Autumn 2024 Upgrade to SIMS (v7.220) and FMS (v6.220)

The Autumn 2024 SIMS Upgrade (V7.220) & FMS (V6.220) is planned to be rolled out on the evening of Friday 15th November 2024 (Scomis Hosted users please log off by 5pm)

Non Hosted users: The new release will be authorised in Solus on Friday 15th November 2024

SIMS Autumn Fileset Please click here

Consolidated CWPaul1 – Patch 1  – Minutes Late Report issue is due to be released. An issue has been identified, introduced in the SIMS Autumn Release 2024 wherein the Minutes Late Report in Attendance / Lesson Monitor incorrectly indicates the minutes late as zero rather than the minutes late that has been recorded.  We will advise when it is release and release once tested accross the Hosted platform and release for non Hosted schools via Solus.

Please see the latest information on the Autumn release below:

SIMS Combined release notes

FMS Release notes

SIMS Permissions spreadsheet 7.220

What’s New in SIMS

Attendance

Unauthorised Absence Alerts
Applicable to all schools
Focus | Alerts | Setup Reminders

To support the new DfE regulations where a student has 10 unauthorised absences within a 10 week period, an automatic notification can be turned on that will alert school administrators when a student has, reached the 10 unauthorised absences regulation. The Notifications will appear in the My Reminders panel of the SIMS homepage.

Statutory Explanation Report
Applicable to English and English Independent schools
Reports | Lesson Monitor | Selected Pupil Reports | Statutory Explanation Report

A new report can be run using Group Types, Events or Author of comments (i.e. Member of Staff) for the following attendance codes that require a statutory explanation:

• B – Attending any other Approved Educational Activity
• K – Attending alternative provision arranged by the LA
• Y7 – Unable to attend

Attendance Code Statutory Explanation
Applicable to English and English Independent schools
Focus | Lesson Monitor | Enter a Code over a Date Range

Attendance Codes B, K & Y7 are now available to apply in Enter a Code over a Date Range so when code B, K & Y7 is selected a mandatory free text box will be made available to enter Statutory Explanation.

OMR removed from SIMS
Applicable to all schools

The OMR reader in SIMS cannot support the new Attendance codes with multiple characters introduced in the Summer 2024 release, following a change by the DfE for Schools in England. The following menu routes will no longer be available, or lose OMR function/s:

  SIMS 7

• Focus > Assessment > OMR Entry
• Focus > Assessment > OMR Template
• Routines > Lesson Monitor > OMR Entry
• Tools > Setups > OMR
• Tools > Setups > Attendance Setup > OMR Setup
• Tools > Setups > Attendance Setup > Registration Organisation
• Focus > Profiles > Session Manager (OMR button removed)
• Tools > Setups > Attendance Setup (‘Show OMR Entry’ visibility switch removed)

  Exams Organiser

• Focus > OMR Sheet Setup
• Focus > Read OMR
• Tools > OMR Setup
• Tools > Manage OMR Setup

 

Fees Billing

Aged Debtor Report
Applicable to Independent schools
Reports | Fees Billing | Transactions | Aged Debtors

A new option has been added to Include Email Address on the Aged Debtor Report. This feature is turned off by default and will need to be activated in the Aged Debtors panel. When the report is previewed the email addresses are displayed below the Payer Reference data.

Reporting

DfE Ethnicity codes and values
Applicable to all schools

To reflect the 2021 population census and the 19 categories that ONS published, new ethnicity values and code sets have been added to support the DfE ethnicity code sets for staff and students. The following have been applied to the Ethnicity lookup values.

Staff

Person | Staff | Personal Information

Code/Category	Description
ABRI	Asian – British
AWEL	Asian – Welsh
BBRI	Black – British
BWEL	Black – Welsh

Student

Student | Student Details |Ethnic / Cultural

Code	Description
ORAB	Arab
ABRI	Asian – British
AWEL	Asian – Welsh
BBRI	Black – British
BWEL	Black – Welsh

 

Family links data 
Applicable to all schools
Reports | Student Analysis Reports | General Student List

The Family Links information in the Student Details Family/Home panel can be used in Student List general reports, this option can be found in the Standard Area list type when using the Select data/Area tool. This will make all information from the Family Links data available to use in the report.

 

Students

Bulk Maintenance of Documents
Applicable to all schools
Routines | Students | Bulk Update

The Student Only restriction has been removed and a new SIMS Role Filter has been added to the Selected Documents panel for bulk downloads and deletions of all documents. A new Maintain Bulk documents column has been added for SIMS Role(s) which can be found next to the Name column. The following roles have been added to the Filter:

• <Any>
• Student
• Employee
• Contact
• Enquirer
• Bill Payer
• Agent
• Applicant

When documents have been selected for deletion, a warning message is displayed, followed by the Data Deletion Agreement. When documents have been selected for download, the Data Download Agreement is displayed. User consent must be provided before the deletion or download proceeds.

Bulk Update Leaver check box 
Applicable to all schools
Routines | Students | Leavers

A new tick box column has been added at the start of the Student table which users can use to select one, multiple, or all students from the table. The options to ‘Clear’, ‘Remove’ and ‘Assign to Selected’, are disabled until one or more students are selected.

Links Panel Interventions option added 
Applicable to all schools
Focus | Student | Student Details

Adding students to an intervention can be done from a student record (i.e. Register, Assessment, etc.) with a link to Interventions in the right-hand side Links panel. Clicking this link will show all the current interventions for that student and allow you to add an intervention if the student needs it. New interventions are validated against current interventions and rejected if another intervention of the same kind is active.

Independent Review Panel values 
Applicable to all schools
Focus | Student | Exclusions

The Independent Review Panel (IRP) for Exclusions has 2 new values to replace the Reinstated option with the following:

• Reinstatement – Recommended
• Reinstatement – Directed

Additionally, the IRP Reinstatement Date has moved from the IRP panel to the Final Governor Review outcome panel.

 

SIMS Connected

Reporting ‘Reg Code’ entry standardisation
Applicable to all schools

Reports displaying ‘Reg Group‘ on a single line, especially where a space had been used in the ‘Short Name’, have been updated so ‘Reg Group‘ will always show on a single line in reports regardless of characters used.

SIMS Release Updates and What’s New 
Applicable to all schools

The automated SIMS seasonal release PDF that opens upon signing into a recently updated SIMS has been retired and replaced with a What’s New in SIMS button, which can be found above the ESS Newsfeed. This button can be used as often as needed, it takes users directly to the SIMS 7 Release Notes support article for the latest What’s New updates and downloadable a PDF copy of the release notes.

 

SIMS Newsfeed

Newsfeed Notification panel
Applicable to all schools

The Newsfeed panel will now be updated with SIMS7, SIMS Next Gen and SIMS Connected updates, these newsfeed articles all have a 90-day lifecycle. This means that news feed items will disappear after 90 days in the RSS Newsfeed. The Newsfeed panel can also be expanded to show a full list of articles.

 

School Census

Key Dates

Census Date: 16/01/2025

Attendance collected from start of Autumn Term to 31/12/2024

Exclusions collected from 01/04/2024 to 31/12/2024

Alternative Provision Placements collected from 03/10/2024 to 16/01/2025

Funding and Monitoring collected from 01/08/2024 to 16/01/2025

Learner Support collected from 01/08/2024 to 16/01/2025

Free School Meals collected from 04/10/2024 to 16/01/2025

Attendance Code Check
Applicable to English schools
Routines | Statutory Returns | School Census

The Census Spring Census 2025 onwards has been updated to identify invalid attendance codes from the updated Autumn 2024 Term list. Where old codes are marked during the Spring 2025 collection period you will receive the following error messages:

Attendance panel: On Calculate All

Your attendance codes are not DfE compliant, Please deal with this lack of compliance and then press ‘Check attendance codes’.

Student Reports: On Create & Validate

There are attendance codes in use which do not conform to the DfE requirements.
Attendance code < > must not be used
Please edit the attendance data.

Childcare lookups
Applicable to English schools
Tools | Lookups | Maintain

3 new Lookup options have been added to the Childcare type, these new school-level lookups are statutory items which are not editable.

Childcare Places Availability

Records if a childcare place is available for every parent that wants one.

Childcare Opening/Closing Time

Records if a childcare provision is open 8 am or earlier (if before school), is open 8 am until 6 pm (if holiday childcare).

Childcare Provider Hours

Records if the listed provider offers childcare covering 8 am to 6 pm.

Childcare lookups
Applicable to English schools
Tools | Lookups | Maintain

2 Childcare Lookup options have been updated, these existing lookup options have been updated with the following new values.

  Childcare Provider

• ^NEW Private/Independent Provider (PIP)
• ^NEW Voluntary Provider(VOL)
• ^UPDATE Description has changed for an existing ‘OTH’ code to Other

  Childcare Signposted

Code ‘YF’ description is updated to ‘Yes, formal arrangements including escort to/from the site’

 

What’s New in FMS

Academies Chart of Accounts ESFA Ledger Code 2024/2025 

Several New account codes have been added to the ESFA Ledger and some existing codes have had their description modified. For a complete list of these codes please refer to the New ESFA Account Codes for 2024/2025 article.

NOTE

You will need to perform new mapping for these codes, for guidance on how to do this please refer to the Mapping ledger codes to ESFA account codes article.

 

NOTE

If you do not update your FMS software to version 6.220, your newsfeed will not function properly and you will receive all news updates for all types of schools.

ESFA Accounts Return Submission 2023/2024 

The ability to provide the financial aspects of the ESFA Accounts Return directly from FMS6 to the FMS Hub and submission to ESFA has been available for several years. We are undertaking our final testing with ESFA and will announce via a news item when the submittal process is available.

Accounts Payable Reports 

The following reports have been updated to improve consistency when a supplier status is tagged as ‘On Hold’ or ‘Inactive’.

• Reports | Accounts Payable | Invoices | Invoice and credit note
• Reports | Accounts Payable | Supplier Analysis | Detailed Supplier Account Status
• Reports | Accounts Payable | Supplier Analysis | Supplier Information

You may find the following FAQs useful:

• Checking for updates on Solus 3
• Deploying an upgrade through Solus 3 Manually
• Check the status of the upgrade
• Forcing an update through Solus 3
• Adding a machine to Solus 3 on an Active Directory network
• Adding a machine to Solus 3 on a Peer to Peer network
• Import the latest Sims .net reports