SIMS Professional Services Training and Consultancy

Welcome to Your Course Leader today is: Jan 2013 Census Overview Wokingham schools Dec 10 th 2012 Michele Younger

House Keeping

Capita Children’s Services Priory Business Park Cardington Bedford MK44 3JZ School Census in SIMS.net provides the routine for preparing the CENSUS statutory return on a termly basis. Conforming to DfE requirements, data is collected from across the SIMS system and presented in the return for checking and validation. The overview covers the procedure for creating a CENSUS return and outlines checks and procedures for ensuring the school’s data conforms to the DfE validation rules. Aimed at: Staff in Wokingham PRUs, Nursery, Primary and Secondary Schools who are responsible for information in regard to the Census (excluding Post 16) Pre-requisites (if any): A working knowledge of Sims.net Today’s Objectives

Capita Children’s Services Priory Business Park Cardington Bedford MK44 3JZ Census Date January 17 th 2013January 17 th 2013

Capita Children’s Services Priory Business Park Cardington Bedford MK44 3JZ Preparation Ensure new pupils since last Census In October are on the system Attendance data up to the end of the Autumn term should be checked. Ensure missing marks are dealt with. Any Permanent Exclusion information has been entered before the pupil is marked as a leaver Leavers from December and prior to January Census processed Check Part time flags for Nursery and Reception children and where applicable set end dates.Check Part time flags for Nursery and Reception children and where applicable set end dates. For Foundation or VA schools - Admissions appeal information needs to be entered under the appeals section of the returnFor Foundation or VA schools - Admissions appeal information needs to be entered under the appeals section of the return

Capita Children’s Services Priory Business Park Cardington Bedford MK44 3JZ Base Lookups & Preparation continued Import lookups Import Base Lookups – Tools | Lookups | Import Lookups Locate CCS_Base_Lookups in the x:\sims folder Update FSM information if applicable. FSM Start date; FSM end date, country providing FSM. Linked to “Ever had FSM” and impact on Pupil Premium calculations Update Ethnic data for new pupils Update SEN Status Ensure Address information including post codes entered for pupils.

Capita Children’s Services Priory Business Park Cardington Bedford MK44 3JZ Preparation continued For class type information - Add N to Nursery pupils and ensure Year R- Year 6 pupils are marked as Other. Check Reception children are not still marked as N as an overspill from the year end processes or if they were part time during the Autumn Hours at Setting for 2, 3 and 4 yr olds Funded hours Young carers’ indicator whilst not new is a newish field Youth Support Services Agreement for 12 year olds and above There is a patch to copy connexions to YSSA if they are comparable. Patch no Learner Support Codes

Capita Children’s Services Priory Business Park Cardington Bedford MK44 3JZ Missing Marks and Attendance Data In the attendance tab of the return after you have collected data for the first time BUT before you validate - it may report Missing Attendance Marks. You need to clear all missing marks before validating and submitting the return. You need to save the Census return (Do not validate yet). If the return is a Dummy run called it Example or Test. Run Missing Marks report - Reports | Attendance | Selected pupil reports | Missing Session Marks Report Set date to be from Sept to December. Set group to be Whole School. Click Search. Click Print. This will show you by Pupil all the missing marks. When you view this report, it may be lengthy so check before printing. Depending on the volume you may wish to use Edit Marks (Focus | Attendance | Edit Marks) if you have a whole week missing for all pupils or you may wish to run the routine Deal with Missing Marks. (Focus| Attendance| Deal with Missing Marks). Enter the appropriate Mark for the child. Now go back to the Census return and Click on Check Missing Marks in the Attendance section of the return. If you now get the OK, that all missing marks are sorted, then you can proceed to the Validation stage of the return

Capita Children’s Services Priory Business Park Cardington Bedford MK44 3JZ Permission and Software Versions What permissions do I need? Returns Manager Group and School Administrator Group What version of the software do I need to be on? AUTUMN Release(7.148) AUTUMN Release is required for the School Census. See later slide regarding Fileset

Capita Children’s Services Priory Business Park Cardington Bedford MK44 3JZ Ensure Autumn School Census is complete? As a matter of good practice, ensure you have no outstanding query on your October Autumn School Census from either the LA or DfE before applying the Autumn (7.148) upgrade.

Capita Children’s Services Priory Business Park Cardington Bedford MK44 3JZ Documentation Use the Documents button on the Home Page to view up to date SIMS documents about the processes. This now looks up the latest documents online DfE website usually has updated guidance on non-procedural queries or of course your colleagues at Wokingham. Preparing for Census including checklist tick boxes for specific phases-lets have a quick look at them now Latest Error resolution docs for specific phases-lets have a quick look at them now

Capita Children’s Services Priory Business Park Cardington Bedford MK44 3JZ Dry runs for School Census A dry run is strongly recommended for all schools. This will allow reports to be run to show where data might be lacking or incomplete Multiple dry runs are possible. Remember to create a new census on the actual Census day. You can copy a dry run but you must create and validate a Census on the actual day

Capita Children’s Services Priory Business Park Cardington Bedford MK44 3JZ Produce return On entry please notice the Security warning panel relating to data. Edit this to suit On entry no attendance information is shown. Class type panels and Hours at Setting may initially be blank. Calculate School details to populate Class type and Hours at Setting Note any Missing Marks issues in Attendance Panel (as discussed earlier). Save return and resolve issues with missing marks. Go back into the return and click on the Missing Marks check button to see if it is resolved. Save return and repeat missing mark work until you get a message in the return to confirm it is resolved. Only then proceed to validation stage. Complete FSM taken on the day panel. Validating the return will check the attendance data Check Pupil Reconciliation panel agrees No Errors are allowed but Queries can be acceptable. Check however that the Query being raised is sensible Remember to revalidate after sorting errors/queries You can view all the Errors all of the Queries in the Error code section

Capita Children’s Services Priory Business Park Cardington Bedford MK44 3JZ Reports in Census return Summary – review and ensure that the information for each section is accurate Review Detail Reports for detailed information used to generate the Summary report. There is a message reminding you to visit the Detail Reports before you Authorise the return 2 New reports for 2013 are ….. Free School Meal report to take accounts of changes in FSM Youth Support Services Agreement Report Note: if you save any of the detail reports to excel it needs to be in a secure location

Capita Children’s Services Priory Business Park Cardington Bedford MK44 3JZ Authorise return Once Summary and report information has been reviewed and agreed by the Headteacher - Authorise the return NB Once the file has been authorised, it cannot be changed! It can however be copied and the copy can be amended, authorised and submitted instead

Capita Children’s Services Priory Business Park Cardington Bedford MK44 3JZ Submit What? To Whom? When? and How? Locate the folder containing the Authorised return – the file contains the letters SC1 (for School Census No 1), LL13 for 2013 and ends in.xml. If you create and authorise more than one return be sure to send the correct one. The return will have a date of January 2013 Submit by Close of Play? – 22 nd Jan 2013 Upload the file to Collect as you did for the most recent return Is Summary Report required by Wokingham LA? Yes Make use of CAPITA Supportnet website for late breaking news in Census – google CAPITA SUPPORT (

Capita Children’s Services Priory Business Park Cardington Bedford MK44 3JZ Filesets Current Fileset delivered with the latest release is Fileset 120. this can be seen at the top of the Census screen If there are any changes to Failures and Queries these may result in the DfE issuing a new fileset. This will need to be downloaded and imported into SIMS if the need arises. Tools | Setups | Import Fileset

Capita Children’s Services Priory Business Park Cardington Bedford MK44 3JZ Consultant Name Thank You SIMS Professional Services Call or to speak to a member of our Professional Services team