SIMS Address Tidy & Merge

Version 2 of the SIMS Address Tidy & Merge notes have been uploaded to the SIMS Home Page.

Click here to read these notes now.

This and more SIMS helpsheets on data housekeeping can be found on the SIMS Home Page.

Creating New Structure within FMS - New manual

A new manual entitled "Creating New Structure within FMS" has been added to the Finance Planet of the SIMS Home Page.

Click here to read the notes now.

This and two more new FMS manuals can be found on the SIMS Home Page.

Data Quality - How Accurate is Your Data?

It cannot be stressed strongly enough the importance of student data recorded in SIMS .net being accurate. With B2B, changes made to a student’s record in SIMS will be relayed to the ONE database within 24 hours. As the date for Contact Point to go live approaches, the County has launched a project to improve data quality.

Data from a wide range of services from Social Services, Education Welfare, Admissions to name just a few, all feed into the ONE system. Schools data is particularly important, as they should be in a position to gain the most up-to-date information on Student names, addresses and contact
information.

When new students are admitted to the school documentary proof of the student’s legal names and date of birth should be seen and only these names and dates entered in the appropriate boxes. Record any changes to addresses and telephone numbers as soon as they are known.

Try to eliminate any duplicate contacts. Ensure siblings are attached to the same versions of contacts. As soon as changes of address or telephone number are known, update details in SIMS.

Forwarding of E-mails to Personal Accounts

The Helpline have recently received a number of requests for forwarding to be set up from official e-mail addresses to personal e-mail accounts. We strongly recommend that this type of forwarding is NOT set up as it negates the security of the email system and could potentially put staff and the school at risk.

BECTA guidance states that all official correspondence should be carried out from an official school e-mail address, if this is not done, there is no way of tracking and auditing e-mails that may have been sent in the school’s name. There have been instances of disputes with parents for instance, where the lack of an email correspondence audit trail has made the situation worse.

Pugs & Sugs

Please note the dates for the Primary and Secondary User Groups (PUGs and SUGs). The agenda will include latest news from RAISE, ToPP (APP) and school models, Parental Engagement, Attendance.

• Wednesday 18th March at March Library - PUGs - 9:30 - 12:30 and SUGs 13:00 - 16:00
  
• Thursday 19th March at Buckden Millennium Centre - PUGs 9:30 - 12:30 only
  
• Wednesday 25th March at CPDC - PUGs - 9:30 - 12:30 and SUGs 13:00 - 16:00

Please note we are unable to accept bookings over the phone. You may call to check availability on telephone 01480 376670 or email: ict.courses@cambridgeshire.gov.uk, a booking form is required, unfortunately no places can be provisionally booked.

Dinner Money 7 - e-mailed Offer Direct from Capita

Capita have sent an e-mail to schools headed “A very tasty offer on SIMS Dinner Money” Please will all schools who currently use Dinner Money ignore this offer, as this only applies to schools considering taking up Dinner Money for the first time.

Any schools that do not already use Dinner Money but are considering doing so, this offer would be worthwhile but we would ask you please to contact the Helpline rather than dealing with Capita direct.

Advance notice - SQL 2008 Migration

From October 2009 SIMS will be moving from SQL2005 to SQL2008. Centrally Hosted schools do not need to worry about this as your database will be migrated for you.

All other schools will need to perform a migration process (similar to that used for the last sql migration) . Schools that are still using Windows 2000 will need to upgrade and may need to budget for this in the next financial year, SQL 2008 requires Microsoft XP or Windows 2003.

Schools Workforce Census - Staff Absences

Many schools have experienced enforced closures due to the weather conditions during February.

Guidance from the DCSF is that if the school is closed STAFF SHOULD NOT BE RECORDED AS ABSENT.

Spring Cleaning of FMS6

The end of the financial year may seem a long way off, however, the process of Year End actually covers almost half the year, from the start of preparation to final close.

It usually starts shortly after Christmas and continues until around mid-June. It is continuous and can be done in small segments throughout this period. At this time you should be thinking about setting up the new financial year.

Setting up the new VAT Year and the new Salary Year. (Please remember you can only have 2 years open, so if you have not already closed 07/08 this will need to be done before 09/10 can be opened). You should also be thinking about carrying out a 'Spring Clean' of your system.
Start checking orders and chasing late ones. Slow down the creation of purchase orders.
Give staff a date on which the order book will be closed - keep reminding them of this cut off date.

FMS Year End
Year End Procedures guidance notes are now available for download from the Finance Planet on the Portal. Notes on how to delete obsolete structures are also available.

FMS - Cheques
A reminder to take great care when writing cheques. Always ensure the cheque numbers used and the values of the cheque agree with the Cheque Run Report and the invoice. Not doing so can cause major problems when trying to reconcile the items at a later date.

Central Hosting

The December SIMS .net upgrade has been applied to all Centrally Hosted schools’ databases. This upgrade included a number of fixes, including the problem of reporting on staff absences.

Please note it has come to light that some users were unaware of the importance of logging out of Central Hosting in the correct way. Please always exit by clicking on the Start Button and selecting Log Out. DO NOT use the X to exit, as this does not close your connection correctly and may result in problems the next time you try to log on.

Please note, Scheduled Downtimes to allow upgrades and improvements to be made have been timetabled for the coming year: the next few Downtimes are as follows:-

• 28th February 2009
• 28th March 2009
• 25th April 2009
• 16th May 2009

RAISEonline school governor access is now available

Schools may now provide access for governors to download the RAISEonline Full Report. These accounts do not provide access to the interactive part of the system, and do not allow the user to see named pupil data.

Governor accounts are set up by the school’s RAISEonline administrator in the same way as other school accounts by clicking Administration and then Add user. At this stage ‘school governor’ is selected from the dropdown Select User Role Menu.

When setting up RAISEonline accounts, schools should remember that the terms and conditions of use require that all accounts should apply to one user. Shared accounts for the joint use of all governors should therefore be avoided.

As previously, governors whose role requires it may be given RAISEonline access as a ‘school’ user type at the discretion of the headteacher.

End of Key Stage Seminars

End of Key Stage Seminars will take place during April.

These are briefing sessions for End of Key Stage assessment reporting for FSP, KS1, KS2, KS3 using EyeProfile, Assessment Manager and Target Tracker Software. There will also be an update on School Workforce Census. See Key Dates below.

Key Dates Feb-May 2009

• Fischer Family Trust (Secondary) - 24th Feb (G)
  
• FMS6 Year End Primary, further dates on request - 4th, 5th Mar (WB)
  
• SIMS .net for new users - 23rd & 30th Apr (G)
  
• SIMS .net Reporting for Primary Schools - 1st May (G)
  
• End of Key Stage Seminars - 22nd (B), 23rd (CPDC), 27th (OC), 28th Apr (OV)
  
• End of Key Stage Data Entry Admin - 15th (G), 22nd May (WB)

Venues: (G) = Godmanchester; (OC) = Oliver Cromwell, March; (ML) = March Library; (CPDC) = Cambridge Professional Development Centre; (WB) = ICT Service Waterbeach; (BMC) = Buckden Millennium Centre; (OV) = Over Community Centre.

To book on a course listed in Key Dates, telephone 01480 376670

School Workforce Census

A new panel has been added to the SIMS.net, Primary and Secondary planets of the SIMS Home Page as a one-stop shop for all School Workforce Census materials.

More documents will be added to this panel soon. The first addition to this site is a Staff Absence Form, which school administrators will find useful in recording absences, and then inputting this information into Personnel 7.

The Staff Absence Form is available in Word and Adobe Acrobat PDF format, click the links to download the forms:

• Staff Absence Form - Word


• Staff Absence Form - PDF

The new School Workforce Panel can be found by clicking here.

New FMS6 Manuals

Two new manuals have been created and added to the Finance Planet of the SIMS Home Page - click on the links below to read them now:

• Financial Year End 2008/09
• Deleting Structure within FMS6

If you have any queries regarding these new manuals, or any finance query, please contact the helpline.

Snow Day - Recording a School Closure in SIMS

Welcome back to school after Snow Day!

There is a new way of recording school closures in SIMS - it used to be recorded via the school diary, but this function has now been added to the Attendance 7 module.

Click here to read how to record a school closure.

If you require any assistance with this procedure, please contact the helpline on 0845 045 0973.