1. SICTS Autumn Conference 14th November 2013
Kay Vickers
Mark Blackwood
Sarah O’Neill
Telephone/Helpdesk:

2. Autumn 2013 Release
The SIMS 2013 Autumn Release contains enhancements to Admissions, Agora, Assessment, Attendance, Course Manager, Cover, Discover, Homepage, InTouch, Nova-T6, Options, Partnership Xchange, Personnel, SIMS FFT, and the SQL Migration Tool

3. Autumn 2013 Release Assessment Discover
Button added a for the Assessment Group Filter on Individual Reports
Discover
‘Copy to Clipboard’ button added to the front of the graphs
Quick Search function added to the drop down menus
Ability for users to share their filtered graphs across their school.

4. Autumn 2013 Release Discover
The following graphs have been added to SIMS Discover:
Half Termly Attendance graph
Half Termly Behaviour Points graph
Half Termly Behaviour Incidents graph
Half Termly Achievement Points graph
Pupil Mobility graph

5. Autumn 2013 Release SIMS Homepage/Student Teacher View
Attendance and intervention widgets now show figures correct to 2 decimal places, and separate present and authorised absence
Student teacher view timeline amended to see only one box per class, regardless of how many teachers are attached to the group
Conduct widgets configured to count either points or number of incidents on the Student Teacher View
Absence, covered lessons, and room changes can be shown on timeline if desired

6. Autumn 2013 Release Homepage Performance
Refresh times can be altered globally / by user groups for individual widgets so that server impact is reduced.
Configure time line for groups.
Configure widget refresh rates for groups.
Add permissions for groups to be able to configure what appears on timeline.
Add permissions for groups to be able to configure refresh times.
Review and amend underlying code to improve performance.

7. Autumn 2013 Release InTouch
Attached documents converted to PDF when Office 2007 or later is used. This will reduce the size of the attachments and give options for logos and images to be included.
Cumulative Achievement alerts can be set up to automatically notify users when a pupil reaches a defined points score.
The message editing function has been enhanced, enabling schools to produce fully formatted messages.
Scheduled messages.

8. Autumn 2013 Release NOVA T-6/Academic Management
Addition of flag on each NCC to indicate whether the duties of that NCC should be tallied in the Teacher Hours report.
Curriculum Matching Wizard: Button to allow user to break/make links on matching screen
Timetable Printing: Nova-T4 style interlinking between timetable displays.
Double-clicking on a teacher code/name, room code/name or class on the Timetable Report Preview screen would launch the equivalent Timetable Preview for the teacher/room OR the "Midas" class list.

9. Autumn 2013 Release NOVA T-6/Academic Management
Print Timetables directly from Tick Grid: The menu route Focus|School|Academic Structure|Curriculum Assignment By Scheme invokes the “Tick Grid” – on which a list of students eligible for or assigned to classes of a scheme are displayed. If one or more of these students are selected, then it is possible to right-click and select an item from the context menu: Print Timetables for Selected Students this now works on 64-bit machines.

10. Autumn 2013 Release Options
Support for partnership schools within a single Options implementation. It is possible to import students from several school databases in sequence into a single Options implementation, carry out the Options process as normal, and then export back into each database once more.

11. Autumn 2013 Release Personnel
DBS Check (Disclosure and Barring Service) and associated clearance levels have been added to the checks area of the employment details tab. The DBS check replaces the CRB check, although the CRB check and its associated Clearance Levels have been retained in the database to maintain historical records. The CRB check is now inactive.

12. Autumn 2013 Release Statutory Returns
School Census Spring 2014 (England)
Catholic Education Service (CES) Census 2014 (Catholic England and Wales)
CTF 13 (England and Wales) and CTF NI 13 (Northern Ireland)
PLASC 2014 (Wales)
Introduction of support for Middle Schools
Exclusion codes amended to match those in England
Exclusion information for academic year 2012/13 is now mandatory

13. Autumn 2013 Release Statutory Returns
Bulk update routine for Speaks Welsh at home
Removal of Post 16 menu route
Independent School Council (ISC) Census 2014 (Independent)
Boarding type information now maps to categories used by the ISC. (This is applicable to all Independent schools, therefore both ISC and SLASC census).
Boarder status codes are Day, Full, Weekly and Flexi.
School Level Annual School Census (SLASC) 2014 (Independent)

14. Post 16 Census Best Practice
Update Performance Measures File
Tools | Statutory Return Tools | Import Qualification Data

15. Post 16 Census Best Practice
Import QAN Catalogue
Tools | Statutory Return Tools | Import Qualification Data

16. Post 16 Census Best Practice
Import and Restructure Basedata
Download and import basedata into Summer 2014 Season for ALL Awards - AQA, EDEXCEL, OCR, WJEC, Cambridge Nationals and Technicals and request results basedata for BTECs (7B14_15)
Restructure Basedata for AQA using “Existing Awards” where possible for AS Awards

17. Post 16 Census Best Practice
Link all Exam Awards to the correct Course in Course Manager
Use Basedata Structure Report in Exams Organiser to ensure that ALL Awards are linked correctly to Course Manager – Report | Basedata | Structure

18. Post 16 Census Best Practice
Import any New Levels required into NOVA T6 using Refresh SQL Basedata Wizard

19. Post 16 Census Best Practice
Ensure all Classes in NOVA have the correct Levels assigned

20. Post 16 Census Best Practice
Ensure that additional Courses have been created in Course Manager for subjects where students are working towards more than 1 Qualification, e.g. BTECs
Check that all Post 16 Courses have the correct QAN assigned
The AO QAN from the Exam Basedata needs to be imported from the QAN Catalogue and assigned to the Course as the QWS QAN

21. Discover – New Graphs
Attendance by Half Term

22. Discover – New Graphs
Behaviour Incidents and Behaviour Points by Half Term

23. Discover – New Graphs
Achievement Points by Half Term

24. Discover – New Graphs
Student Mobility by Half Term

25. SIMS Timetable enhancements
Double-clicking on a teacher code/name, room code/name or class on the Timetable Report Preview screen would launch the equivalent Timetable Preview for the teacher/room OR the "Midas" class list.
Print Timetables directly from Tick Grid: The menu route Focus|School|Academic Structure|Curriculum Assignment By Scheme invokes the “Tick Grid” – on which a list of students eligible for or assigned to classes of a scheme are displayed. If one or more of these students are selected, then it is possible to right-click and select an item from the context menu: Print Timetables for Selected Students this now works on 64-bit machines.

26. Attendance
F code has been disabled!

27. Pupil Premium
There is now an import routine to utilise the csv files available from K2S
Note that there is already a Pupil Premium field (yes/no) available to report on

28. Cover Links with updates in timeline (who covered me, which room etc)
Classes Impacted by Absence report is clearer
Shows 2 panels
Export shows all data in same format as report
Statistics
Enhanced Export
Cover report shows credited time totals in hrs and minutes (not decimals)
Weighted time calculation displayed in status bar