PRE-ADMISSION PUPILS

IN SIMS.NET

SECONDARY GUIDANCE

2014/2015

BOOKLET 2 OF 5 IN THE SECONDARY END OF ACADEMIC YEAR SERIES

Contents

INTRODUCTION

SETTING UP ADMISSION GROUPS

ADDING APPLICANT DETAILS VIA CTF

ADDING APPLICANTS FROM NON MAINTAINED SCHOOLS

  1. INTRODUCTION

This booklet has been put together to help schools prepare for September’s intake and contains instructions for creating pre-admission groups, importing pupils via CTF and adding pupil data manually.

Please note, before you begin any of the tasks within this document please ensure that the academic year has been created, instructions for which were contained within the document Preparing for 2015/2016 Timetable and Using Options sent out in March.

A further CTF containing teacher assessment results should be sent from feeder schools once the results for the school have been validated and accepted by the Welsh Government. If you don’t receive these results by mid July, please ask for them from your feeder schools.

  1. SETTING UP ADMISSION GROUPS

Admission groups (previously known as pre-admission groups) effectively act as a ‘holding area’ for all pupils expecting to be admitted to the school in September 2015. One admission group should be created every academic year for each year group where there is to be an intake of new pupils. For example one admission group should be created in 2015 for year 7 pupils entering the school in September and another one for year 12 pupils entering the school.

Create a new admission group by going to:

  • Routines > Admission > Admission Groups > Setup

The Admission Group Details page is displayed.

  • Click New.

The intake group, specific to the year group, season (in this case Autumn) and academic year must first be defined then the admission group(s) for that year group, season and academic year can be created and attached.

  • Check the correct academic year is displayed in the Admission Year field, use the drop down arrow alongside the field to select the correct one if this is not the case.
  • Select the Autumnadmission season using the drop down arrow alongside the Admission Season field.
  • Select the year group that pupils will be entering by using the drop down arrow alongside the Year Group field.
  • Click into the Name field, this will then be populated with a name compiled from the admission year, season and year group.
  • Enter the number of pupils expected for the intake for that year group in the Planned Admission field - this is now mandatory and is used to track applicants to ensure you not exceed your quota, therefore it is better to overestimate the numbers.
  • Ensure that the Active check box is ticked.

Now that the intake group has been defined the admission groups for that year group and season can be created and attached.

  • Click the New button within the Admission Groups panel to create the first admission group.

  • Enter the name for the admission group by typing directly into the Name field – this could include the year group, the academic year, the season and a defining character (where more than one admission group is to be included).
  • Use the calendar button alongside the Date of Admission field (or type the date of admission directly using the format dd/mm/yyyy) – this date should be the first date of the new academic year and should match the date given when creating the new year, regardless of whether the pupil is actually due to attend on that day.
  • Click OK.
  • Repeat to add further admission groups for that year group, academic year and intake season only.
  • Click the Save button.

Applicants must be added to the admission group by importing a Common Transfer File (CTF) from the feeder school(s). If you wish to add a child who has not previously attended a maintained school in Wales or England they must be added to the admission group manually by going to Focus > Application. Both of these methods are discussed below.

  1. ADDING APPLICANT DETAILS VIA CTF

Details for applicants (previously known as pre-admission pupils) entering any other year group (except nursery, or those entering the British maintained sector), should be transferred from their current school via a Common Transfer File (CTF).

The CTF is created at the pupil’s current school and sent via S2S. The CTF must then be downloaded from S2S and imported into the system. When importing the CTF, it is important to ensure that the pupils are added to the correct admission group and not directly on roll.

If any of the pupils already exist as an applicant (known in SIMS.net as an application) on the system, any blank fields will be updated with data from the CTF. Any existing data will not be overwritten as the information added by the school is deemed to be the most up to date. Any such data will be highlighted in the exception log once the import is complete.

DOWNLOADING THE CTF

CTFs are downloaded from the S2S site, to log on and download the files go to:

Access the S2S web site by:

  • going to (you can also access this through the WAG Schools Portal at and navigating through to S2S once you have selected your school type).

The login screen is displayed, shown below:

  • Enter your username and password.
  • Click Submit.
  • Click on the plus button next to Download.
  • Click Download CTF File.
  • Click the Download button.
  • Navigate to the CTF IN folder (this is usually in S:SIMS\STAR - where S is the drive where SIMS is located) and select the CTF file.
  • Click to download CTF.

IMPORTING APPLICANTS INTO SIMS

The applicants can now be imported into SIMS through:

  • Routines > Data In > CTF > Import CTF

The Select CTF import type dialog is displayed.

  • Click General and then click the Select button.

The Import CTF page is displayed, with the Matching Scale dialog box.

  • Click No to use Matching Scale 2 (recommended) or Yes to choose a new matching scale.
  • Within the Data To be Imported panel tick all data items to be imported.
  • Within the Import Selection panel click the File Browse button and locate the CTF to be imported by navigating to the CTF IN folder.
  • Click the drop down arrow in the Place New PupilsIn field and select the appropriate pre-admission group.
  • Click the Import CTF button to import the pupils.

Any errors with importing the pupil, or any of the pupil data, will be displayed in the Exception Log.

  • Check that the number in the following fields are equal: Number of pupils in file, Number of pupils processed and Number of new pupils. If they are not this means that there has been a problem when importing the CTF – please phone the SIMS Helpdesk (01446 709109) for advice on this.

Some data items, such as SEN or address data may not be imported, these will be listed in the exception log and can be amended within the Application page if necessary.

  1. ADDING APPLICANTS FROM NON MAINTAINED SCHOOLS

Details for applicants (previously known as pre-admission pupils) entering a maintained school in Wales or Englandfor the first time need to be added manually.

Adding an applicant (now known as an application on SIMS.net) is done in a similar way to adding a new pupil straight on to roll, but it is done through:

  • Focus > Admission > Application.

The Application page is displayed.

  • Click the New button.
  • Enter the surname, forename, gender and DOB of the pupil.
  • Click Continue.
  • Add the pupil details in the usual way making sure the pupil is added to the correct Intake and Admissiongroups (those that correspond with the academic year, year group and season within which they are entering the school) in the Registration Details section of the page, as shown below.
  • Ensure the Date of Admission matches the start date of the admission group and is the first day of the academic year – this applies regardless of whether the pupil is due to attend on that day.
  • The Dietary panel contains a Free School Mealsection (shown below), which should be populated with start and end dates if known along with the review date – the Alerts functionality can be used in SIMS.net as a reminder of when these dates are due for renewal, please contact the SIMS Helpdesk on 01446 709109 for help in setting this up
  • Add any other data as required in the usual way.
  • Save any changes.

The pupil will now appear in the appropriate pre-admission group.

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