September MIS update from School ICT
We hope you’ve all been able to enjoy a relaxing summer and are happy to welcome you back to the 2021 / 2022 academic year! We’d also like to say a big hello to all our new customers joining us this term, including all the customers we have taken on as part of our recent acquisition of Connect Up – more news on this below!
We are delighted to introduce three new members of the School ICT Team – Donna Clark, MIS Consultant and Joanne Moore, MIS Support Officer have recently joined the MIS Team and Jodie Barnett, Business Administrator has joined the admin team taking over from Jane Strong who is now our Finance Assistant.
Sadly we said farewell to Andy Sykes, MIS Consultant who left School ICT over the summer to pursue his career as a Data Manager in an independent school. We wish him every success in his new role.
For all those who have been working from home, we wish you a safe return back into school.
We have updated our customer portal with all the latest content, which can be accessed by logging in to My.schoolicts.co.uk. If you don’t have a customer portal account, please contact the helpdesk on 0345 222 6802 to request one.
A reminder that all online training courses for the 2021 / 2022 academic year are listed on our website so please visit https://www.schoolicts.co.uk/online-training/ for course details and to book a place.
Census - 7th October 2021
As census is fast approaching, we have updated all the latest guidance which is now available to download from the Customer Portal (My.schoolicts.co.uk) via Knowledge base /Categories / Census. Please keep checking the customer portal and the website newsfeed for updates on the latest fileset required for the census.
We are also running courses for those completing the census in SIMS on the following dates:
- – Primary – 4th October AM
- – Secondary – 28th September AM
- – Post 16 – 1st, 6th & 15th October AM
To book a place, or for more information, please go to: https://www.schoolicts.co.uk/online-training/
We have also created a Distance learning course for Course Manager to ensure you are ready ahead of the Post 16 Census. We highly recommend delegates have good experience of course manager before attending the post 16 course.
https://learning.schoolicts.co.uk/courses
We are running Free best practice webinars as part of our new ‘webinar week’ – more details coming soon! These sessions will cover a range of topics on SIMS and Arbor and unlike previous best practice sessions, which ran for a full morning, each topic area will last up to 1 hour to ensure you are able to attend the sessions which are of interest. We will cover an update on the Census in SIMS on the following dates:
- – Primary 11th October 9.30AM
- – Secondary 12th October 9.30AM
- – Post-16 14th October 9.30AM
To book your place please go to https://www.schoolicts.co.uk/online-training/
Workstation patch 1 – expected release date is 14th September 2021
As you may know the DfE has introduced a new section in the XML return file, which they refer to as FAM (Funding and Monitoring), for collecting the funding and monitoring data required for the DfE education recovery initiative. ESS will provide data entry/editing in line with this DfE structure via adding a new Update Funding and Monitoring menu route in Tools | Statutory Returns Tools.
The Tools | Statutory Returns Tools | Update Funding and Monitoring menu route will provide data entry and editing functionality for the following new pupil fields. The two post-16 fields will not be relevant to primary schools, so we are looking to hide these fields when the new menu route is used by a primary school.
- – 16-19 Tuition Fund
- – Repeating Year 13
- – School Led Tutoring
- – Cumulative Hours for School Led Tutoring as at Autumn Census
- – Cumulative Hours for School Led Tutoring as at Spring Census
- – Cumulative Hours for School Led Tutoring as at Summer Census
The list of pupils will be restricted to those who are on roll on the relevant census reference date plus pupils who left between 01/08/2021 and the relevant census reference date (inclusive).
Filters will be included to identify particular groups of pupils who are likely to be involved with particular aspects of the education recovery funding, e.g. Deprivation Pupil Premium.
The following are some screen mock-ups to give you an idea of how this will look. (Click on the images to enlarge).
School ICT SIMS Report Suite
Just a reminder that we have pulled together a collection of our most requested reports which are available to download and import from the customer portal via Knowledge base / Categories / Reports downloads/SICTS Report Suite.
The SICTS Report Suite contains: –
- Achieve-Behav Points Date Range
- Attendance Analysis (academic years 15/16 to 20/21)
- Attendance Analysis (Summary) (academic years 15/16 to 20/21)
- Attendance Analysis Current (YTD)
- Contacts Priority 1
- Contacts Priority 1 & 2
- Dietary Needs with Photo
- Exam Student ID Card
- Lesson Attendance Analysis
- Lesson Attendance Analysis by Class
- Lesson Attendance Analysis by Subject
- Medical Conditions with Photo
- Population Analysis by Characteristic
- Preadmission Address Labels Avery L7160
- Preadmission Addresses & Priority 1 Contacts
- SEN Status and Needs
- Sibling Links (On Roll)
- SICTS Address Analysis
- Staff Absence Analysis by Type and Date
To install: –
- Download the attached file below
- In SIMS go to Reports > Import
- Click Open, select the file you have just saved, click open
- Click Import
- Click Close
Once you have upgraded to the SIMS 2021 Summer Release, please remember to import the most up-to-date predefined reports. To import the reports, select Reports | Import, then navigate to and select PreDefined_Reports_v7200.RptDef (typically found in C:\Program Files (x86) \SIMS\SIMS net). Once imported, the updated reports are available to all users with the appropriate permissions.
DfE Attendance Amendments - Workstation Patch 1 expected release date: 14th September
The changes to attendance subcodes have been confirmed by the DfE and are intended to help schools cope with changes to the education settings status form for the 2021/22 academic year.
- – Two existing coronavirus related attendance subcodes of X to be made inactive
- – Two new coronavirus related attendance subcodes of X added
(Click on image to enlarge).
Please ensure subcodes X03 and X04 are not used from 01/09/2021.
Please see the link to the latest guidance from the DfE below:
Workstation patch 1 – expected release date is 14th September 2021
As you may know the DfE has introduced a new section in the XML return file, which they refer to as FAM (Funding and Monitoring), for collecting the funding and monitoring data required for the DfE education recovery initiative. ESS will provide data entry/editing in line with this DfE structure via adding a new Update Funding and Monitoring menu route in Tools | Statutory Returns Tools.
The Tools | Statutory Returns Tools | Update Funding and Monitoring menu route will provide data entry and editing functionality for the following new pupil fields. The two post-16 fields will not be relevant to primary schools, so we are looking to hide these fields when the new menu route is used by a primary school.
- – 16-19 Tuition Fund
- – Repeating Year 13
- – School Led Tutoring
- – Cumulative Hours for School Led Tutoring as at Autumn Census
- – Cumulative Hours for School Led Tutoring as at Spring Census
- – Cumulative Hours for School Led Tutoring as at Summer Census
The list of pupils will be restricted to those who are on roll on the relevant census reference date plus pupils who left between 01/08/2021 and the relevant census reference date (inclusive).
Filters will be included to identify particular groups of pupils who are likely to be involved with particular aspects of the education recovery funding, e.g. Deprivation Pupil Premium.
The following are some screen mock-ups to give you an idea of how this will look. (Click on the images to enlarge).
DfE CSV Pupil Premium download for financial year 2021/22
Just a reminder to download the Pupil Premium file from Get Information about Pupils and import into SIMS. Instructions on how to do this can be found on the Customer Portal https://my.schoolicts.co.uk/ via Knowledge base/ Categories/ SIMS General Importing Pupil Premium Information into SIMS.
Best Practice Webinar Week
Exciting news! Following customer feedback, we have created a FREE best practice webinar week. This will allow you to book onto individual webinar sessions, (delivered via Teams), so you can select which sessions to attend rather than sitting through content that’s not relevant to your role. Booking is now available via https://www.schoolicts.co.uk/latest-events/
| 11th October | Census Primary in SIMS | 09:30 -10:30 |
| 11th October | Data Quality Arbor | 13:00 – 14:00 |
| 11th October | Preparing for inspection with Anchored Schools SIMS | 14:00 -15:00 |
| 12th October | Census Secondary in SIMS | 09:30 – 10:30 |
| 12th October | School Workforce Census inc updating pay scales in SIMS | 13:00 – 14:00 |
| 12th October | Guest speakers from ESS (Formerly Capita) update session on SIMS | 14:00 -15:00 |
| 13th October | Top Tips Arbor | 09:30 -10:30 |
| 13th October | School Workforce Census inc updating pay scales in Arbor | 13:00 -14:00 |
| 14th October | Post 16 census in SIMS | 09:30 –10:30 |
| 14th October | Exams Top Tips in SIMS | 13:00 – 14:00 |
| 15th October | Moving MIS Considerations- Any MIS | 09:30 -10:30 |
Anchored Schools
School ICT have recently partnered with like-minded company Anchored Schools.
Former senior leaders, Debbie and Corrie, help schools by offering comprehensive support in safeguarding, behaviour, attendance and PSHE. They provide a range of services such as health checks, PSHE Curriculum development, staff training, mock inspections, policy reviews and much more. If your school needs support in these areas, we highly recommend speaking with Anchored Schools to find out how they could help you.
Anchored Schools are a well-established company that work across all educational settings in England. Our aim is to offer comprehensive support to schools/colleges in the areas of safeguarding, behaviour, attendance and PSHE. The team have had extensive experience as senior leaders where their work has had significant impact on whole school development. Anchored Schools are proud of their extensive and continued involvement with schools which ensures their support is relevant, useful and impactful. – Debbie
https://www.anchoredschools.com/
Anchored schools have an excellent FREE weekly newsletter called Anchored Radar that will provide you with key information, updates, support and guidance in relation to all aspects of Safeguarding and Personal Development. Click here to sign up https://www.anchoredschools.com/the-radar
They will also be delivering a session at our upcoming webinar week on ‘preparing for inspection’. Having been part of over 50 inspections, they bring a wealth of knowledge and understanding. This FREE session can be booked here https://www.schoolicts.co.uk/events/bpe-anchored-schools/?occurrence=2021-10-11
School ICT Services Ltd acquires Connect Up Support Services Ltd
All customers should have received an e-mail last week announcing School ICT Services Ltd (School ICT) has acquired the share capital of Connect Up Support Services Ltd (Connect Up), bringing the Connect Up business under the umbrella of the School ICT Group.
We are delighted to welcome the staff, customers, suppliers and partners of Connect Up Support Services to the School ICT family. Connect Up is a familiar name in Leeds, having provided a wide range of IT and MIS services to the city’s schools for over 20 years.
The addition of Connect Up to the School ICT Group further strengthens our core services, now being delivered to over 1000 schools across the country by 60 dedicated colleagues. We’re looking forward to working together to continue to provide all of our customers, old and new, with our increasing range of best in class support services.
Should you have any questions or queries regarding this acquisition, then please do not hesitate to contact Steven Hutton (Managing Director) on 0345 2226802 / steve.hutton@schoolicts.co.uk or Clare Barnett (General Manager) clare.barnett@schoolicts.co.uk.
MIS Server Migrations - limited slots available, book yours now!
Did you know… there are retirement dates set on all support platforms? These often go unnoticed, leading to poor system performance.
At School ICT, we understand that protecting your school’s data is a number one priority and critical to your schools success.
To ensure your systems are running as quickly and efficiently as possible our specialist team of accredited technical experts provide a complete and cost effective SIMS server migration, transferring your data safely and securely, minimising downtime and ensuring continuity of the smooth running of your school.
To find out more about what’s included in our MIS Server migrations click here or call us on: 0345 222 6802.
Resourcing - School ICT Resourcing can fulfil all your temporary or permanent recruitment of non-teaching staff
School ICT Resourcing can source temporary or permanent non-teaching staff for your school. Whether short term or for a longer period, we can work with you to find a suitable placement.
If yourself or any colleagues would consider working on a temporary or ad-hoc basis, please contact Helen who would love the opportunity to speak with you about the potential of adding you to our candidate list.
For further information please call: 0113 3720039 or visit: https://www.schoolictresourcing.co.uk/
