END OF YEAR PROCEDURES IN SIMS.NET

2013/2014

NURSERY, PRIMARY AND SPECIALSCHOOL GUIDANCE

BOOKLET 2 OF 3 IN THE END OF ACADEMIC YEAR SERIES

Contents

END OF YEAR CHECKLIST

INTRODUCTION

CREATING THE NEW ACADEMIC YEAR (2014/2015)

VALIDATING GROUP MEMBERSHIPS

SETTING UP ADMISSION GROUPS

MANUALLY ENTERING APPLICANT DETAILS

IMPORTING APPLICANT DETAILS FROM A CTF OR AN ATF

RECORDING LEAVERS

MAKING CHANGES TO TEACHING STAFF IN PERSONNEL 7

SETTING UP THE PASTORAL GROUPS FOR ACADEMIC YEAR 2014/2015

MANAGING THE ADMISSION PROCESS

SETTING UP THE PROMOTION MAPPING FOR ACADEMIC YEAR 2014/2015

ALLOCATING APPLICANTS TO CLASSES

TRANSFERRING TEACHER ASSESSMENT RESULTS

PRINTING CLASS LISTS FOR NEXT YEAR*

PRINTING REGISTRATION SHEETS FOR THE FIRST WEEK OF TERM*

FOR HELP

PLEASE CALL SIMS HELPDESK ON 01446 709109

OR EMAIL US AT

END OF YEAR CHECKLIST

It is necessary to complete all of the following steps before the end of the current academic year, except those marked with an asterisk (*) which are optional. Further guidance containing tasks to be completed at the beginning of the next academic year will be sent before the start of the new year.

Create the new academic year (2014/2015)

Validate group memberships

Set up admission groups

Add details for nursery pre-admission pupils (own admission schools only) and for pupils from the private sector

Add details for all other pre-admission pupils (ATF or CTF)

Record leavers

Make changes to teaching staff in Personnel 7

Set up next year’s pastoral groups

Manage the admission process

Set up the pastoral promotion mapping for academic year 2014/2015

Allocate pre-admission pupils to classes

Create CTFs to transfer teacher assessment results

Print registration group lists for next year*

In Attendance print registration sheets for the first week of term*

  1. INTRODUCTION

This booklet is the second of 3 detailing the processes associated with the end of academic year in SIMS.net. Sections 2-7 need to be completed before any pre-admission pupil details can be stored within your SIMS system.

Further documentation will be sent out by the start of the next academic year with full details of all tasks to be completed at the beginning of academic year 2014/2015.

  1. CREATING THE NEW ACADEMIC YEAR (2013/2014)

This process involves defining term and half term holiday dates, INSET days and bank holidays for the following academic year (2014/2015). Further school closures (INSET days etc) can be added at a later date via the school diary if they are not known at the time of creating the academic year.

It is strongly recommended that all other users log out of the system when this is being done as the process requires a lot of resource and can take anything up to 20 minutes to create (as the system is creating attendance records for each pupil for next year).

When creating an academic year, the start date of the first term is deemed to be the first day of the academic year, regardless of whether pupils will attend school on that date. The academic year is considered to end 365 days later. For example, if the academic year starts on 01/09/2014 then an end date of 31/08/2015 will be automatically supplied. Similarly, the last day of the previous (current) academic year will be changed to the day before the new year’s start date.

To create the academic year, in SIMS.net go to:

  • Routines > School > Academic Year

The Define an Academic Year Wizard is displayed.

  • Click Next to begin defining the next academic year.

  • Define the school working week by selecting the relevant AM and PM session against each school working day – any errors will be indicated in the bottom section of the window.
  • Click Next.

  • Define the term start and end dates by clicking on each cell and then on the drop down arrow and selecting the relevant date – any errors will be detailed in the bottom section of the window.
  • Ensure the Term holiday name is correct, ie Christmas holiday for the Autumn term, Easter holiday for the Spring term and Summer holiday for the Summer term.
  • Click Next.

  • Click Add Holiday to add all half term holidays.
  • Click the drop down arrow in the Category fields and add Half Term as the Category.
  • Use the calendars to add a half term StartDate and End Date.
  • Add a Description.
  • Click OK.
  • Click Add Holiday again and repeat steps until all half term holidays have been defined.
  • Click Next.

  • Click Add to define any known teacher training days – these can be added at a later date if not known at this time.
  • Add Staff Training day under the Category field.
  • Use the calendar to add the date.
  • Enter a description.
  • Click OK.
  • Click Add and repeat to add all known teacher training dates.
  • Click Next.

  • Click Add holiday to define all public holidays.
  • Enter Bank Holiday as the Category.
  • Use the calendar to enter the date.
  • Enter a description.
  • Click OK.
  • Click Add and repeat to add all known public holidays.
  • Click Next.

The academic year is now ready to be created. Check the summary (shown above) to ensure all dates are correct. If they are not, use the Back button to go back to the relevant stage and amend the information.

  • Click Create when happy that all the dates displayed as correct.
  • The following error message will be displayed, read and clickYes.

The academic year will take a while to create. When finished the following message is displayed.

  • Click Close.
  1. VALIDATING GROUP MEMBERSHIPS

After creating an academic year, it is necessary to ensure that all group memberships are correct. This is done by running The Validate Memberships routine.

To check group memberships go to:

  • Tools > Validate Memberships

The following message is displayed.

The process may take a while to run. The message will close indicating the group memberships have been checked.

  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 2014. 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 2014 for nursery pupils entering the school in September and another one for reception 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 Autumn admission season using the drop down arrow alongside the Admission Season field.
  • Enter the year group applicants 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 do not exceed your school admission number; therefore it is better to overestimate numbers slightly.
  • 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 pupils are 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 (or applications on SIMS.net) can be added to the admission groups in one of two ways, both discussed in detail in the following 2 sections. Pupils entering the maintained school sector for the first time (and therefore have no UPN) must be entered manually, as should all nursery pupils where the individual school organises their own admissions. All other pupils (those who have previously attended a maintained school in Wales or England) must be added to the appropriate admission group by importing a CTF from their previous school or by importing an ATF from the Authority.

  1. MANUALLY ENTERING APPLICANT DETAILS (OWN ADMISSION NURSERY AND PUPILS ENTERING THE MAINTAINED SECTOR)

Details for applicants (previously known as pre-admission pupils) entering nursery in own admission schools need to be added manually. Details for those pupils who are entering the British maintained school sector also 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.
  • For part time pupils tick the Part Time check box – the start and end dates are automatically populated with the academic year start and end dates (the AM/PM status should be updated when they are admitted to the school next year).
  • The Dietary panel contains the Eligible for Free School Milk check box which should be ticked for all eligible pupils and dates populated if known – 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, such as address, contact information, ethnicity etc.
  • Save any changes.
  1. IMPORTING APPLICANT DETAILS FROM A CTF OR AN ATF

Details for pupils entering the school in September, should be transferred via an Admission Transfer File (ATF) where the Authority organise admissions on behalf of the school or, for schools whose admissions are organised in house, from their current school via a Common Transfer File (CTF).

IMPORTING PUPILS FROM AN ATF

Please contact the SIMS Helpdesk on 01446 709109 to request an ATF. This file will then be transferred on to your computer from the SIMS Helpdesk via the proxy connection. It will be saved in a location agreed by you.

Importing pupil details into SIMS.net:

Once the file has been saved on your computer and the appropriate pre-admission groups set up, the applicants can be imported into SIMS through:

  • Routines > Admission > Import ATF file

The Import ATF wizard is displayed.

Please follow instructions contained within Capita Helpsheet How to Import an ATF File distributed with this booklet.

IMPORTING PUPILS FROM A 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 pre-admission pupil (known in SIMS.net as an application) within the system, any blank fields will be updated with data from the CTF. Any existing data however 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:

  • (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.

Login

Top of Form

UsernamePasswordI agree with the Terms of use

Forgotten username or password

  • Enter your username and password.
  • Click Submit.

NB: if you require a user name and password please contact the SIMS Helpdesk on 01446 709109.

  • 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 pupil details into SIMS.net:

The pre-admission pupils can now be imported into SIMS through:

  • Routines > Data In > CTF > Import CTF
  • Choose Import Type - General

The Import CTF page is displayed (as shown below), where the information must be entered as described.

  • 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 numbers 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 with 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.

  1. RECORDING LEAVERS

All pupils due to leave at the end of the academic year should be updated on the system and given an appropriate leaving date, reason for leaving and destination after leaving, if not already done so. Leavers can be updated as a batch, ie all year 6 leavers going to the same destination school, or as an individual (moving to another primary school for example). This helps to keep the school records up to date and accurate.

The Manage Pupil Leaving Details page is found by going to:

  • Routines > Student > Leavers

To update an individual leaver:

  • Search for the individual using the preferred criteria in the usual way.
  • Highlight the relevant individual.
  • Click the Select drop down arrow (from the toolbar, shown above).
  • Choose Selected.

The selected individual moves into the Students section.

  • Enter 21/07/2014 in the Date of leaving field.
  • From the Reason for Leaving drop down menu select the appropriate reason.
  • Enter the new school name in the Destination after leaving field, if known.
  • Click Assign to All.
  • Click Save.

The following message is displayed.

  • Click Yes.

To update nursery, year 2 or year 6 leavers (as appropriate):

  • Click on the Browse button to display the Pupil Browser if not already open.
  • Select nursery, year 2 or year 6 from the Year drop down menu and click Search.
  • Click the Select drop down arrow.
  • Choose All.

The selected pupils are displayed in the Students section.

  • Highlight all those going to the first destination school (using Shift and click to highlight a block of pupils and Ctrl and click for non contiguous pupils).
  • Enter 21/07/14 as the Date of leaving.
  • Select Nursery to Infant, Infant to Junior/Primary or Junior/Primary to Secondary Phase Transfer, as appropriate as the Reason for leaving.
  • Enter the destination school name as the Destination after Leaving.
  • Click Assign to Selected.
  • Highlight the pupils going to the next destination school and repeat the above steps.
  • Once all pupils have been assigned to a new destination school, click Save.

The following message is displayed.