School Census - COLLECT Website Changes

In order to make essential changes to the COLLECT system, including updating of the Security Certificates, the site will be unavailable on the weekend of the 11th and 12th September. The system will be available first thing on Monday 13th September.

As a result of this work the URL for COLLECT will be updated to match the new Department of Education website and will be:
https://data.education.gov.uk/COLLECTPortalLive/MainPage.aspx

instead of https://data.dcsf.gov.uk/COLLECTPortalLive/login.aspx.

The 'Old' URL for COLLECT (dcsf version) will no longer have a valid Security Certificate from 13th September and if used, will generate a warning screen to that effect.

SIMS Accreditation

The Cambridgeshire Education ICT Service is pleased to announce that it has been Accredited by Capita to continue supporting SIMS software for the next two years.

We would like to thank everyone who took the time to complete the Capita online survey during the last weeks of the summer term, which we know is such a busy time for everyone. The Helpline would particularly like to thank those who added many kind and complimentary comments on the service the Helpline provide. We look forward to continue working with you all over the next two years.

The Accreditation Presentation will take place on 16th September at Godmanchester. All Schools completing the Capita Online Survey were entered for a prize draw. Cherry Hinton Juniors were the lucky winners of the digital camera.

School Autumn Census 2010

The date for the School Autumn Census year is:

Thursday 7th October 2010

Guidance Notes are available to download from the SIMS Home Page on the Portal. The DfE - School Census Preparation and Guidance notes for 2010 are still applicable for this census.

Secondary Schools with Sixth Forms
Please note that Learning Aims are collected as a part of this Census.

A new DfE Validation Fileset will need to be imported, this is not yet available. We will make it available to schools as soon as we receive it. This file is imported from Tools \ Import Fileset, don’t forget it is necessary to close out of SIMS to make the new Validation File active.

Don’t leave it until Census Day to run your Census, start work as soon as possible so that there is time to check numbers (eg. SEN, part-time pupils, learning aims) and clear any queries or errors.

Create a dummy file and upload to the familiarisation website. Then come Census Day it will only be necessary to authorise the return and upload it.

Central Hosting Version 2

The central hosting system has been in use since 2007 and some aspects are in need of an upgrade. Over the last weeks of last term a few schools tested out this upgrade and we are now ready to roll this out to schools generally, with the aim of moving all schools to the new version by the end of term.

The most significant change is that version 2 includes Office 2007 and as now, schools have to ensure they have enough Office licences to cover the ones used on Central Hosting. Schools that have purchased licences through the ICT Service can call to check how many they have. There are a number of other changes including “right clicks” that will make searching and copying easier. More details will be sent to schools in due course and are published on the Helpline Blog.

B2B Personnel

Over the summer, schools’ B2B Personnel has been reactivated, and allows schools to receive updated contract information. There may be a few items sitting in Suspense that will require clearing.

The Summer term update from EPM will be released to schools around the middle of September that will provide a significant number of further updates. The EPM Autumn term changes will be released later in the term – watch for details in Helplines and the Blog.

Junk and Scam E-mails

Scam/Phishing e-mails, Banks, Card companies or the Tax Office would not contact you/your school by e-mail and ask you to visit their website and provide data - all such e-mails should be deleted NEVER, EVER open an attachment or link. You may wish to forward a copy to Trading Standards.

Advertising e-mails, usually for embarrassing or offensive commodities or services. Although all attempts are made to stop these, some will always leak through. By all means forward the most offensive ones to the Helpline and we will attempt to block them globally but some will simply have to be deleted.

Changes in FMS

New development in FMS since version 7.128.

Journals can now show suppliers

However, selecting a supplier will limit your code selection to Expenditure Codes. This is because the supplier will only be needed when setting up a recurring journal. To use the cash Book journal in the usual way you MUST leave the supplier blank.

Bank Reconciliation in Version 7.132

The new upgrade has instituted extra security measures whereby the statement is recorded by date plus number. This causes problems where schools have been in the habit of recording each sheet of a statement as a separate statement. From now on a statement must be recorded in its entirety as a single item.

This will mean the 'statement numbers' (which are really just page numbers) will not be consecutive but you will still have the paper statement as a reference. Any attempt to record by page will cause problems with the statement’s starting balances as it now goes back to the balance at the end of the previous day for each entry.

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.

This Month’s Checks Tick sheet
[] Complete data entry for new admissions or readmissions
[] Enter Free School Meal Eligibility Dates
[] Update Mailing Points
[] Check End Dates are entered for Students moving from part time to full time (eg. Nursery to Reception)
[] Print and send out Data Collection Sheets

SIMS Learning Gateway

You will know from the letter last term concerning Harnessing Technology Grant that this project has had a significant funding cut.

However, the good news is that the project will continue on different lines and we will be letting schools know how to participate in due course.

Centrally Hosted Systems - Scheduled Works

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 outage:

11th and 12th September - Systems unavailable

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

ICT Service Helpline - Your Comments are Important to Us

The ICT Service is always pleased to receive feedback from schools, both positive and negative, as both can help us to improve the service we provide.

Please do let us have any comments or suggestions you might have for ways we could improve or extend the service we provide.

Key Dates Sep - Nov 2010

• FMS6 for New Users - 9th & 16th Sep, 5th & 13th Oct, 14th & 19th Oct, 2nd & 10th Nov (WB)
  
• ToPP - 15th Sep (WB), 21st Sep (WB)
  
• eProfile getting started - 22nd Sep (WB), 30th Sep (WB)
  
• Advanced Dinner Money 7 - 28th Sep (WB), 30th Sep (WB)
  
• FMS6 the Next Step - 29th Sep
  
• SIMS .net for New Users - 4th & 11th Oct (WB)
  
• Attendance 7 - 6th Oct (WB), 11th Nov (WB)
  
• RAISEonline Question Level Analysis - 14th Oct (WB), 21st Oct (WB)
  
• FMS Accounts Receiveable - 20th Oct (WB), 9th Nov (WB)
  
• FMS Equipment Register - 21st Oct (WB), 3rd Nov (WB)
  
• IMPULSE Conference - 16th, 18th, 23rd, 25th Nov

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

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.

Central Hosting v2 - coming soon!

The current configuration of Centrally Hosted MIS has stayed essentially the same over the last 3-4 years. While the system continues to provide an excellent service, it is starting to show its age and is need of some work in two principal areas.

At the launch, Office 2003 was the Capita-supported version and this has been in use ever since. However, from December 2010 there will be a few features that are only supported on Office 2007. This issue is likely to grow over time.

Also the “locked down desktop” that users see when they log in was necessary to preserve security for all users, based on the operating systems available at the time. We can now open up some features on the desktop (such as “right click” menus and searching) using the next generation of software. This has been in demand from a number of users.

Over the years, the ICT service has invested in software and equipment to enable this transition to take place at no additional cost to schools other than possibly Office 2007 licences (see below).
Changes for schools

Office 2007 look and feel
The “user experience” is rather different from Office 2003. Having said that, many schools have been using this for some years, but some staff may need help with the transition. There may therefore be a very modest training requirement for them.

Windows 7 desktop
The “desktop” users see when they log in will look slightly different as it will reflect the new Windows 7 system. However the desktop is kept deliberately plain for central hosting so users will not notice much change.

Office 2007 licensing
Under the terms of the agreement we have with Microsoft, schools must hold an equivalent number of Office 2003 or 2007 licences to those in use on central hosting. Any school purchasing Microsoft Office from the ICT Service since 2007 will have Office 2007 licences, even if they decided to continue using Office 2003. However, there may be some schools who do not have sufficient Office 2007 licences to cover their use of Central Hosting who will need to buy additional licences to cover their use of central hosting. The ICT Service has a record of licences purchased through them.

Compatibility of older applications
At the time of writing only one application has proved incompatible with Version 2. This is NOVA T4. However the new timetable reports in the Summer release (July 2010) make the continued use of T4 unnecessary. Capita cease support of T4 next March. If this is likely to be an issue for your school, please contact the Helpline.

SIMS Learning Gateway - New Pupil Page

In the latest upgrade to the SIMS Learning Gateway site, the "My Children" link has been revamped and is now called the "My Children Dashboard".

This new look contains active elements including news items from the homepage and parent front page, rolling information on the pupil's attendance and behaviour and any recorded incidents from the previous seven days.

As with any field in SLG, these can be edited and shown or hidden as the school desires.

Census Autumn 2010

New notes have been produced to accompany the school Autumn Census 2010 and they have been posted on the SIMS Home Page.

The new Census date is Thursday 7th October.

Click on the links below to read the notes now:

Preparing the School Census Autumn 2010:

• Primary - Special - Nursery
• Secondary

Producing the School Census Autumn 2010:

• Primary
• Secondary
• Special
• Nursery

Errors and Resolutions 2010:

• Version 5.0

Please keep checking back on the SIMS Home Page for any further updates.

Finance Scam Emails - Beware!

Schools are experiencing an increasing number of scamming e-mails purporting to come from Banks and Card companies as well as government bodies such as the Tax Office.

If there is no valid reason and you have never linked your personal with your professional business then this must be regarded as 'phishing' - trying to obtain access to either your personal or the schools accounts.

If you do have an account with this bank or company then you need to be aware that no bank will ever ask you to log onto a website to change or update details and, in this context, a bank is unlikely to suspend your account facilities because you haven't checked your details lately.

This is almost certainly a 'phishing' scam aimed at getting access to accounts. If the school has an account with the bank then contact them in the usual way to verify that all is OK. They may require you to forward the e-mail to their security department. You might also like to forward it to Trading Standards as notification of the scam.

If the school has no Account with this bank or company - this is a scam. Delete and ignore and NEVER, EVER, open and attachment or link. You might also like to forward it to Trading Standards as notification of the scam.

Recent scams

HSBC - 2 versions
1. During our regularly scheduled Database maintenance and verification procedures, We've noticed some errors in your contact information.

2. During our regular scheduled data review we notice the above account has been inactive for a couple of years
Response: Why would the bank be addressing YOU at this address? Does the school have an account at this Bank?

A foreign lawyer with concerns over a tangled will or intestate client (2 versions)
1. We attempted to use the bank details you supplied but were unable to complete the transaction. However we would like to remunerate you for……

2. We have a client with the same surname as yourself and who has died in-testate but left instructions to thwart the State seizing the estate by passing it to anyone with the same surname.
Response: Is it likely? Who has a surname of CromwellPark or ElyStMary?

The Tax Office has discovered you are entitled to a refund to the value of……….
Response: How can the school be due a refund when it pays no tax?

Junk e-mail

There are two kinds of junk e-mails - advertising and newsletters.

Advertising e-mails are usually for embarassing or offensive commodities or services. Although all attempts are made to stop these some will always leak through. By all means forward the most offensive ones to the Helpline and we will attempt to block them globally but some will simply have to be deleted.

Newsletters (and Information sheets) are circulars from companies or organisations. Usually these have a link at the bottom of the document allowing you to unsubscribe/cancel. If such a link exists then use it rather than contacting the Helpline. Usually the letter has to be subscribed to and where several users share an e-mail such as Office@ they seem to other users to be junk.

SIMS and FMS Summer release notes

The latest versions of the SIMS and FMS release notes are now available for download from the SOLUS planet of the SIMS Home Page.

Click on the links below to read the notes now:

• SIMS Summer Release 7.132


• FMS Summer Release 6.132


• SIMS Permissions Spreadsheet 7.132

These and other upgrade notes can be found on the SOLUS planet of the SIMS Home Page.