School ICT July Newsletter

July MIS update from School ICT

In the final newsletter of this academic year, School ICTs Managing Director, Steve Hutton, wanted to take the opportunity to give a personal thank you and company update to all our customers: –

As we reach the conclusion to what has been an exceptionally challenging academic year, on behalf of all us at School ICT, I would like to thank you for your continued support and custom. I hope that we have played a small part in helping you to navigate through this last year through either our technical support or data support services. We have certainly endeavoured as a team to continue to provide the services that you have come to expect through both traditional and new methods of delivery. The quick development and roll-out of our remote training offering, regular best practice seminars and new range of distance learning courses have proved extremely popular and will remain integral to our service moving forwards.

The team at School ICT have also been working hard to embrace other market leading MIS solutions such as Arbor and Bromcom, widening our portfolio of supported solutions and easing the transition for our customers between MIS solutions. For those customers wishing to make a change, the experience gathered during our recent migration projects has been invaluable in building a robust and comprehensive template plan to help guide and inform future customer migrations. Please do let the support team know if your school is considering a change in MIS as our help and support will be invaluable to making this a success.

Working in the education sector, we have been fortunate to have not been adversely affected by the pandemic from a business perspective. School ICT continues to grow and we have employed 7 additional team members since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, ensuring that we continue to be as responsive as possible to your requests for support and to commit the resource to continued innovation of our products and services.

The School ICT management team and I are always keen to learn how we can continue to improve our service to you so please email me at steve.hutton@schoolicts.co.uk should you have any service feedback or ideas for improvement.

I wish you a relaxing summer break and hope that 2021/22 will bring everyone a much more stable and less challenging academic year.

Steven Hutton

Managing Director

Exam Results and SIMS Summer Release 2021

Results available to Centres (restricted release): –

Monday 9th August 2021 – GCE, FSMQ, Extended Project, Level 3 Vocational and Technical Qualifications

Wednesday 11th August – GCSE, ELC, Foundation and Higher Projects, Level 1 and 3 Vocational and Technical Qualifications

You will need to be on the latest version of SIMS – Summer release version 7.200, before downloading Exam Results.

IMPORTANT – Results Embargo 2021- GCSE Embargo restricting access to GCE results.

The Embargo of GCSE results in August may prevent access to GCE results for those staff who are not included in the exceptions of the Embargo. This is due to the release in the same week of both GCE and GCSE results. To allow SIMS users who are not included in the Embargo exceptions access to the GCE results the following can be applied:

Exporting Candidate Statement of Results to the Document Management Server (DMS). This is similar to printing a candidate statement of results, but the document is held electronically within SIMS. The statement detail is individual to each student and can be accessed through the linked documents in their record in SIMS.

IMPORTANT – As the exported copy exists outside the Embargo functionality this should not be carried out until the relevant Embargo has ended.

When finished the document can be found in SIMS.net by going to the pupil’s record and accessing the Linked Documents from the Links menu.

Exporting Reports

There are many reports that allow users to export results these can then be saved outside of SIMS and Examinations Organiser.
IMPORTANT – It is the school’s responsibility to ensure that exported reports are stored securely, particularly if the Embargo is still in place when run.

Exam Resources

The essential Results Day Survival Kit 2021 guide is on our Customer Portal along with lots of downloadable documents to help guide you through the processes, including our Exam Results Preparation Must Read 2021 document. https://my.www.schoolicts.co.uk/

Sending Exam Results via InTouch

We have created a Helpsheet on how to send exam results to students via InTouch, you can find this on the Customer Portal via Knowledgebase/Categories/Exams/SICTS QRS/Sending exam results using InTouch – https://my.www.schoolicts.co.uk/

Just a reminder of the additional Reports in SIMS (which were introduced in Summer 2020): –

Tools | Examinations | Candidate Statement of Results Report – this link takes you to a short video on the changes: – https://capita-cs.s3.amazonaws.com/web/dyk/S7-SIMS-Summer-2020-Product-Update-Exams-Candidate-Statement-of-Results.mp4

Tools | Examinations | Certification Broadsheet Report – this link takes you to a short video on the changes: – https://capita-cs.s3.amazonaws.com/web/dyk/S7-SIMS-Summer2020-Product+Update-Exams-Broadsheet.mp4

The Candidate Statement of Results and the Certification Broadsheet reports are accessible from Exams in SIMS as well as in Exams Organiser.

The versions of these reports display a more comprehensive grade description.

JCQ – Restricted release information link: https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Release-of-results-June-2021.pdf

Reminder - End of Year Procedures

Documentation

The documentation for end of year procedures can be found on our customer portal. https://my.www.schoolicts.co.uk/ in the knowledge base under the category of End of Year. You should be able to find the documentation and some helpful videos to assist with the various tasks that are necessary to set up your new school year for 2021/2022. There is also a section on our latest best practice videos on top tips for the end of year. These tasks must be completed before September.

We have also created some quick guides for a reminder of which tasks need to be carried out, please access via our customer portal. https://my.www.schoolicts.co.uk/. If you don’t have a login for the customer portal, please contact us on 0345 226802 and we will set you up with one.

If you require training, distance learning courses are now available to teach you all the end of year procedures. They can be found on our website. https://learning.www.schoolicts.co.uk/

Top Tips

Please also note the change to the Spring Bank Holiday which is now Thursday 2nd June and Friday 3rd June 2022 to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee.
If you are a school who has a 6-term academic year please remember, when creating your new academic year, that you do not need to set up half terms. If you need any assistance, please call the helpdesk.
In September, remember to change your academic year on your SIMS homepage to reflect the new academic year as well as admitting pre-admission pupils when they begin school.

It is also a good time to carry out the following housekeeping tasks: –

Update Mailing Point and reset parental ballot flags and update name formats – Tools | Housekeeping | General.
Delete unlinked contacts – Tools | Housekeeping | Delete unlinked contacts.
Update salutations – Routines | Pupil | Update salutation.
Tidy & Merge addresses – Tools | Housekeeping| Bulk Address Tools | Tidy and Merge Addresses.

We offer a free housekeeping distance learning short course which can be found on our website.https://learning.www.schoolicts.co.uk/

Should you require any assistance with setting up your new school year, please do not hesitate to contact the Helpdesk on 0345 2226802.

SIMS Summer Upgrade News and Features

Important Information for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Users: –

If you are running SIMS on a Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 workstation, you may encounter difficulties when attempting to open PDF files in SIMS. This is caused by Windows Reader being the default program used to open PDF files.

To resolve this issue, you must first ensure that Adobe Reader 10 or later is installed.

Next, you will need to associate Adobe Reader with all PDF files. From the Taskbar, click File Explorer, click Computer in the panel on the left-hand side of the page then from the Menu Bar, select Computer | Open Control Panel. Click Programs | Default Programs | Associate a file type or protocol with a program. In the Extensions list, scroll down to and click the .pdf item then click the Change program button. Click Adobe Reader then click the Close button.

Enhancements to Post-16 Programmes of Study Applicable to schools in England only

Tools | Academic Management | Course Manager | Post-16 Programmes of Study

The list of students displayed on the Maintain Post-16 Programmes of Study page now displays all post-16 students, including leavers who have an active course membership in the current academic year and/or the previous academic year.

All students who could be included in the School Census Autumn 2021 Return are displayed, whether they are studying at year 1 or year 2 of their programme or have completed their programme of study and left the school in the previous academic year. Guidance has been added to the top of the grid (adjacent to the Right Mouse Click for options label) to reflect this, e.g., Students with learning aims 01/08/2019 to 31/07/2021.

The content of the Core Aim and Other Courses columns now include learning aims that span the date range for the current academic year and the previous academic year.

Newly Qualified Teacher Applicable to Maintained schools in England only.

Focus | Person | Staff Provided the QT Status check box is selected on the Professional Details tab of the staff record; it is now possible to specify the induction year of the newly qualified teacher by selecting from the NQT Status drop down list.

Exclusions

The DfE is changing exclusions terminology. To accommodate this change, amendments have been made to the Exclusion Type lookup in SIMS. Schools are required to record suspensions from September 2021 in preparation for forthcoming returns.

Ethnicity

WNIR – White – Northern Irish has been provided as an additional extended code and has been added to the student Ethnicity lookup. This new code maps to the main code of WBRI – White – British.

Pupil Referral Units

For Pupil Referral Units, the alternative provision admission reason (AP Admission Reason) can be recorded via the Registration panel on the Student Details page. This information is being collected for the first time in the School Census Autumn 2021 Return. The new School Arranged Alternative Provision Placements table in the Registration panel of the Student Details page can be populated from September 2021 in preparation for the first voluntary collection of data in the School Census Spring 2022 Return. The collection period for these placements is from the day after the previous census return to the ‘current’ census day inclusive.

Autumn Census - Online Training Now Open for Bookings!

The Autumn Census is on 7th October 2021.

For more information and to book a place on any of our training courses, please visit our main website using this link: https://www.schoolicts.co.uk/online-training/ – click on ‘Load more’ at the bottom of the list to find the following courses:

Secondary Autumn Census – 28th September half day a.m.

Post 16 Census – 1st October full day

Primary Autumn Census – 4th October half day a.m.

Post 16 Census 6th October – full day

Post 16 Census 14th October – full day

SIMS InTouch - Email Address is Changing

As an InTouch user your school’s InTouch email address will be changing. As part of the change in ownership of SIMS from Capita, to ESS, you may notice some branding changes are taking place.

Your new InTouch email address <DFEnumber>@sims-communications.co.uk is now in place and emails sent to it will be received by your InTouch system. In the first week of July your new email address will be in place to send emails too. Your old email address @capita-intouch.co.uk will continue to work until the end of July. So even if some of your contacts have not updated to the new email address you won’t miss anything.

We recommend that you contact your Contacts, Parents and Guardians to add this new email address to their safe senders list to avoid any missed communications from and to your school. Don’t forget to edit any email forwarders you have set up and if you use the InTouch email address on school documentation update this too.

Note: if you have previously had a change of DfE number but elected not to change email address the same numbers will continue to be used at the start of the email address as you have currently. To change this please contact us at helpdesk@schoolicts.co.uk

For more information about changes to ESS SIMS visit https://www.ess-sims.co.uk/resources/blog/ess-sims-update

Reminder: Course Manager for Post 16 Schools

Schools with Post 16 students should consider carrying out several housekeeping and checking tasks now in preparation of the Autumn Census. This will lessen most problems which arise when trying to produce the Autumn Census.

Check the validity of all Post 16 QNs on LARS – even if the expiry date on the QN has not passed, it does not mean that the QN will still be funded by the EFA! (https://hub.fasst.org.uk/learning%20aims/pages/default.aspx)
Try to make Y13s leave in advance of the event so that Planned End Dates behave correctly in course manager and courses complete.
Remember that a withdrawal reason is not needed for Y13s that are leaving at the end of their Post 16 study but is needed for all other Post16 leavers.
Check course manager for duration, exam award, and QNs.
Provide the Timetabler with a list of Post16 courses and their associated subject/levels/hours to eliminate continuity problems on 2-year courses.
Ensure that the very first time that the new timetable is submitted to SIMS, that the dates used are the working academic year (first day of term in September to last day of term in July).

In July and August there are more steps that can be taken to help with the Autumn Census…..look out for the next newsletter for more.

Teaching Through Technology - Free Half Day Consultancy

School ICT can support your whole team with training, consultancy and team teaching to maximise the impact that the smart use of technology can provide across all key stages within your school, ensuring the technology you’ve already invested in, is being used to its full potential.

We are currently offering a FREE half day consultancy with Simon Bradshaw, our Educational Consultant, to create a bespoke action plan for your school. Click here for more information.

Arbor Advanced Accreditation

Exciting news! Our MIS Team have successfully gained the Arbor Advanced Accreditation allowing us to fully support Secondary schools. Want to know more? Head to our Arbor support page below: –

https://www.schoolicts.co.uk/arbor/

Did you know we can supply and install hardware, screens, laptops, PC’s and more?

– Interactive Boards
– Monitors
– Servers
– PC’s
– Notebooks
– Chrome Books
– Projectors
– Laptops
– Ipads
– Charge and Sync Trolleys
– IT Components – Memory / SSD /Keyboards / Mouses / Cables

Contact Nicola to discuss your requirements in more detail: 0345 222 6802 – option 3.

MIS Server Migrations - limited Summer holiday slots remaining, 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.

Remote Training and Consultancy - A bespoke service that's tailored to your requirements

Do you have a training requirement that can’t be met through one of our scheduled SIMS Training courses or a Distance Learning course? Maybe you have a whole team that requires specialised training that’s specific to your establishment or perhaps you’re looking for some help with a specific area of SIMS? Whatever your requirements – we can help! Our accredited team of MIS Experts can tailor a bespoke training or consultancy session, that can be delivered remotely, to your specific needs. Get in touch to find out how we can help! Call us on: 0345 222 6802 or e-mail: helpdesk@schoolicts.co.uk.

iAM Compliant School Compliance Management Software - Webinar Recording

Following the seminar we held in partnership with iAM Compliant last week, entitled ‘How to get your School 100% compliant on time and on budget’ we have been asked to provide a recording of the session for those that were unable to attend which can be accessed via our Customer Portal, simply log in and search for ‘iAM Compliant’ in the Knowledge Base where you will be able to click on the link to watch the webinar. If you need access to the Customer Portal, please contact: helpdesk@schoolicts.co.uk.

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 are retiring at the end of this academic year, but 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: 01132878020 or visit: https://www.schoolictresourcing.co.uk/