Welcome to the EDIT Team Secondary Schools SIMS Seminar 2004

1. Welcome to the EDIT Team Secondary Schools SIMS Seminar 2004 Dave Cattlin, Richard Metcalfe, Lisa Holt and Lynn Warrington helpdesk@edit.org.uk

2. Domestics Fire procedure Facilities Finish time If Dave starts to gibber

3. Seminar Agenda EDIT Team Profile Rochdale Schools Network Service Level Agreement evolution and changes for 2004/5 Spring CD and future SIMS release schedule Hardware Requirements Installation routines Document Server SOLUS Backing up � strategies Final data conversion issues SIMS.net Demonstration

4. The EDIT Team Team of 13 offering MIS and technical support services and working in partnership with schools and under the direction of the ICT Steering Group Access to Capita ES, corporate and other resources LSU is still SIMS� preferred method of supporting schools in achieving best value from its MIS software Supports all Rochdale schools and underpins LEA strategies for Information Management and the use of ICT in schools

5. The EDIT Team Areas of high priority Meeting statutory obligations and school expectations Supporting the expanding use of MIS in schools and at LEA level Managing the migration of SIMS software to SQL and .net platforms The management and development of Rochdale Schools Network systems

6. The Rochdale Schools Network A WAN of all primary and special schools in the borough � BT/IT Services Infrastructure Centralised Email �Exchange 2003,OWA,Outlook Filtered Internet Access � Packets Dynamics Filter Managed Internet Access � ISA Server, YourComms Direct Access to NWLG and other Resources Remote Backups � Dell Network Area Storage Solution Anti Virus Protection � Symantec's Corporate AV Solution Anti SPAM Protection � MXTreme Solution MS Update Service � SUS Server Centralised Management of all users � 2003 Active Directory Centralised Management of Servers � Dell OpenManage Remote Diagnostics and Support Corporate Firewall Protection - PIX

7. Rochdale Schools Network

9. The Rochdale Schools Network Discussions taking place towards making identified RSN resources available to CLC network users Physical link between Falinge CLC and Rochdale School Network already in place Areas for future development to be identified and discussed More information on EDIT website

10. Service Level Agreement Prior to the introduction of SQL SIMS EDIT supplied and administered Admin server running NT4 SIMS software upgraded from workstation by EDIT staff No access required to server No local technical knowledge of network administration required to apply upgrades With the introduction of SQL SIMS Administrative systems now a part of whole school network administered by school staff SIMS upgrade performed at server Problems impossible to diagnose without individual school network administration (although usually DNS)

11. Service Level Agreement 2003/4 SLA SIMS Licensing Liaison with Capita Helpline Support On-Site support Training and consultancy Standard Windows 2000 servers supplied Option of �500 SQL Upgrade & Configuration Service available To ensure that SIMS was upgraded and operating correctly on the server

12. Service Level Agreement SQL Upgrade & Configuration Service only supportable at server level and on standard builds Many secondary schools have made changes to the servers supplied to meet their own needs Windows 2003 File servers Additional hardware installed Additional services running Access rights This means that EDIT no longer can reliably administer every installation on a technical level

13. Service Level Agreement For 2004/5, the SLA offers the following support SIMS Licensing Liaison with Capita Helpline Support On-Site support Training and consultancy other than that where a specialist consultant must be brought in � this will be delivered in partnership with Capita and at cost (usually limited to Nova support)

14. Service Level Agreement For 2004/5, the SLA offers the following support The option of buying in technical support at standard rates of �35/hour The technical support available is limited to ensuring the SIMS system is operating correctly at server and workstation level and where EDIT technicians have appropriate levels of access to network systems This arrangement enables schools to continue to rely on EDIT technical services where they choose to do so

15. SIMS Recommended Hardware Specs SIMS latest hardware specs (as of October 2003) are available for download from the EDIT Website SIMS roadmap (the software release schedule proposed by Capita) is available for download from the EDIT Website

16. SIMS Developments SIMS.net (Common Platform 4.xx, module versions 7.xx) The latest range of SIMS software engineered on a Microsoft.net platform � all SIMS SQL software will be re-engineered to operate in this way within the next 12 months including FMS SIMS dBase (Common Platform 2.xx, module versions 5.xx) The SIMS software still in use, e.g. STAR, Rep-Gen Lite) SIMS SQL (Common Platform 3.xx, module versions 6.xx) The software introduced over the last 2 years and engineered on an SQL platform, e.g. Assessment Manager 6, Examinations Organiser

17. Terminology Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE) MSDE is a data store based on Microsoft SQL Server technology. It is a cut down version of MS SQL Server. MSDE is good until the sims.mdf file approaches 2Gb � the use of MS SQL Server will be required should this be the case

18. Terminology Named Instance An installation of the MSDE that is given a name to differentiate it from any other instances on the same computer. A named instance is identified by the computer mane and instance name, e.g. W2K2415\SIMS.

19. Terminology Document Management Server The .net generation of SIMS software allows users to store a range of files associated with individual pupils, for example, reports generated by the Profiles module. The Document Management Server manages the storage and retrieval of saved reports and documents. The software can be installed on the same machine as the MDSE or on a separate server. Documents managed by the DMS may be stored on the same server or on another box.

20. Spring 2004 CD Scheduled for release February 2004 Delayed somewhat and contains: Common Platform 2.91 Key Stage Manager changes required for 2004 reporting Common Platform 4.00 The first read/write release of SIMS.net Option for final conversion and the demise of dBase SIMS for primary/special schools Required to run EOKS 3 processes using Assessment Manager 6 Cannot install one without the other where previous versions of SQL software have been installed

21. Upgrades available � CP2.91 Data Check Utility 3.38 Additional checks and two new menu routes. Data Manager 5.97 Minor enhancements to support Data Exchange and the Common Transfer File (CTF). Key Stage Manager 5.71 Key Stage 3 The code for test results have changed and there has been a change to the Summary Results report text. Launcher 5.31 32-bit Workstation Setup has been removed. Although the automatic running of any update to the 32-bit Workstation does not occur when Launcher is first run, each workstation is upgraded as necessary when a 32-bit product is launched by Launcher. The About SIMS Launcher Module screen has been modified to show the current version of Common Platform 2 where previously it showed the Common Platform 3 version. Lookup Flood Fill 3.21

22. Upgrades available � CP4.00 Assessment Manager 6.40 Key Stage Manager Wizard supports the operations required for completing end of Key Stage assessments, using a single wizard. This will be covered by training sessions to KS3 staff at the EDIT centre after half term. Attendance 6.35 Enables the use of 14 session functionality. Core Integrator 6.49 Enhancements and bug fixes. Data Check Utility 3.38 Additional checks and two new menu routes.

23. Upgrades available � CP4.00 Examinations Organiser 6.30 New feature and enhancements in the following areas: Unit Seating Wizard Skeleton Timetable Report Seating Organiser Freezing of Columns in Entry for Forecast Marksheet Seating Plan Report Component Clash Report Lesson Monitor 6.20 Compatibility with the 14 session functionality available in Attendance 6.35. Performance Analysis 6.45 User Defined Groups created in Assessment Manager are now available for selection in Performance Analysis Profiles 6.30 Pupil/student reports will be able to include both comments triggered by the presence of Assessment Manager Results and comments containing embedded results. SIMS .net 7.15 New functionality including: Registrations and Admission Lesson Registration Class membership editing and printing CTF import and export to and from SQL Transfer of data from schools to LEAs

24. Applying the Spring CD Spring CD - new installation routines are greatly simplified when compared to the nightmare that was previous platform releases (Three schools have performed the upgrade independently) Complete install notes and technical guides are available on the CD as SCD4_00\Docs\upgr00401.pdf The following information seeks to provide school technicians with a basic understanding of the processes and to enable them to make sense of the fuller notes more easily

25. Pre-requisites You will need: Exclusive access to the system A complete and reliable backup Spring CD Key.mem file Tlicense.dat file Sa password for the database engine (supplied by EDIT) System manager account with access rights to configure and perform upgrades A COMPLETE AND RELIABLE BACKUP Full install notes and technical guides are available on the CD

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51. Nova T Install You will be asked to specify a Nova Directory Path and a SIMS Directory path. Nova users frequently work away from the networked copy and will need a copy of the install programme. Nova requires a license file, Tlicense.dat to be present on an a:\ drive Subst a: c:\ And it just works��.

52. FMS 6 Upgrade FMS is written on a Sybase SQL platform and will be recoded to work on MS SQL in the next 12 months To perform the FMS upgrade you will need exclusive access to the FMS system and have a reliable backup of the matched sims.db and sims.log files. These will be on the server and you may use the last modified dates to ensure that you have identified the correct files Note the path to these files on the server E:\sims\sims\finance\sims.db for example

53. FMS 6 Upgrade Close all other Windows programs that you are running and insert the SIMS CD Spring 2004. Navigate to the section containing the Finance Modules (SIMS 2.91, Setups, Finance). Click FMS 6.75 Modules and select Install/Upgrade FMS Modules. Select all the check boxes (including the database upgrade option) and at the next screen, select network installation. The next screen will give you the following four options

54. FMS 6 Upgrade

55. FMS 6 Upgrade

56. FMS 6 Upgrade At the end of the support file installation on the server, the database upgrade will be launched - click the Next button and log in as an FMS user with System Manager (Administrator) access rights. The upgrade process will now proceed to completion on the server.

57. Moving to SIMS.net

58. Life after Core Integrator Core Integrator currently copies changes to dBase data to SQL tables. SQL versions of Attendance, Assessment Manager, Profiles, System Manager and SIMS.net (in �MIDAS mode�) used in schools and directly store data in SQL tables. The Final Conversion process (Data Conversion Utility) will make a one-off, irreversible transfer of appropriate data and enable basic student editing in SIMS.net. Once the Utility has been run, dBase modules may only be used for viewing purposes. Many modules have their own conversion routines � points to note include:

59. Life after Core Integrator Assessment Manager 5.xx Although there are routines to convert data from version 5 to version 6, it is recommended that you audit the data held in AM5 and import selected results to the new system. Exams DOS If you wish to make results stored in Exams DOS available to Exams Organiser, you will need to convert to Exams Organiser before running the Final Conversion. FMS After you have run Final Conversion, you should set FMS to read your Rooms and Student details from the SQL database. This is achieved via Tools | SIMS .net Settings. Dinner Money After you have run Final Conversion, you should set Dinner Money to import pupils and classes from the SQL database. This is achieved via System Menu | Settings Menu | System Defaults | Paths. Options If you are using Options in �Mixed Mode� with Nova-T in �Star Mode�, you MUST continue to use Options until you have completed the options process BEFORE running Final Conversion. Nova-T Nova-T users must create the �Following� directory and transfer curriculum BEFORE running final conversion.

60. Life after Core Integrator EDIT are trialing final conversion in a number of primary schools this term Best advice for secondary schools is that you should only consider final conversion in the new term after the completion of year end procedures. Final conversion must occur during Autumn term PLASC 2005 routines only available in SIMS.net Exams (DOS) death date September 2004 Training schedule being drawn up to enable all secondary schools to migrate all STAR users to SIMS.net

62. Towards SIMS.net The following features become available in the Summer release: Bulk promotion of pastoral groups Historical editing of groups Links to Options The following features become available in the Autumn release: Address validation (check the EDIT website for further information) Student deletion Links to Nova-P

63. Next Steps � Summer CD Assessment Manager�6.45 Attendance�6.40 Core Integrator�6.50 CTF�2004 Data Check Utility�3.39 Exams Organiser�6.35 Register�7.20 Performance Analysis�6.50 Schools Database Validator�6.50 SIMS Final Conversion�7.20 SIMS Installer�4.04.10 STAR�7.20 This release contains the key functionality needed for handling the start of a new academic year.

64. Summer CD Enhancements Assessment Manager�6.45 Batch Import/Export from/to Excel Will allow the selection of multiple Marksheets for Export to, and Import from, Microsoft Excel. Each exported Marksheet will be a self contained Excel Spreadsheet. Filtering of Exams Organiser Entities Will allow the setting of a filter (in SIMS System Manager for whole school effect) or from Tools menu for local (user's workstation) effect that will remove from view all entities created in Exams Organiser (Aspects, Marksheets, Grade Sets etc.) Individual Reports - Remove Report Section Will allow definition of Sections within the Assessment Manager Individual Report template that will be removed if NO results are found for the specified section. In this way schools can create reporting templates with many pages which will reduce to only include those pages that contain results. System Utilities � Administer Result Sets System Utility to allow the application of a Result Set to a Result. Will also allow the removal of a Result Set from a Result.

65. Summer CD Enhancements Attendance�6.40 Remove decode error when reading OMR Absence Sheet Remove error that occurs when years start part way through a week Rewrite some reports to improve speed and reliability: Broken Weeks Report, Missed Curriculum Report, Students Analysis by Session in Week Report, Today's Register Report and Registration Certificate Report. Core Integrator�6.50 Improvements in various check routines Supports final Conversion

66. Summer CD Enhancements Exams Organiser�6.35 Performance Tables and Improved Results Reporting Improved reporting functionality for the aggregation of Examination Results and the calculation of performance table data. Exams Organiser will set up and populate, on a per-candidate basis, the summary values from which the school summary values specified for inclusion in the annual Performance Tables for 15-year-olds (GCSE/GNVQ) and Post-16 stages may be derived. These may then be used by PA for analysis of the school�s performance in advance of the publication of the tables. Data included will be (For GCSE/GNVQ) Number of Candidates 127: Achieving 5+ A* - C 71 (55.9%): Achieving 5+ A* - G 116 (91.3%): Achieving 1+ A* - C 108 (85.0%): Achieving 1+ A* - G 123 (96.8%): Achieving no passes 4 (3.1%): Average Capped Score 43.71: Average Score per Student 56.32: Total number of Entries 1295.5: Average Score per Entry 4.76: Subject Broadsheet reports will also be created. Domestic Examinations Changes that are required in order to provide support for users who wish to use Examinations Organiser to manage internal examinations. Casing of Internal Title Will give users a more natural conversion from the upper-case titles issued by the boards. These include in particular board and level abbreviations: AQA, OCR, RSA, SEG, GCE, GCSE, VCE, AEA, GNVQ4. Statement of Entry - removal of text Users have found that the inclusion of the Date Due given for internally assessed components gives candidates a false impression, which is not rectified by the note. This release will see the removal the Date Due from coursework components, and the footer message. Use of Exam Hold Directory This new functionality will give the User a means of retrieving a submitted file for thier own inspection or forwarding to User Support. On Submit, Exams Organiser will make two copies of the file, one will go to ExamOut, to be picked up by the carrier software, the other, marked read-only, will go to ExamHold. Improved Results Import Messaging Message headers will show Date, Board abbreviation, Season name, series code, series name, filename. More detailed candidate detail (e.g. UCI, candidate number), element detail, etc will be presented as part of the error message. Tidy Exam Numbers Routine

67. Summer CD Enhancements SIMS.net Core 7.20 Bulk Allocation of Students/Applicants to pastoral groups Maintenance of Pastoral groups Promotion of pastoral groups Defined Group Management Ability to create groups for general purposes, and to maintain the membership and supervision of those groups. This will provide the independent schools with the management of extra curricular activities, and primary schools with the management of teaching groups and sets. The groups can be populated with any on roll student, and supervised by any person type in the system.

68. Autumn CD 2004 PLASC 2005 Release Developments to other modules B2B SIMS Roadmap with more detail due for release and will be published on the EDIT website as soon as it becomes available

69. The SOLUS system SIMS have a server farm in Docklands, London Future SIMS upgrades, patches and site-specific fixes (from a time to be determined) will be posted on these servers From there, the LEA will download these files to a web server for distribution to schools This process is currently being piloted by Capita

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76. Backup Strategies Prior to final conversion of data, a backup of the SQL database is taken each time core integrator is run The location of these files is available in Tools > Backup Path in System Manager (Windows) The Tools menu also gives options to create a backup and restore from a backup file As the backup files are quite large, you will need to delete unwanted backups periodically (Tools > Tidy backups) At the time of final conversion guidance will be given on the use of back up tools

78. Backup Strategies Protecting against hard drive failure by backing up the SIMS SQL database files must be done in conjunction with the backup of the directory that SIMS Document Management Server uses to store its documents. It is important that files are restored as a set as a SIMS SQL database that is out of sync with its document store may result in the following: Loss of changes to documents Loss of documents Reappearance of deleted documents.

79. Backup Strategies Schools MUST ensure that they maintain complete and restorable copies of the following The s:\sims folder The finance files sims.db and sims.log (these are normally included in the s:\sims folder backup set but check) The Nova folder (once again, normally included in the s:\sims folder backup set but check) The .ZIP files, created by core integrator and normally stored in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL$SIMS\backup\ folder The SIMS Document Store, matched to the .zip backup, usually located in c:\DOCSTORAGE

80. SIMS.net Demonstration