June MIS update from School ICT
We hope you enjoyed the great weather over half term and are feeling ready to face the final half term of this academic year! Don’t forget to check out our Customer Portal for lots of useful information to help you save time and be more efficient! We regularly add more content so do keep checking back.
Year 11 Leaving date /off rolling information
Please refer to the Department of Education documentation using the links below for the latest year 11 leaving date and off rolling guidance:
Course Manager for Post 16 Schools
In preparation for the Autumn Census, schools with Post 16 students should consider carrying out several housekeeping tasks now to help minimise problems which may arise when trying to produce the Autumn Census. To help you with this, we have put a list of handy checks and tips together for you below: –
– 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 Post 16 leavers
– Check course manager for duration, exam award and QNs
– Provide the Timetabler with a list of Post 16 courses and their associated subject/levels/hours to eliminate continuity problems on 2-year courses
– Ensure that the very first time the new timetable is submitted to SIMS, the dates used are the working academic year (first day of term in September to last day of term in July)
There are additional steps that can be taken in July and August…look out for these in our next newsletter!
End of Year Procedures
Just a reminder that the End of Year Procedures must be completed before schools return in September and to help get ahead you can start working on this now. Detailed guidance notes are available to download from our customer portal. If you need a refresher, or have never done this before, we are running the following ‘Preparing for a new school year’ training courses which can be booked via our website https://www.schoolicts.co.uk/online-training/ : –
- 15th June – Primary – Preparing for a new school year
- 22nd June – Secondary – Preparing for a new school year
- 30th June – Primary – Preparing for a new school year
SIMS ID - A single sign-on solution for Schools and School groups
Did you know that one of the many benefits of the free version of SIMS ID is that it gives you the ability to view your Timetable in Office365 and Google calendar?
‘SIMS ID aims to make life easier for staff and pupils by enabling them to access their assigned services through an intuitive interface. They will only need to remember one username and password and there is no need to re-enter passwords once logged into their device. In addition, once set-up, users can manage and reset their own passwords at the click of a button’
For more information, please read through this helpful short guide.
*NEW* School ICT Report Suite
We have created a suite containing our most commonly requested reports which can be accessed via our Customer Portal.
To access the reports, once logged into the School ICT Customer Portal, type ‘SICTS Report Suite’ into the knowledgebase search box and follow the download instructions to access the following reports: –
- 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 Contact
- SEN Status and Needs
- Sibling Links (On Roll)
- SICTS Address Analysis
- Staff Absence Analysis by Type and Date
Sending InTouch messages to Primary contacts of leavers
To help with sending InTouch messages to Primary contacts of leavers, we have created a handy Helpsheet which can be found in our Customer Portal in the InTouch area under Knowledgebase|Categories.
Ransomware and Backup – Ensure your school is protected
We have recently had an increase in schools experiencing ransomware attacks which has resulted in loss of their SIMS and FMS data, due to inadequate backup plans.
For SIMS and FMS we recommend:
- An offsite cloud backup system
- The SIMS and FMS database should be backed up nightly
- We would also recommend that the SIMS drive and DocStorage is also backed up
We urge schools to check their backup systems and get confirmation if you are using a third party of when and what is backed up to ensure you are fully covered in the event of disaster.
School ICT offer a managed cloud based backup solution. Please get in touch for advice or further information.
Check out our new training and events booking system!
We have updated the booking system for our scheduled training courses and webinar events, we hope this makes the booking process and how to find out more about the training courses we have on offer much easier!
We have also added a full catalogue of the courses we offer to our website. If you can’t find the course you’re looking for, it may be available as a Distance Learning course, but please do let us know if not as we may be able to recommend a suitable alternative or look to add the course you’re looking for to our training schedule.
We also offer bespoke training and consultancy which we can tailor to your specific requirements. Please get in touch to find out more!
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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.
