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Up-to-date information for Primary, Special and Nursery Schools.

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Primary News

SIMS Year End Procedures 2012 - Click the link to be taken to the Year End panel. 30/4/12

Personnel 7 Staff Service Terms - New files uploaded. 18/5/12

Narrowing The Gap - A new SIMS.net report is now available for reporting on Ethnicity, First Language and Service Chilldren in Education. Click the link to read more. 17/2/12

Census Summer 2012 - Click the link to view the new items. 12/4/12

School Workforce Census 2011 - New items - SWC Course Presentation, SWC 2011 Errors & Resolutions, Qualifications sheet. 14/10/11

How to import an ATF file - Click the link to read how to import an ATF file. 20/5/11

SIMS SQL 2008 Migration - Click the link to view the new SQL 2008 panel. Version 5 of the SQL migration notes have been uploaded. 29/3/10

Producing Student List and Student Analysis Reports in SIMS - These new SIMS reports will replicate the reports previously available in Nova T4. 9/4/10

Staff Absence Form - Click the link to view the new School Workforce Census section. Further documents will be added soon. 11/2/09

SIMS Address Tidy & Merge - Version 2 of these notes have been uploaded. 23/2/09

How to record a School Closure - New notes have been created to show SIMS users how to use Attendance 7 to record an enforced closure. 27/11/07

First Langauge Codes - We have come across a number of schools where the First Language codes have become deactivated. Click on the link for more. 24/10/08

Recording Parental Responsibilty - Guidance on how to record parental responsibility in your school is available in the section below. Click on the link to be redirected. 8/10/08

End of support for SIMS Modules - Click the link to read more. Amended file uploaded. 3/11/08

Updating SEN Lookups in SIMS.net - New notes have posted to guide SIMS users and SENCOs to use the correct SEN need types. 22/1/08

How to create labels in SIMS.net using Office 2003 - These new notes will guide you to create address labels and more from SIMS Reports. 27/11/07

Other SIMS Matters

SIMS How To...

Admission Form - Word doc

Resolving Family Links and Addresses

B2B Transfer of Attendance Data

Password Protocols for MIS Software

Web Address Validator Guide

Attendance Code Conversion

Profiles 7 Presentation

SIMS Modules - End of Support

B2B Pupil Attendance

SIMS SQL 2008 Migration

Click the links below to read the notes:

Updated 15th July - Version 5 of the Migration notes

Migration to SQL 2008 for Primaries - NEW VERSION 5

Prerequisites for SQL 2008 Migration

Minimum Requirements for SQL 2008 Migration

Notes for Secondary Schools can be found here.

Census Summer - Thursday 17th May 2012

Helpline Census Summer 2012 Guidance Notes:

Word Version

PDF Version

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Census 2012 Prep Notes:

Primary - Middle - Nursery - Special

CAPITA Preparing the Census Summer 2012 Notes:

Primary/Special/Nursery - Word PDF

CAPITA Producing the Census Summer 2012 Notes:

Primary - Word PDF

Nursery - Word PDF

Special - Word PDF

Errors & Resolutions

Errors & Resolutions Summer 2012 v2

COLLECT website

Read the notes below, then click on the link to access the COLLECT website.

PLEASE NOTE: The link to the COLLECT website has changed. It is now https://collectdata.education.gov.uk/CollectPortalLive/login.aspx

COLLECT Website Notes - Link to COLLECT website

School Workforce Census 2011

School Workforce Census Main Page

NEW! Producing the School Workforce Census - PDF

Personnel Handbook - Click the link to read the processes behind recording and reporting on staff details in SIMS.net.

NEW! SWC Course Powerpoint - Click the link to view the powerpoint presentation shown on the School Workforce Census training course.

NEW! SWC COLLECT User Guide - Notes on how to upload your completed School Workforce Census to the COLLECT site.

NEW! Qualifications Sheet - To help you complete the qualifications area in Staff Details, ask your staff to fill in the sheet which maps directly with the qualification types available in SIMS.

DfE School Workforce Census 2011 - PDF

NEW! SWC 2011 Errors & Resolutions - The latest errors & resolutions are covered in the following document:

Errors & Resolutions - PDF

Staff Qualifications - The School Workforce Census requires qualification information for certain members of staff. Click on the links below to read how to add this information, available in two formats:

Staff Qualifications - Word Format

Staff Qualifications - PDF Format

Staff Absence Form - This is a handy form for school administrators to collect staff absence information for inputting into SIMS Personnel. This form is available in Word or Adobe Acrobat PDF format, click the files below to download:

Staff Absence Form - Word Format

Staff Absence Form - PDF Format

Staff Data Collection Sheet - To make sure your personnel information is up-to-date, you can use the report file and word document below:

Staff Data Collection Sheet - RPTDEF file

To import this report file into SIMS.net, right-click on the icon above and select "Save Target As...", and choose where to save the file".

Once you have saved the zip file, locate this and right-click on it to select "Extract All" (Central Hosting Version 1 users will need to single-click to select the file, then click on File and Extract All)

The extracted rptdef file can then be imported into SIMS.net via Reports | Import.

PLEASE NOTE that once the report is populated with staff information, this document will then become STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL and in the interests of data protection this document should not be disseminated to other parties in either paper or electronic format.

COLLECT Familiarisation site - Click the link to be directed to the test site for uploading your School Workforce Census return.

Year End Procedures 2012

Please note the Year End 2012 notes are subject to change, please check back regularly for updates.

Year End Procedures in SIMS 2012 - Version 1 - uploaded 30th April 2012. Click the links below to download the notes:

Year End 2012 - Word Format

Year End 2012 - PDF Format

Capita Year End Procedures 2012 - Capita Notes. Please click on the links below to read these notes:

Primary
Summary

Primary
Detailed

How to Import an ATF file - Click the link to read the helpsheet. If you have any queries about this procedure, please contact the helpline.

Parental Responsibilty - Guidance

Click on the links below:

Parentline Guidance

Teachernet Guidance

DCSF Guidance

Link to Parentline website

First Language Codes

First Language Lookups

Please check that the extended list of First Language Lookups is still active in SIMS. We have come across a number of schools where all the First Language Codes have become deactivated. If when you click on the drop down next to First Language in a Student's Details, or if you look at the actual First Language lookup list (Tools | Lookups | Maintain | First Language) only the very limited list including Other than English, Believed to be English appears, then the complete list needs to be reactivated. This can be achieved quite easily.

Download the First Language Lookup zip file appropriate to your school from the link below. This file does not require unzipping. In SIMS use the route Tools | Lookups | Import Lookups. Browse for the saved file, highlight the file and click open.. Click on the Import button at the top left of the screen.

Primary.zip

Special.zip

Personnel 7 Staff Service Terms

New file uploaded - 18.5.12. The latest Service Terms/Pay Awards are now available for importing into Personnel. They are specific for school type so please ensure you select the correct file. These files will import into SIMS version 7.144.

There are no pay awards this year but the files do contain the latest NI table. There are two files for each sector - Primary, Secondary and Special and schools must download BOTH the xml and the xml signature. Both files are contained in a ZIP file - notes on how to extract files from ZIP can be found below.

Both Central Hosting and Non-Central Hosting schools will need to apply this file.

The files need to be copied down to somewhere on your system so that they can be found when working in SIMS. Users will then need to sign into SIMS and click on Tools | Staff | Pay Related Import and then locate the file - they should see only one although both will be combined by the import.

The only way to test if the import has worked is to view the National Insurance table - Tools | Staff | National Insurance Rates. If you click on Search you should see that the current table has a start date of 06/04/12.

How to import the new Service Terms - click on the link to read the notes, then download the relevant zip file below.

Primary

Special

How to use WinZip - Camtasia Video - For those users unfamiliar with unzipping files, click on the link above and watch the video.

How to unpack files on the Centrally Hosted MIS - Camtasia Video - For CH MIS users, click on the link above and watch the video.