1. Jason Hewer – Customer Care Consultant
Admissions
Jason Hewer – Customer Care Consultant

2. Agenda Why manage admissions through SIMS? R&A Module Setups
Capturing data
Admissions process
Reporting & analysis
Summary and Questions
Benefits of using R&A in SIMS
A comprehensive look at how R&A works and get you familiar with using it

3. Why SIMS?

4. Why manage admissions through SIMS?
Data continuation
Automated tools
Produce accurate forecasting of pupil numbers for budgeting and resourcing
Track success of marketing campaigns
Flexibility – customise data capture requirements
Accuracy and avoiding duplication
Imports, reports, Home Page widget = instant dynamic data display
Planning in line with all your other SIMS data
Where to target future marketing
Fits around your school processes and policies

5. Registration & Admissions
Module

6. Setups

7. Setups: Lookups Tools | Lookups | Maintain
Look at application status – does anyone use different statuses here?
Go in and create a new status e.g. Deposit not paid

8. Setups: Defaults Tools | Admissions | Defaults
Turn on/off default values/fields to be captured
Communications – stay on top of your work flow by setting up follow-up reminders (we will cover later)

9. Setups: Reminders Focus | Alerts | Setup Reminders
How to configure reminders

10. Setups: Next Academic Year
Routines | School | Academic Year
Routines | School | Promotion
Create the academic year using the wizard – define dates etc (you can change them later)
Do this nice and early on in the current academic year
Then run the pastoral promotion to map current year and reg groups to next years’
Running this allows you to view your next years’ pupil numbers and plan effectively
You can always re-run and over-write

11. Setups: Selection and Testing
Tools | Admissions | Criterion
Tools | Admissions | Policies
Task – set up a criterion
Criterion are then used to offer places to pupils if they meet the criteria (usually if the school is oversubscribed!). E.g. entrance exams, siblings in school or anything
Talk about aspects – if using test data, better to use an Assessment aspect in order to hold that data in AM for future analysis
Discuss weightings and tie-breaks etc

12. Data Capture

13. Data Capture: Import from web
Routines | Admissions | Import Enquiries
Import Applications
Show import admissions process – same process as enquiries

14. Data Capture: Import from web
Routines | Admissions | Import Applications
Task
Avoid duplication – finds matches in the database
Also imports contacts alongside the enquiry/application record
Choose to add a new record if required

15. Data Capture: Enquiry Record
Focus | Admission | Enquiry
Marketing Source
Enquirer could be parent/grand-parent/nanny etc
Open up first enquirer – Asgeir Abbot
Marketing source information key for future target marketing
Also capture job details – might be relevant for where to target marketing

16. Data Capture: Enquiry Record
Focus | Admission | Enquiry
Prospective Pupil Details
Open up prospective pupil
Record reasons for enquiry for feedback of the reputation of your school
Record when they are looking to join to plan ahead
Record what school they’re coming from to build relationships
Record withdrawal reasons for feedback

17. Data Capture: Enquiry Record
Focus | Admission | Enquiry
Communications
Interviews/Visits
Communications – set follow-ups so reminders come through on the Home Page
Message thread so you can see history
Quick letter on the right to send a prospectus, for example
Interviews/visits/open days/taster sessions/assessment day
Capture attendance of these and use this information for messaging/chasing up absences to reschedule

18. Data Capture: Application Record
Focus | Admission | Application
Create application from enquiry
Looks very similar to an active pupil record (with interviews/visits and separate communications)
Assign to an intake and admission group and assign application status
Record all other pupil details at this point, including subject choices if you turn this feature on

19. Data Capture: Admission Criteria
Focus | Admission | Application
Focus | Assessment | Marksheet entry
Record criteria that you set out in your policy
Entrance exams – open marksheet: ‘EE Entrance Exams 2016/2017’
Recording as an aspect in assessment manager allows you to analyse more and in the future look back to see progress
You can still use this as part of an admissions policy

20. Admissions Process

21. Admissions Process: Offers
Routines | Admission | Finalise Offers
Task – Finalise offers
Open up intake group 2016/2017 Autumn Year 7
Admissions criteria feeds through to inform the process
Rank and sort

22. Admissions Process: Accept
Routines | Admission | Accept Applications
Task – Accept Applications
Open up intake group 2016/2017 Autumn Year 7
Choose whether any offers have been accepted
If they have withdrawn or been withdrawn by the school, you can capture why here and report on it
Record destination school to build a picture of competition
Once applications have been accepted, pupils can begun to be given year groups, reg groups, houses, academic classes etc in SIMS – all of these processes can be completed in SIMS nice and early prior to date of admission

23. Reporting & Analysis

24. Reporting: Home Page widget
Home Page | Configure
Task (if time allows!)
How to configure reminders and Home Page widgets
Drill-down
Compare to last week, month, year, etc to see how the picture has changed
Expand widget to see further detail
Make decisions on if you need your offers to become accepted, etc

25. Reporting: Projected Student Numbers
Reports | Admissions | Projected Student Numbers
Task (if time allows!)
Choose criteria – year, intake season, comparison data, filter if you want by application status
Many schools are tracking this manually using spreadsheets

26. Reporting: Discover PreAdmission Menu Task (if we have time!)
Drag and drop

27. Reporting: Discover PreAdmission Menu Task training (if we have time!)
Drag and drop
Improving our knowledge of the landscape

28. Reporting: Pre-Defined Reports Catalogue
Is everyone aware of the Documentation Centre?
There’s a library of admissions reports built around what schools have asked for
A huge amount of reports in there (50+)
Feeder school analysis, marketing analysis, enquiry conversion rates, enquiry reasons, data collection sheets
A guide in the Documentation Centre details them all

29. Reporting: Conversion Rates
Reports | Run Report | Application Visit Conversion Rate
See trends over time
See how many visits ended up becoming an offer and an eventual admission
Target visits, maybe use that to ensure visits are more effective

30. Reporting: Conversion Rates
Reports | Run Report | Application Visit Conversion Rate
Pivot tables created to break-down the data
You can always access the pupil data behind the numbers too

31. Summary

32. Summary We looked at… Setups Capturing data Admissions process
Reporting
Benefits…
Reduce duplication and inaccuracy
Planning
Gain an understanding of your school
Setups – defaults, what to import, lookups, reminders, criterion and policies
Capturing data – importing enquiries/application, marketing data, admissions criteria such as entrance exams, visits/events, communications
Admissions process – using admissions criteria to inform offers, progressing through the application statuses, withdrawal reasons
Reporting – Home Page widget, projected student numbers, pre-defined report catalogue, conversion rates, Discover
Manage numbers
Resource planning
Build a picture of why pupils are attracted to your school and, therefore, where to target marketing

33. Questions?

34. jason.hewer@capita.co.uk @capitasimsind +44(0)1285 647459
SIMS Independent, 5 Mercian Close, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 1LT
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Keep in touch!