously given to students to take home – again
with sensitive info !! If left on bus or falls out of bag !!!!!!
GDPR”
A: GDPR questions should be directed to [email protected]
Bear in mind, Safeguarding over-rides GDPR and the data contained
on OV forms are crucial for safeguarding.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
And Finally …………
• Summer 2018 User Groups
oMon 21st May 2018 - Wheathampstead 13:00-15:00
o Tues 22nd May 2018 - Nobel School, Stevenage
13:15-15:15
o Fri 25th May 2018 - Cottered Village Hall
10:00-12:00
Agenda to be confirmed. Please do let us know if there are
items you would like included in the Summer meetings.
© Herts for Learning Ltd
Does anyone have any questions?
Thank you all for attending
Have a safe onward journey