FMS - Direct Payments from Bank Account

Schools will now be able to lodge direct payments to some suppliers such as utility companies etc straight from the Internet screen.

The advantages of such payments lie in their speed since payment can be ensured within three days and sometimes can happen the next day. Such payments will then appear on the Bank Statement as normal and at that point will need to be processed into FMS.

Click here to read these notes now.

These and other finance helpsheets can be found on the Finance Planet of the SIMS Home Page.

Centrally Hosted Systems Scheduled Works

Purpose: Important Information regarding disruption to service

Audience: All School Staff

The County Data Centre in which the schools Centrally Hosted systems sit is having major upgrade work carried out over the next few months. Systems affected include centrally hosted MIS/SIMS, email and remote access.

At present we expect the following planned outages:

• 19th to 20th June - Systems will be available but users may experience temporary failures.


• 4th July - Work at Scott House: Schools in Huntingdon affected.


• 24th to 25th July - Systems will be available but users may experience temporary failures.


• 28th to 30th August - Systems unavailable.


• 11th and 12th September - Systems unavailable.

We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause users of the systems.

End of Key Stage - Statutory Returns

The deadline for End of Key Stage assessments to be submitted this year, is Friday 9th July 2010.

• Foundation Stage Profiles - CTF file to be uploaded to S2S


• KS1 Teacher Assessments - CTF file to be uploaded to S2S


• KS2 Teacher Assessments - CTF to be uploaded to the QCDA Website
  
• KS3 Teacher Assessments - CTF to be uploaded to the QCDA Website

The FSP CTF should be named in the format 873????_ctf_873LLLL.nnn.xml where ???? is your school’s DFES number.

The KS1 CTF should have a destination of Cambridgeshire and therefore a filename in the format 873????_ctf_873LLLL.nnn.xml.

The KS2 and KS3 CTF should have a destination of NAA and filename in the format 873nnnn_ctf_NAALLLL.nnn.xml.

The web address for KS2 and KS3 files is: http://ncatools.qcda.gov.uk/home.aspx

Guidance notes on End of Key Stage Procedures are available for download from the Assessment Planet from the SIMS Home Page on the Portal.

Assessment and Reporting Arrangement notes are available from the Data Collection area of the ONEVision Website on the Portal.

SIMS Accreditation

It does not seem possible that 2 years have passed since we last went through the Accreditation Process with Capita which allows us to continue to support schools’ use of SIMS.

However, 2 years have indeed passed and the accreditation process has begun once again.
Capita will be sending a survey directly to schools to seek their opinion of the support provided by Education ICT Service. This is a very important part of the process— we can’t be accredited without your survey responses. Your feedback is as always an essential part of improving our service.

We would be very grateful if you could find a few minutes to complete this on-line Survey.

• The Survey should only take 10-15 minutes to complete. A Word version of the survey can be provided for schools who
  need to collate the responses of several staff—please contact the Helpline.


• There is a prize draw for all schools who complete the survey before the end date. (The prize being a digital camera!)


• The survey will be sent out directly from Capita from Monday 14th June and run for two weeks - a reminder will be sent to those schools who have not replied within a week.


• The password which schools will need to access the survey and instructions on how to complete it, will be sent via email directly from Capita - Any schools experiencing problems with their password can contact the webmaster via : http://support.capitaes.co.uk/accreditation/


• Capita can only accept one return from each school.

New Education ICT Service Sales Website

The Education ICT Service Sales Team have launched a new website:

http://sales.cambsed.net/

This website contains up to date pricing information about equipment and services that the ICT Service offers to schools.

You can now create your own instant quotes and place orders online after a simple automated sign up process.

The site will continue to be developed to include advice and guidance about the types of equipment commonly used in schools, offering comparisons to enable schools to make informed decisions about ICT purchases.

Year End Procedures in SIMS .net

Guidance notes on preparing SIMS .net for the next academic year are available for download from the SIMS Home Page on the Portal.

Preparations can be made now, it is not necessary to wait until the end of the Summer Term.

The ONEVision team have uploaded CTF files to S2S for Secondary Schools which contain details of their new intake for September 2010. Primary Schools that would like to receive a CTF file of their new intake should request one from ONEVision.

Ensure staff inputting data on new students have received proper training for using SIMS .net.

If data is not input correctly this will have a knock on affect on the School Census and the correct functioning of SIMS and may result in large amounts of time being spent identifying and correcting data errors at a later date.

For users who have not performed the year end procedures before, there are courses available on 6th, 8th and 13th July.

E2BN Conference 2010

A two day conference and exhibition for heads, teachers and everyone interested in the impact of new technologies.

Conference details:

The Robinson Centre, Wyboston, Beds MK44 3AR

29th and 30th June 2010

This year's conference 'This Generation's Learning' will look at learner entitlement and how ICT has been used across the curriculum to offer new challenges to pupils of all abilities, both in school and at home.

Guest Speaker: - Sir Bob Geldof

For more information visit http://www.e2bn.org/

Weekly and Monthly Tasks in SIMS .net

Below is a suggested list of tasks that need carrying out on a weekly/monthly or a periodical task we are suggesting is carried out during the coming month that over time will lead to improvements in your school’s data quality.

Helpline guidance notes for these tasks can be found on the SIMS Home Page of the Portal - the index offers an easy way of identifying the guidance you are looking for. Alternatively why not use the Documentation Link from the Home Page in SIMS .net.

Weekly Checks Tick sheet
[] Personnel - Record Staff Absence
[] Personnel - Review Changes - Send All
[] Attendance - Deal with Missing Marks
[] Attendance - Deal with ‘N’ Codes
[] Dinner Money - Print Debtors & Creditors

This Month’s Checks Tick sheet
[] If End of Key Stage Wizards for 2010 have not yet been imported into SIMS .net, import them now.
[] Ensure Version 3.1 of eProfile is running on all machines recording Foundation Stage Profiles
[] Tidy End of Key Stage Wizard (tick as complete old wizards)
[] Next Academic Year has been added.
[] Pre-admission groups for September created.
[] Tidy old pre-admission groups (remove the tick from active)
[] Start entering data for September Intake students.

Reminder For SQL 2008 SIMS Migration

Further to our letter to schools in March, this is a reminder to ask schools what they have decided to do about the migration to SQL2008.

As you can appreciate the deadline for this is getting closer and we need to make sure all our schools have migrated before the deadline.

If you haven't already contacted the Helpline with your plans for this migration could you please do so, as you can appreciate we need to keep our project on target.

B2B Personnel

The ICT Service is about to re-establish the contract links in B2B Personnel as part of the School Workforce Census.

You will be contacted shortly about this.

Key Dates June - July 2010

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

• RAISEonline - Entering Question Level Data - 8th, 24th (WB) June
  
• Fischer Family Trust (Primary) - 15th June (WB)
  
• End of Year TOPP Analysis using Target Tracker - 17th (WB), 22nd June
  
• E2BN Conference 2010 - 29th, 30th July (Wyboston)
  
• Year End Procedures in SIMS .net (Primary) - 6th (WB), 8th, 13th July

All courses based at Godmanchester unless otherwise stated. Other venues: (OC) = Oliver Cromwell, March; (ML) = March Library; (CPDC) = Cambridge Professional Development Centre; (WB) = ICT Service Waterbeach; (BMC) = Buckden Millennium Centre; (OV) = Over Community Centre.

ICT Service - New Sales Site!

The Education ICT Service Sales Team have launched a new website:

http://sales.cambsed.net/

This website contains up to date pricing information about equipment and services that the ICT Service offers to schools. You can now create your own instant quotes and place orders online after a simple automated sign up process.

The site will continue to be developed to include advice and guidance about the types of equipment commonly used in schools, offering comparisons to enable schools to make informed decisions about ICT purchases.