End of Year 2011 Secondary Pastoral

End of Year Secondary Pastoral SIMS End of Year 2011 Secondary - Pastoral for Northamptonshire Schools Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral Check List Page Introduction Page Creating a System Manager backup………………………………………………………… Page Prior to the start of the New Year Check Sims is the correct Version Page Record Changes to Teaching Staff Page Create the New Academic Year Page Set up Next Year‟s Pastoral Structure Page 12 Check National Curriculum Years Page 15 Adding New Year groups Page 16 Adding/Editing Registration groups Page 17 Deleting a Class Page 19 Set up Intake/Admission Groups Page 20 Adding Applicants Page 22 Import Common Transfer Files (CTF) Page 24 Moving Applicants between Intake/Admission Groups Page 25 10 Record Leavers Page 26 11 Other Schools – Destinations………………………………………………………… Page 29 12 Creating CTF file (Common Transfer Files) Page 30 13 Set Up the Promotion Mapping for the Next Academic Year Page 32 14 Allocate Applicants Registration groups and Admitting Applicants Page 36 15 Print Registration Group Lists for Next Year Page 39 16 Applying the Timetable Page 40 17 Lesson Monitor Tasks Page 42 18 Additional Attendance and Lesson Monitor Tasks Page 43 19 SIMS Learning Gateway Page 44 20 Essential Housekeeping Page 45 After the New Year has Started Record any Re-admissions ……………………………………………… ……………… Page 49 Further Housekeeping Tasks……………………………………………………………… Page 50 Appendix – Changing Horizontal and Vertical Structures Page 62 Appendix – 2011/2012 Term Dates Page 66 Appendix – Edit an Academic Year Page 67 Appendix – Address Tidy Page 68 Appendix – Leaving Dates and Impact on Course Manager Page 76 Appendix – CTF Matching Page 78 Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral End of Year Preparation Check List This section provides a check list of the actions that form part of the end of year process Routines that MUST be carried BY the 31st August 2011  Create a System Manager backup  Check Sims is at the latest version  Record changes to teaching staff as soon as they are known  Create the New Academic Year  Setup next year‟s pastoral structure  Set up new Intake/Admission groups  Adding Applicants  Import CTF‟s (Common Transfer Files) as appropriate  Allocate students to registration groups  Record leavers (See appendix for advice on leaving dates)  Export CTF‟s (Common Transfer Files)  Set up the Promotion Mapping for the Next Academic Year  Print class lists for next year  Admit Applicants  Apply the Timetable  Attendance/Lesson Monitor Tasks  SIMS Learning Gateway  Essential Housekeeping Routines to be carried out after the start of the new academic year st September 2011  Re-admit any returning students  Attendance/Lesson Monitor Tasks  Assessment Tasks  Further Housekeeping Routines Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral Introduction This booklet describes the initial steps that should be followed to enable a successful transition from one academic year to another You MUST complete the specified procedures BEFORE the start of the new academic year It is important that in order for the End of Year to complete successfully, your system is tidied prior to the End of Year processes A check list of the processes to be completed is included in this book, not all schools will need to complete all processes If you should need any assistance whilst completing the processes detailed in this book then please contact the Capita ict Helpdesk on (01604) 824999 Creating a Backup Before you start the Preparation Processes, it is necessary to take a System Manager backup of your data, irrespective of whether a backup was completed the night before IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU HAVE EXCLUSIVE USE OF THE SIMS SYSTEM FOR THIS PROCESS To create a backup you will need to liaise with someone who has System Manager access to Sims From within Sims open the System Manager Module (System), by clicking on Focus | System, close the Welcome Screen and take the route Tools | Create Backup Enter a Backup Description (e.g EOY Preparation) and click Create A warning will appear explaining that a new backup will be created Click OK to continue This process, depending on your system, will take approx 10 - 15 minutes The message box will disappear once the backup has been created NOTE You may want to make further backups as you proceed with the process – especially if you are completing tasks over a period of time Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral Check Sims is the correct version Before commencing any of the tasks in this book please ensure that you have upgraded to the latest version of Sims (Version 7.138 or above) In order to check this, open Sims, login when prompted and take the route Help | About Sims Ensure your Sims version is 7.138 or above If not then some of the functionality required for the End of Year Procedures may not be available to you and you should contact the Capita ict Helpdesk on (01604) 824999 before continuing  Completed PLEASE NOTE – All the examples of screens in this book relate to Version 7.138, you may have already moved to a subsequent version, and some screens may have updated as a result Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral Record Changes to Staff The details of all new staff joining the school should be recorded as soon as the information is available It is important to note that any staff used on the timetable requires additional information to be entered to ensure a successful transfer of the timetable into SIMS Further information is outlined in the Academic Year End documentation Any existing staff that are leaving the school should be allocated leaving dates These tasks can be done through Focus | Person | Staff You may have to liaise with the correct person in your school in order to establish that this has been done You may have to return to this section again as more staff information becomes available NOTE: Details of these changes should be made in Personnel within SIMS Please remember to issue Data Collection Sheets to all Staff at the beginning of September As this data is confidential these must be issued in sealed envelopes  Completed Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral Create the New Academic Year All schools will need to follow this procedure, as this information creates Attendance records for every student due to be on roll in the following year This process allows you to define the start and end dates for each of the school terms, together with dates for public holidays and staff training days IMPORTANT NOTES: This procedure requires a great deal of resource on your system therefore we recommend that you have exclusive use of your SIMS system before embarking on this process Please be aware that the process can take some time Capita ict recommends you create your Academic Year with a start date of st September 2011 For any subsequent changes to an Academic Year please refer to Appendix (pg67) Promotion of students into New Year groups, etc occurs automatically on the first day of the first term of the new academic year, regardless of whether students will attend school on this day Click on Routines | School | Academic Year Click Next to start the wizard The first page of the wizard requires you to define the working week The default selection should be correct for all Northamptonshire LA schools Ensure the correct days and sessions are  Click Next for the following screen Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral The next screen prompts you to specify the start and end dates of the terms within the Academic Year you are about to create Term dates for 2011/2012 are included in Appendix (Page 66) for your information In order to filter effectively within your SIMS system (Assessment and Analysis) it is import to name Autumn, Spring and Summer Terms as shown in the following graphics) Choose Autumn Term from the drop down menu and enter appropriate start and end dates – see Appendix Overtype Term Holiday to state Autumn Term Holiday Enter relevant dates for each term manually or click onto the field you wish to enter a date for, use the drop down arrow and use the Calendar to select the required date Once completed select Next If there are errors on the screen, the Next button will not be available for selection Check for messages in the box under the list of terms for more details Select the Preview check box to view a summary of the data you have entered so far This enables you to thoroughly check the details of the Academic Year as you go along before finally committing to create it NOTE: It is also possible to manually enter dates into relevant date fields using the format ddmmyy, eg 010911 Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral The next screen is where the Half-term holidays used to be set up This screen is no longer used in Northamptonshire so should be left blank Select Next to continue To define a Teacher Training Day click the Add button and select Staff Training Day Enter the relevant date then click on OK Repeat this process for each of the Training Days These dates are specified in Appendix (page 66) When you have entered the details for your teacher training days, click the Next button to display the page entitled Define public holidays Again, if the Next button is not available, check for messages in the box under the list of training days Due to the fact that the Academic Year starts on 1st September but students are not expected to attend until at least the 6th September it is necessary to add Pre Academic Year Holiday dates for the 1st and 2nd of September Add the dates as shown Select Next 10 Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral The text colour of the check indicates as follows: Checks shown in Black – no problems are found Checks shown in Blue – problems found but fixed automatically Checks shown in MAROON – problems found and not fixed NOTE: If any Maroon errors are encountered please contact the Capita ict helpdesk on 01604 824999 Close Sims  Completed Sims End of Year 2011 65 End of Year Secondary Pastoral APPENDIX Academic Year Dates – 2011/2012 Term - (Autumn Term) st Term Start Date MONDAY September 2011 Close FRIDAY 21 October 2011 Re-open TUESDAY Close FRIDAY 16 December 2011 Re-open WEDNESDAY January 2012 Close FRIDAY 10 February 2012 Re-open MONDAY 20 Close FRIDAY 30 March 2012 Re-open TUESDAY 17 April 2012 Close FRIDAY June 2012 Re-open MONDAY 11 Close FRIDAY 20 July 2012 st Term – (Autumn Term 2) nd November 2011 th Term – (Spring Term) th th Term – (Spring Term 2) th February 2012 th Term – (Summer Term) th st Term – (Summer Term 2) th June 2012 th Training Days th September 2011 st 31 October 2011 rd January 2012 th 16 April 2012 rd 23 July 2012 There is one further training day to be arranged by agreement with all schools in the area or cluster, within the dates outlined above Bank Holidays th May 2012 Further information regarding 2011/2012 term dates can be found on NCC‟s website: http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/en/councilservices/EducationandLearning/Parents/Attend/Documents /PDF%20Documents/School%20Term%20Dates%202011-2012.pdf 66 Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral APPENDIX Editing an Academic Year For those school who have already set up the 2011/2012 Academic Year and have not amended the Academic Year to take into account the change to six terms, please follow the guidance below:  Route Routines | School | Edit Academic Year Select Next The wizard will guide you through the process which is exactly the same as described in Section (Create the New Academic Year) Term dates for 2011/2012 are included in Appendix for your information Sims End of Year 2011 67 End of Year Secondary Pastoral APPENDIX Address Tidy Address Tidy Routine Over time the School SIMS database may have been updated by different administrators, as a result some addresses may have been duplicated and caused some contacts to have a different instance of the same address To resolve these issues you can use the SIMS Bulk Address Tools The Tidy and Merge Addresses Wizard tidies addresses that have not been entered into the database in a consistent manner Viewing the Address Tidy and Merge Set-up Options To View the Address Tidy and Merge Setup Options Select Tools | Setups | Address Tidy and Merge Setup 68 Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral It is possible to de-activate any of the rules by deselecting the check box in the Active column We recommend you deselect Z1 - Upper case the town Click the Save button to save the changes Address Tidy Wizard Select Tools | Housekeeping | Bulk Address Tools | Tidy and Merge Addresses This will launch the Address Tidy Wizard You are presented with two options: Skip to Merge or Tidy Report Sims End of Year 2011 69 End of Year Secondary Pastoral Note the Warning Message, it is asking you to carefully read the Tidy Report that will be generated before continuing with the tidying To view the report click Tidy Report The wizard will then generate the Tidy Report as a HTML report; this may take a few minutes depending upon how many addresses need to be changed The report will open in a new screen (you may need to look on the task bar if the report runs minimised, for example, or elsewhere on the computer desktop) You will see a report similar to that shown in the graphic on the following page 70 Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral You can print or save the report so that you can read through it before you continue with the tidy operation To print the report, click the Printer icon To save the report, click the Page icon, choose a file type and destination to save it to – remember that this contains personal data so it should be saved to a secure location not to the desktop Once you have checked what will happen when you proceed with the Tidy tool you can close the report The Address Tidy Report Wizard will now have changed, the Tidy Report button will be replaced by the Tidy button Click the Tidy button to complete the Address Tidy routine Sims End of Year 2011 71 End of Year Secondary Pastoral When the wizard has completed the editing it will move on to the Merge routines At this point you can choose to Cancel the Wizard or continue with the Merge Report To view the report, click the Merge Report button The wizard will then generate the Merge Report as a HTML report, this may take a few minutes depending upon how many addresses need to be merged The report will open in a new screen (you may need look on the task bar if the report runs minimised, for example, or elsewhere on the computer desktop) You will see a report similar to that shown in the following graphic 72 Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral You can print or save the report so that you can read through it before you continue with the merge operation To print the report, click the Printer icon To save the report, click the Page icon, choose a file type and destination to save it to – remember that this contains personal data so it should be saved to a secure location not to the desktop Once you have checked what will happen when you proceed with the Merge tool you can close the report The Merge Report Wizard will now have changed, the Merge Report button will be replaced by the Merge button Click the Merge button to continue The software will merge the addresses as per the Merge Report – this may take some time to complete depending upon how much data needs to be changed Whilst it is undertaking this change the wizard may suggest that it is not responding, however it is doing the editing so wait until the wizard has completed the editing Sims End of Year 2011 73 End of Year Secondary Pastoral When the wizard has completed the merging of addresses, click the Finish button Click the Yes button to close the wizard 74 Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral Unmatchable Addresses Report After running the Address Tidy and Merge routine, there may still be addresses in the system that could not be matched / tidied The following report will identify these Go to Tools | Housekeeping | Bulk Address Tools | Unmatchable Address Report You will see a report similar to that shown in the following graphic Unmatchable Address Report Unmatched Address Residents 23 Peak Drive [Cnt] Yoo, Mr Charlie for Yoo, Aiden Riverside Place Barry CF63 2NY [xSt] Goodchild, Fi Fi Victoria Red House Close Newton Longville Milton Keynes Buckinghamshire MK17 0AH [Cnt] HUGHES, Mrs for Timmins, Shula Mary Pridmore Close Woodnewton Peterborough Northamptonshire PE8 5EY [xSt] Duncan, Jo Kathryn Pride Hill East Town Eastshire SI1 1DP [xSt] DUNCAN, Alice Felicity You can print or save the report To print the report, click the Printer icon To save the report, click the Page icon, choose a file type and destination to save it to – remember that this contains personal data so it should be saved to a secure location not to the desktop Sims End of Year 2011 75 End of Year Secondary Pastoral APPENDIX Leaving Dates and Impact on Course Manager Future or Retrospective Leaving Dates: Course Manager reacts in different ways dependent on whether the leaving date is recorded in SIMS before, or after the student‟s actual leaving date  Method Retrospective Leaving date o The student who has been given a retrospective leaving date has that recorded as the End Date and a Planned End Date for the course (which was the original End Date) They also have a Status entered of Withdrawn Census will pick this information up correctly and report the Start Date, End Date and Planned End Date and Completion Status as Displayed This is correct information for the return Census will not report any errors All other courses of which they were a member will be treated in the same way  Method Future Leaving date o The student given the Leaving Date in advance has that Leaving Date recorded in the End Date column The Planned End Date will be updated to reflect the End Date and no entry in the Status column Census will pick this information up and therefore will give a Completion Status of Completed Census will not report any errors All other courses of which they were a member will be treated in the same way The two methods need careful consideration Method is best practice as it avoids confusion which may arise from giving a leaving date in advance, if the student changes their mind and stays Method is correct if the student left the school after starting the courses and associated learning aims The Planned Completion Date for these learning aims will still be some way off; therefore the student on leaving has withdrawn from the learning aim Method is correct if the student has completed the learning aim somewhat earlier than the other students and it was always the intention that they left at this point Method is correct for students leaving the school at the end of the academic year, but before the End Date as recorded in the Course Membership panel arising from the Academic Class Memberships, i.e the school considers that they officially leave the school at the completion of their exams They have completed their learning aims and the status will be set as completed if the students are given a leaving date in advance Method will be incorrect if the student has completed the learning aim as a result of resitting In this case the Planned End Date should now be adjusted to match the End Date and a Status set to Re-sit This would have to be repeated for all the other courses of which she or he was a member In Summary - Student Leavers If the student has completed the learning aim in normal circumstances, i.e not a re-sit: 76 Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral   The Leaving Date is in the future – assign a Leaving Date in advance and Course Manager data will not need adjusting Use this method for making the Year Group leave at the end of the year Census will assign a Completion Status of Completed for the learning aims This is the recommended method for dealing with Year 13 Leavers The Leaving Date has passed – assign the Leaving Date and in Course Manager for all courses, remove the Planned End Date and the Status entry Census will assign a Completion Status of Completed for the learning aims This will be a time consuming exercise, especially for a year group at the end of an academic year, as each individual Learning Aim will need to be amended for every student If they have re-sat the learning aim and:   The Leaving Date is in the future - assign a Leaving Date in advance and adjust the data in Course Manager for all courses to show the same End Date and Planned End Date and select Re-sit as the Status The Leaving Date has passed - assign the Leaving Date and in Course Manager adjust the data for all courses to show the same End Date and Planned End Date and select Re-sit as the Status If the student has not completed their learning aims and:   The leaving date is in the future - assign the Leaving Date in advance but you will need to manually edit Course Memberships for all courses to indicate an appropriate Planned End Date and End Date and a Status of Withdrawn The leaving date has passed - assign the Leaving Date retrospectively and Course Manager will assign a Planned End Date of the original End Date which matches other students on the course and will assign a Status of Withdrawn What Happens if the Student Returns to School and is Re-admitted? Provided the student is readmitted with a gap in their On-roll Status which is correct, i.e they left and then returned, the student can be reassigned to the original courses and Update Course Memberships can be executed The student will now have multiple course membership records with appropriate date ranges, one showing a Start Date, an End Date and a Planned End Date and Status of Withdrawn and a second showing a Start Date after the previous End Date and no Planned End Date and therefore no Status (which is correct) Census will interpret this correctly – two learning aims (which can be the same), one with a Completion Status of Withdrawn and the second showing as Continuing All the student‟s learning aims will be treated in this way Sims End of Year 2011 77 End of Year Secondary Pastoral APPENDIX CTF Matching As of the Summer release of SIMS there will be new functionality relating to importing CTF‟s Instead of the software just importing the contents of the CTF into SIMS with minimal information, the new process will improve this functionality and allow you to match any individuals in the CTF to those within SIMS, eliminating the chances of duplicating records The following is a brief description of the process, for more information please contact Capita ict Helpdesk Select Routines | Data In | CTF | Import CTF to display the normal Import CTF screen Browse to the relevant CTF and select required data fields for importing Click the Proceed For Match Import button (bottom right) to display the Match and Import panel as below: There are two panels at the bottom of this Import and Match panel The first panel contains information about the pupil that is highlighted in the CTF pupil column and is taken from the CTF file These include: UPN, Former UPN, Surname, Forename, DOB and Gender 78 Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral The second panel contains information about the cell that is highlighted in either the preadmission pupil, on roll pupil or selected pupil column If the student selected does not have any conflicting errors with SIMS the following graphic is displayed: NB If there are errors (e.g invalid UPN, or different date of birth, etc) then these will be highlighted to you in a screen similar to the above example When you are satisfied with the selections that you have made, you can import the CTF by clicking the Import CTF button The exception log displays any errors found during the import as usual Sims End of Year 2011 79 ... Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral All the processes covered so far in this document MUST be carried out BEFORE the start of the Academic Year – 31st August 2011 Sims End of Year. .. Page 68 Appendix – Leaving Dates and Impact on Course Manager Page 76 Appendix – CTF Matching Page 78 Sims End of Year 2011 End of Year Secondary Pastoral End of Year Preparation... Sims End of Year 2011 11 End of Year Secondary Pastoral Set up Next Year' s Pastoral Structure Next academic year? ??s pastoral structure will have been set up when you created the new Academic Year