Maths and English GCSE Prior Attainment – Overseas Equivalent

What should you put in for the Grade and Achieved column for an Overseas Equivalent?   If the student has an overseas or a UK equivalent then the grade will be NR Not required.  It is then expected that you recorded when they achieved the equivalent grade .i.e. at the end of Year 11 or since…

Course Manager and Post 16 Learning Aims : Resits and Retakes

The EFA Funding Guidance for 2016-2017 states the following: Where learning programmes are designed to enable students to re-sit or re-take examinations and assessments these are not generally eligible for funding as the activity has already been funded. Where there are exceptional circumstances outside the control of the student or institution, such as a period…

Core Learning Aims –

The table below indicates those qualification types that are academic. If the student’s core aim in the is not one of the listed types, the student’s programme is vocational and the core aim must be identified for the school census. Academic Programmes Level Qualification types 3  GCEs: AS, A2, A with AS levels; double awards…

Maths and English Prior Attainment GCSE Equivalences

Qualifications equivalent to GCSE grade A* to C in maths and English for the purposes of prior attainment The following qualifications in maths, English language and literature are treated as equivalent to GCSE A* to C. Students who have studied in England or other UK nations (Wales, Scotland or N Ireland) holding the following qualifications…

Address Validation not working

Address validation is enabled by running licence patch 7186.   The activates the address validation service in Tools / Setups / Services If the service is there (i.e. the patch has been run), and the school phones in to say it is offline, it is one of two things  It cannot get to the address…

Teacher App crashing on an iPad

User is able to log in but the application closes after a few minutes. Please try resynching with iTunes (Settings > iTunes & App Store) then uninstall and reinstall the SIMS teacher app.

Teacher App Updates

How can schools update Sims Teacher App to the latest release. Each device will need upgrading, it cannot be done centrally. If the school has automatic updates enabled on the iPads the app will update for the user automatically.  Alternatively, users can update the app manually on their device from the App store.   Enable…

Individual Report – Section with no results still showing the header.

The hide rows with no results is ticked. Remove report sections that contain no results is ticked. The report shows the header for a table with no results.   Please ensure that the section open and section closed tags are inserted at the beginning and end of each table, including the first table on the report….

DfE FSM Ever 6 Report “no results for this report”

  Capita have identified that in certain circumstances the FSM report doesn’t show any pupils, even though some are eligible. It seems to be due to N2/R being included in a vertical setup in the pastoral structure, but is still under investigation. In these circumstances changing the year taught in filter to a prompt at…

Sending next year’s timetable early (June/July)

Some schools wish to send their next year’s timetable early, i.e. in June or July, so that the students can begin next year’s classes before the end of the academic year.  In order to do this you will need to send a copy next year’s timetable for the appropriate date range, taking care to edit…

Nova T6 : Sending a change to the Cycle mid- year

It is not recommended to send a change to the cycle mid year, but in some cases it is necessary if the times or number of periods must be changed before the start of the new year. If the cycle is changed and sent mid year then the correct date range must be entered.  It should…

FPS Adding CFR Codes to Support Staff

P7 Link Before selecting the P7 Link there are some house-keeping requirements that schools will need to undertake within SIMS Personnel. Each staff member’s contract must be linked to a CFR code; this is a simple process but will take some time to complete, as it requires manual updating of each staff members open contract….

PX Adding Clusters to a block

 Make sure in the Monitor and all PX schools the class and block identifier is the same (In the classes screen, double click on the class and edit class identifier) In Data / Define Partnership blocks make sure the block is defined as a cluster block in Monitor and all PX schools.

Extended Collection of Learning Aims

The EFA need all learning aims to be included regardless of the duration, including the learning aims that did not reach the qualifying period (6 weeks or more).  We understand that the qualifying period still has significance for funding. Capita have modified their coding to ensure that they no longer take account of the qualifying period when adding learning…

Reason for Withdrawal from a Learning Aim

Reason for Withdrawal will be collected for the first time in the Autumn 2015 School Census and is mandatory if a student withdraws from a course from the start of the 2015/2016 year. There is no need to backdate if you have withdrawals in the 2014/2015 year. The Reason lookup appears when you end a membership to a…

How to add a UKPRN (Post 16 providers)

UKPRN’s are mandatory for Post 16 Learning Aims in the Autumn 2015 School Census if the establishment delivering the learning aim is not funded by the DfE.  As most schools are colleges are funded by the DfE most schools will not have to add UKPRN’s to their learning aims. If your school is delivering all…

How to change the level of a Course in SIMS

If the course is showing at the wrong level but the year has not yet started, then the school will need to update the levels in Tools / Assign Levels – assigning the right level at year, block and class level and then re-send the timetable.  This will update SIMS. If the year has already…

Update Prior Attainment – populate from Exams

The Update Prior Attainment panel was introduced in the Summer 2015 release as it is mandatory to collect prior attainment in Maths and English at GCSE for Post 16 students in the Autumn 2015 census.   Tools / Statutory Return Tools / Update Prior Attainment The criteria used when populating the Prior Attainment grid with data…

SIMS Service Manager

SIMS Services Manager (SSM) is a new product that manages the link between SIMS and cloud-based products such as the SIMS Teacher App, Agora and InTouch. It has been designed with the intention that it will replace other, older methods of data exchange (such as using VPNs), and unify them into a single technology. It…

SWC – Vacancies missing from the Summary

Vacancies missing from the summary and all are temporarily filled.   Change one of the vacancies to NO. Create and Validate Check the vacancies are appearing in the Summary Change it back to YES Create and Validate Check the summary – they should now all be showing in the Vacancy section of the Summary Report.

Universal FSM for R – 2 and Pupil Premium

From September 2014 all Reception to Year 2 pupils will be eligible for Free School Meals.  Universal Free School Meals for Reception to Year 2 pupils will be collected in a new panel the School Census and is not required to be maintained in the student record. However, Panel 6. Dietary Eligible for Free School Meals in the…

Universal Infant Free School Meals & Dinner Money 7

From September 2014, all pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 in state-funded schools in England will be eligible for free school meals. This will include Academies, Free Schools, Pupil Referral Units as well as Maintained Schools. NOTE: Existing entitlements to free school meals for disadvantaged pupils in nursery classes and at key stages…

Nova T6 Documentation

Click here to download the Maintaining Nova document which supports training on Day 3 and Day 4 of the Nova T6 for New Users Course. Reviewed on 01/08/2019

Trial Balance Report – Option to hide FC and FD Codes

From the Spring 2014 upgrade Capita has changed the way schools can choose to use or hide FC and FD codes from the Trial Balance Report.  The following is included in their documentation for the upgrade. Enhancements to the Summary Trial Balance By Ledger Code Report This report has been enhanced to enable you to decide whether to…

Service Children and Pupil Premium

Back to Pupil Premium FAQ   These notes are designed to clarify the difference between who you record in census as a Service Child and the Service Children you will receive Pupil Premium for.   Who to record as a Service Child The Service Children indicator recorded on the School Census indicates if a child…