Creating CTF Files

A new helpsheet has been created to guide SIMS.net users through the process of exporting and importing CTF files. There is also a Frequently Asked Questions section within this helpsheet.

It's available in two formats, click on the links below:

• Creating CTF Files - Word Format


• Creating CTF Files - PDF Format

These helpsheets and other SIMS-related documents can be found on the SIMS Home Page.

E-Business Suite unavailable 29.7.09

E-Business Suite unavailable on Wednesday 29 July from 6.00pm.

Due to issues in EBS we are carrying out an emergency fix at 6.00pm on Wednesday 29 July. During this time the E-Business system will be unavailable. We expect the fix to take approximately 1 hour.

For any additional information please contact E-Business Support Services

SIMS.net June Release

The June Release notes for SIMS.net are now available on the SIMS Home Page.

Once the upgrade has been applied, the version number will be 7.120. Along with the release notes are the following files:

• SIMS.net June Release


• SIMS Minimum Hardware Specifications - May 09


• SIMS Permissions 7.120

The latest software versions are added to the SOLUS page - click the link to read more.

Personnel 7 Staff Service Terms

The latest version of the Staff Service Terms have been uploaded to the SIMS Home Page.

They are available on the Finance, Primary, Secondary and SIMS.net pages - you can download the zip files directly from these links, there's one for each school type:

• Primary.zip
• Secondary.zip
• Special.zip

Notes on how to download, extract and import these files are available here.

These and other SIMS files are available on the SIMS Home Page.

Scheduled Sunday ICT Service Break 26.7.09

This coming Service Break will interrupt the following services:

• Corporate Netilla and NHS Netilla will be unavailable between 8:00 and 12:00
  
• Internet access will be unavailable from all CCC offices and for people with CCC laptops working from home between 8:00 and 10:00
  
• Aspire will be unavailable between 8:00 and 12:00
  
• One.net v4 will be unavailable between 8:00 and 12:00

Cambridge based users should note that essential maintenance is being carried out on the servers that provide their profile and home areas. We do not envisage that this work will cause any disruption, however please be aware that due to the nature of the work being done there is a small chance that there will be a brief outage for these servers at some stage during the service break.

This weekends Service Break work is scheduled from 08:00 until 12:00 on Sunday.
Remote Access ServicesFor your information there are two Netilla services operated by the County Council:

Corporate Netilla is used by County Council staff accessing County Council IT systems via the public internet. Access to the system is granted by authentication using a keyfob in conjunction with normal County Council network login details.

NHS Netilla is used by NHS staff to grant access to County Council systems from a PC on the NHS network via the secure link between the networks. No keyfob is required for this service.

As soon as each service becomes available we will advise the Out of Hours Helpdesk (01223 717333) so that they can answer any queries you may have. Should you have any queries regarding the availability of services on Sunday 26 July 2009 please contact the Business Support Helpdesk on 01223 717333.

Information is posted and updated with details of upcoming Service Breaks on CamWeb. Please follow this link to go directly to the IT Service Break Information page.

Staff Data Collection Sheet

A Staff Data Collection Sheet has been developed for SIMS.net Personnel users to collect information from members of staff to populate their SIMS database.

It works in the same fashion as the Pupil Data Collection Sheet, and this will prove useful as the B2B Personnel Roll Out is now in full swing. It is imperative that up-to-date information is kept on your school staff for reporting and School Workforce Census purposes.

Click the links below to download the files:

Staff Data Collection Sheet - SIMS Report File: Click the link and save the zip file to a folder of your choice. You will then need to rename the file as follows: "staff datacheck personnel 7.RptDef". This renamed file can then be imported into SIMS.net via Reports, Import.

Staff Data Collection Sheet - Word Document: This is a blank version of the report file above. This can be printed out and emailed/faxed as needed and filled in manually. The completed sheets can then be handed to the SIMS adminsitrator for data entry.

Results Day Survival Kit 2009

News for the school's Exams Officer: The new Results Day Survival Kit 2009 notes have been uploaded to the SIMS Home Page.

Click here to download the notes now.

These and other SIMS notes are available on the SIMS Home Page.

New SIMS Helpsheets

Due to the updated appearance of SIMS.net's homepage, new SIMS helpsheets have been issued to reflect the new look.

These have been uploaded to the SIMS Home Page for your convenience. Click here to see the full list - the new helpsheets are shown as bold.

These and other helpsheets are available on the SIMS Home Page - keep checking the blog and SIMS news for further updates!

Centrally Hosted Schools and Backups

Some confusion seems to exist with some schools over the need for backups after migrating to Central Hosting.

All data that is Centrally Hosted such as SIMS .net, FMS etc. is backed up centrally. However a lot of school data is still held on the File Server in the school, all the student folders, in some schools staff share has not been migrated, and much more.

It is therefore ESSENTIAL that schools continue backing up their File Servers regularly, take the tapes home, rotate them properly, clean the tape drives and report failures.

SIMS .net and Swine Flu

Guidance from the DCSF can be found on the Teachernet Website.

Key points for schools, group early-years and childcare settings are:

• Ensure parents’ and carers’ contact details are up to date
  
• Review infection control procedures


• Prepare plans for keeping children’s learning going if the school or setting has to be closed for a period

Full guidance and Q & A from the Department can be accessed at the teachernet website.

SIMS 2009 June Main Release

The release of this upgrade has been delayed. We are hoping to be able to release it to schools before the end of Term.

It is an important upgrade containing a number of fixes and enhancements, particularly in the areas of Assessment, Cover 7, Exams Organiser and Profiles.

This release also contains the software for the School Autumn Census as well as the base software for Dinner Money 7 for Primary Schools, (this will not be visible until the licence is released to individual schools as they receive training for this new application).

Dinner Money 1.40

Please remember pupils leaving your school in July will not appear in Dinner Money in September so any debits or credits for these pupils must be handled now. The Dinner Money year end notes are available on the Dinner Money Planet on the Portal.

There are two sets of notes - one for schools who are centrally hosted and one for schools who are not. The actual closing down of Dinner Money takes only a few minutes and should be done before 31st August - ideally on the last day of term after you have completed all your transactions and created your cat form.

You may also consider printing off statements for pupils who have a debt at the end of the year as these statements will be inaccessible after closedown. Also on the Dinner Money planet are two text files - one for the 2009/10 term dates and one for the new meal charges. Please do use these files when setting up your dinner money in September. Schools who do not import these files and type the information in by hand often subsequently encounter date-related errors.

Schools Workforce Census

The DCSF have just announced a change to the guidance on recording absence for census. In particular, the requirement to record training absence has been dropped. There are a number of other minor clarifications, summarised in section 1.2 of the guidance. Schools that have used this code can continue to do so but it will not be collected by DCSF. DCSF will also be contacting schools directly about this.

In October, the workforce census will collect qualification data. Detailed guidance can be found in the V6 DCSF document on the portal (resource 4465) but in summary:

For teachers: record qualifications at degree level or above that have been obtained since qualification, e.g. MTL, MEd, PhD, etc.

For TAs: record any qualifications in maths or science at degree level or above if those staff are involved in maths or science.

The full DCSF guidance notes are to be found in on the portal, resource 4465. Schools are advised to download these and read section 1.2, then other sections as relevant.

B2B Personnel

The project to activate B2B Personnel and import Staff Contracts into SIMS .net has now begun.

All schools should have received an e-mail about this project from the ICT Helpline on 18th June. The Capita manual for using B2B has been posted on the SIMS Home Page on the Portal.

Secondary Schools Workforce Census

Autumn Curriculum Census - All secondary schools will have to run a report from within the School Workforce Census in SIMS .net in October to provide information on Staff and Curriculum within the school.

To this end, the patch necessary to activate the School Workforce Census will be released to secondary schools with the next SIMS upgrade.

Helpline at the E2BN Conference

Members of the ICT Helpline appeared at the E2BN Conference at Wyboston Lakes on 23/24th June.

During the course of the two days we were visited by staff from schools across the region who were interested to learn more about the services we provide.

Key Dates Sept - Nov 2009

• FMS6 for New Users - 8th & 17th (WB)
  
• ToPP Autumn Marksheets and Grids - 29th Sept & 1st Oct (WB)
  
• eyeProfile - 10th & 22nd Sept (WB)
  
• ToPP and Target Setting using Primary Target Tracker - 15th Sept (WB), 19th Oct (G)
  
• FMS Equipment Register - 23rd Sept (WB)
  
• Managing Student Data — Basic SIMS - 5th & 9th Oct (G)
  
• RAISEonline Data Management - 8th, 12th Oct (G)
  
• SIMS reporting (Primary Schools) - 22nd Oct (W)
  
• Budget Adjusting & Profiling - 30th Sept (G), 14th & 21st Oct (WB)
  
• Impulse Conferences - 17th (BMC), 18th (OC), 25th (CPDC) Nov

(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

Central Hosting - Down this Sunday

We have just been advised by Corporate IT that the main Cambridge Network Router is being upgraded on Sunday 5th July.

This means that no centrally hosted services will be available for most of Sunday.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

Scheduled Sunday ICT Service Break 5.7.09

This coming Service break NTL will be carrying out extensive upgrades to our network which will result in the following:

• All CCC sites will be down with the exception of Shire Hall Campus
  
• Swift and TCO will be unavailable from CCC sites other than Shire Hall due to the network upgrades above
  
• Libraries will have no access to any of their systems due to the network upgrades above
  
• One Vision will be down all day due to a major upgrade and testing
  
• Netilla will still work for everyone however One Vision will be unavailable for the reasons given above

This weekends Service Break work is scheduled from 8am until 6pm on Sunday.

Network upgrades
All CCC sites will be down with the exception of Shire Hall Campus due to essential work on the network being carried out by NTL.

Swift and TCO
Due to the above network maintenance, Swift and TCO will only be available to those working from Shire Hall site or Netilla.

One Vision
ONE and One Net will be unavailable on Sunday due to the system being upgraded to the latest software version.

Libraries Systems
There will be no access to libraries systems during the Service Break on Sunday.Remote Access Services

Netilla will still work for everyone. However, One Vision will be unavailable for the reasons given above.

For your information there are two Netilla services operated by the County Council:

Corporate Netilla is used by County Council staff accessing County Council IT systems via the public internet. Access to the system is granted by authentication using a keyfob in conjunction with normal County Council network login details.

NHS Netilla is used by NHS staff to grant access to County Council systems from a PC on the NHS network via the secure link between the networks. No keyfob is required for this service.

As soon as each service becomes available we will advise the Out of Hours Helpdesk (01223 717333) so that they can answer any queries you may have. Should you have any queries regarding the availability of services on Sunday 5 July 2009 please contact the Business Support Helpdesk on 01223 717333.

Information is posted and updated with details of upcoming Service Breaks on CamWeb. Please follow this link to go directly to the IT Service Break Information page.