SIMS: Covid-19 - Useful links and resources to help in the current situation

Below are some great useful links, tips and resources to help you get SIMS working for you.

How can I use SIMS to help complete the daily Educational Settings Form?

Schools will be only too well aware that they have to complete a form each day and send the data back to the DfE. Unfortunately there are a great many parts to this form which need to be completed, and it is asking for information which is not normally contained in SIMS in some cases. With a great deal of help from our friends at OSMIS, we have provided a set of resources which schools can use to help complete the form as quickly as possible. Although there is some work in filling in the data initially, once done it should be relatively straightforward to maintain. Attached here is a file of those resources, which when unzipped, contains a Word document indicating how the answer may be obtained (in some cases this must be just manually entered), pointing either to existing reports or processes available in SIMS, or to resources kindly provided by OSMIS, for which there is a sheet of instructions which will need to be followed and two SIMS .net report definitions, one which needs to be adapted by the school. Some other colleagues have provided other resources if you would prefer to set up User Defined Groups to capture those items of data not normally contained in SIMS, as opposed to User Defined Fields. Please unzip this set of resources if that is the case; the choice is up to you.

How can I use SIMS to analyse session attendance by code?

The current advice to schools during the lockdown is that students who are not required to be at school should be recorded with an X code. Those who have been offered a place to attend the school physically should be recorded using the normal attendance codes. To obtain numbers of each code used, you may use the standard attendance report (Reports>Attendance/Lesson Monitor>Group analysis>Group Analysis by Code Report), or for more detailed reports there are two reports which can be downloaded, unzipped and imported from this page this report requires the user to have Third Party Reporter permissions, and outputs to Excel 2016 or later in a pivot table which may be filtered as required, and this report, again requiring Third Party Reporter permissions, outputs to a SIMS Analysis report, which again can be edited to show a choice of rows of key group data against number of marks.

How can I use SIMS to record and analyse attendance to remote learning sessions?

In addition to recording physical presence of the students in registers, schools may also wish to record the attendance of their students in on line learning lessons. The document which can be found here, and the detailed video which can be watched here go into details as to how this may be achieved by using existing functionality within Lesson Monitor and by using one of the 'Safety' reports which can be downloaded via the link on this page.

How can I identify pupils with key worker parents?

A report can be run to identify parental occupations, as well as vulnerable pupils (including those with EHCP/CiN/LAC. We have produced an example report here. Once the pupils have been identified, you can create user defined fields to record if a pupil has a parent who is a key worker. Take a look at our Video and Instructions on how to setup and use User Defined fields.

Can a Key Worker be shown on the Registers?

Within the setup of Attendance you have the ability to add a User Defined Field to the register, if you have created a User Defined Field for a Key Worker this can be added to the register.

Can I Produce a different timetable for new remote working?

Yes, you can do this by pushing through a new version of Nova, or by using the Alternative Curriculum function within Nova. If you are using # for attendance, you will be unable to take registers within those classes. Please click here for details of our webinar programme, and for past recordings that have been made to support your use of Nova-T6.

What is the Alternative Curriculum function within Nova T?

Alternative Curriculum can be managed within your current timetable file. It can help you set up new class structures for temporary measures. Student and staff timetables can be created, without changing any existing class or band structures. The below video (for timetablers) will explain the approach. If you are using # for attendance, you will be unable to take registers within those classes. [video width="800" height="500" mp4="/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Alternative-Curriculum.mp4"][/video]

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If you require any assistance please call us on 0345 222 1551 • Option 3 or email MISservicedesk@schoolbusinessservices.co.uk

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