How SIMS helps... What every secondary school leader needs to know about SIMS

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1 How SIMS helps... What every secondary school leader needs to know about SIMS

2 How SIMS helps... SIMS offers much more than a world-class management information system - we help schools inspire. We ve worked alongside schools for over 30 years, helping them to drive improvement and support every child to achieve. We help school leaders make informed decisions and give the whole school the tools to raise attainment; from monitoring the progress of all students and measuring the success of your Pupil Premium spend, to helping you provide comprehensive evidence for inspections. As schools deal with reduced budgets, time and money is even more precious to them. SIMS provides a cost-effective solution that not only saves your staff time, but also helps you to manage your school finances and work efficiently across many aspects of school life. This guide outlines how our complete range of services, software and expertise can help your secondary school in achieving its goals. Contents Improving teaching and learning...4 Effective school leadership...7 Whole school communications...8 Saving time and money...9 Helping you go the extra mile...10

3 Staff find SIMS is key to their everyday work. As a school we use SIMS to its absolute capacity. Tina Sparrow, Data Manager, Passmores Academy

4 PAGE 4 Improving teaching and learning We understand improving outcomes and ensuring every child achieves their potential will always be among your top priorities. With SIMS, you can be sure that every student s progress is tracked, helping to inform lesson planning so that every student s needs are met. Tracking student progress School inspectors want proof that you re helping to close the gap between the performance of different groups of students and they ll need to know that you re spending your Pupil Premium budget effectively. SIMS helps you to track students attendance, behaviour and progress against other groups to ensure you re closing the gap. With real time performance data you can track progress, identify priorities and set targets for individuals and groups. You can also highlight performance against targets through colour coding. SIMS allows you to analyse progress for specific groups across a class, subject, year group or the whole school. Vulnerable groups, such as SEN students, or those eligible for the Pupil Premium are automatically identified in SIMS registers and marksheets, further supporting tracking information that s crucial for your next inspection. Thanks to the SIMS School Improvement Programme, I have at my fingertips all the information I need to instantly understand what is happening in my school. Reverend Steve Walters, Principal, St Peter s Collegiate School

5 PAGE 5 Adapting to the curriculum changes Key Stage 3 With no accountability measures in place for Key Stage 3, it s important that you choose an approach to suit your school s priorities. With the changing assessment landscape there is an increasing focus on more regular formative assessments and gaining an understanding of what a child knows and does not know against what is being taught. As well as Key Stage 1 and 2, our solution has now been extended into Key Stage 3 within SIMS, to encourage consistency and provide a national framework for assessing knowledge, skills and understanding against the curriculum being taught. Key Stage 4 Schools are now faced with an array of different measures to track their students against. It is important that the system you are using to record, track and analyse GCSE grades is fully aligned with the new accountability measures of Progress 8 and includes the ability to monitor student performance against subjects counting towards the EBacc measure. The full flexibility of the new secondary assessment solution allows schools to create their own marksheets, tracking grids, calculations and analysis. This flexibility will allow schools to assess using the new GCSEs and the 1-9 grade system. The new SIMS analysis resources for Key Stage 4 provide analysis for 5A*-C, Ebacc, Progress 8 and many other key measures, by all the groups you re interested in. These resources all help to give you a head start in understanding your students and how they are achieving against the new performance measures. SIMS has facilitated us to network with other schools for data assessment which, during this time of change, has been phenomenal. Jill Wilson, Assistant Head, Keswick School Read the case study How SIMS helps... SIMS Assessment - record and report on student progress and highlight against targets through colour coding, so you can see who s on target SIMS Discover - see a clear and complete analysis of your school information and receive instant alerts to changes to a student s performance, attendance or behaviour SIMS Homepage - give teachers and school leaders an instant snapshot of current progress and conduct of all students School Improvement Programme - let our expert consultants review and develop your assessment practices with you

6 PAGE 6 Effective classroom management With the number of tasks that they have to juggle during a school day, teachers need the tools that give them the maximum possible time to focus on teaching. Putting SIMS in the classroom makes it part of every teacher s daily routine, so they can focus on doing what they do best. Electronic registration saves schools 3-6 hours per week Electronic registration, traffic lights on tracking grids, report templates and a teacher view on every student are the tools they need for all aspects of classroom management. Registration made simple The SIMS Teacher app makes it effortless for teachers to record attendance data for every student. Quickly record present, absent, and late marks or school defined codes with a few simple taps so that you can get back to your lesson. If you need to mark a student late, the app automatically indicates the current number of minutes past the class start time. The SIMS Teacher app now also includes the Programmes of Study, providing a streamlined view for efficient data entry and allowing teachers to record achievement as it is observed. Behaviour management Poor attendance and negative behaviour can disrupt the culture of even the best schools, while rewarding good behaviour makes a significant contribution to helping you raise standards. With the right information to hand, you can identify problems early and put measures in place for swift improvement. SIMS allows you to keep track of attendance and behaviour and to communicate key issues to staff and parents easily. SIMS instantly displays which students have not arrived at school or for a lesson, making it easy for you to inform parents by SMS or with SIMS InTouch. By recording behaviour incidents electronically, the SIMS communication tools automatically alert other teachers linked to a child when a behaviour incident is logged in SIMS. How SIMS helps... Watch the video: Did you know how you can manage attendance and behaviour from the SIMS homepage? SIMS Teacher app - quickly and easily access assessment marksheets and then enter grades, comments and marks. Now includes the Programmes of Study SIMS Lesson Monitor - easily keep track of students attendance and behaviour SIMS School Report - see a snapshot of your school s attendance, achievement and behaviour information SIMS Homepage - give teachers and school leaders an instant snapshot of current progress and conduct of all students SIMS TeacherView - view a detailed summary screen for each student SIMS InTouch - send messages relating to a student s achievements, behaviour, unexpected school closures, unexplained absences, special educational needs and more

7 PAGE 7 Effective school leadership School leaders and governors should know what s working in a school and what isn t - but with so much going on, it s often hard to have everything you need all in one place. SIMS can give you an overview of everything that s happening in your school, so you can provide the evidence you need and communicate effectively with your staff, without having to pull lots of information together. Providing the evidence you need The SIMS School Report provides you with an instant overview of your school, based on the latest data held in SIMS. This will give the school management team information on their current student numbers, attendance, achievement and behaviour information. There s the option to view either a long or short version of the report and you can export it into a PDF or Excel so that you can share it with your governors. You can also use SIMS Discover to analyse trends and patterns of behaviour and present it in a graphical way. It s simple to produce overviews of performance data for governors with SIMS Discover, which they can analyse and use to hold the headteacher to account. Watch the video: Did you know how to generate the new school report? Developing your staff Ensuring you re getting the very best out of your staff is key to the success of any school. As a senior leader, you need the tools to help you in all aspects of managing your staff - from monitoring the quality of teaching, putting personal development plans in place and tracking CPD, to proving to Ofsted the impact your staff are making across your school. With SIMS, you can make sure all members of staff are fully involved in their professional development. Helping you to drive school improvement Our School Improvement Programme aims to help every school on its journey to outstanding. Our specialist consultants have all worked as senior leaders and have a proven track-record in helping schools provide evidence of improvement to parents, governors and school inspectors. How SIMS helps... The school improvement team have been integral in allowing us to look at data with a different perspective. Tina Sparrow, Data Manager, Passmores Academy Teaching and learning is at the heart of any school s improvement cycle and our programme is no different - each step has been designed with that in mind. Your programme will be tailormade for your school and helps you to identify your priorities for improvement. We offer a variety of packages to suit your school, from strategic planning days, reviewing your assessment policy, self-evaluation support to governor training. Call to find out how SIMS can help with your school improvement journey. SIMS Discover - monitor at risk groups, assess intervention strategies and see the whole picture of your school SIMS Homepage - monitor what s happening across your school with key indicators in real time alerting senior staff to what they need to know SIMS Staff Performance - ensure school leaders can assess teaching quality and identify training needs easily School Improvement Programme - harness your data to drive improved teaching and learning SIMS School Report - an instant overview of your school, based on the latest data held in SIMS

8 PAGE 8 Whole school communications Keeping parents in the loop When it comes to raising attainment, it s important that parents are involved in their child s school life. SIMS Learning Gateway gives parents easy online access to daily attendance and attainment records. With their finger on the pulse, parents are more engaged and their children are too. The right information at the right time Parents evenings should focus on addressing the real issues rather than bringing parents up-to-speed. SIMS holds a vast quantity of information about every student, so why not share some of it with parents? Keep parents informed of their child s progress, assessment, attendance, behaviour and homework assignments, so parents can give children feedback too. Safeguarding your students With the introduction of Ofsted s latest safeguarding measures, it s vital that your school has the right tools in place. SIMS enables you to spot where things might be going wrong for students, so you can facilitate immediate targeted actions - helping you keep your students safe and support your positive learning environment. The new SIMS Activities module enables schools to manage their extra-curricular activities from any internet enabled device - anytime, anywhere. Whether you are scheduling activities before, during or after school, you can send out invites, manage responses and keep parents regularly updated. Plus, with the ability to take the register from wherever you are with the SIMS Teacher app, staff can immediately spot in SIMS if a child has gone missing. Communicate quickly It can often be hard to get in contact with parents. Whether parents prefer to receive a discreet text message or an , SIMS InTouch ensures that they are always kept up-to-date. SIMS also gives you the parent s information to hand, allowing you to communicate quickly and efficiently. Connecting people across the school By using SIMS communication tools, your whole school can be connected by the information already held in SIMS. Alerts and information can be broadcast to key stakeholders how and where they need it, quickly and easily. Watch the video: Transform your school s communication with SIMS InTouch SIMS InTouch saves the average secondary school 450 man hours and 8,000 in a year How SIMS helps... SIMS Learning Gateway - give parents access to information on their child SIMS InTouch - send messages relating to a student s achievements, behaviour and more SIMS Agora - an easy and convenient way for parents to make payments online SIMS Activities - efficiently manage all your extra-curricular activities

9 PAGE 9 Saving time and money With endless demands placed on all your staff, time and resources are precious commodities. SIMS helps your staff achieve even more, by lightening their workloads. Simplified admin at the click of a button Fed up with hours of repetitive administration? SIMS performs countless admin tasks automatically by reusing information already in the system. You only have to enter student information once, saving hours for the admin office, and with SIMS Discover, you can also set up time-saving automatic alerts to inform staff about changes within a dynamic student group. Improving outcomes with access to SIMS anytime, anywhere Hosted SIMS frees schools of the responsibility, effort and cost of running their SIMS servers onsite and managing their own backups by moving SIMS to the cloud. It gives teaching and non-teaching staff the flexibility to access SIMS through any internet connected device, allowing them to work flexibly. Efficient management of your finances With school and academy finances growing in complexity, you need a solution to make things easier and to help stretch your budget further. SIMS Financial Management System (FMS) provides a picture of your school s finances to help ensure that resources are put to the best possible use. In SIMS, pupil reports can be prepared in around 60 hours, saving a massive 2,800 hours per year. Neil McClements, Vice Principal, Rainey Endowed School How SIMS helps... Watch the video: Introducing Hosted SIMS Hosted SIMS - access to SIMS from any internet connected device SIMS Learning Gateway & SIMS InTouch - efficient and instant communication between home and school and flexible working for teachers SIMS FMS, FRS & FPS Web - the school financial management, advanced and graphical financial reporting and multi-year financial planning systems SIMS Teacher app - record attendance, assessment, achievement and behaviour from wherever you are

10 PAGE 10 Helping you go the extra mile Leave the technical work to us IT issues can sometimes cause headaches for school staff. That s why we offer technical support for all your software and hardware. Not only this, but we also provide temporary or permanent staff cover for all elements of SIMS, FMS and your IT infrastructure. 95% of delegates would recommend our training courses to a colleague Become SIMS experts For SIMS to make a real difference to your school, you need to understand everything it can do for you. We want you to become SIMS experts, so why not consider one of our training courses to help you make the most of SIMS? No one knows our software as well as we do. We can train your staff on any of our 120 courses in 20 locations across the country. Or let us bring the training to you - all courses can be delivered at your school or tailored for your specific needs. Call us on * or visit to find out more *Calls to 0844/0845 numbers will cost three pence per minute, plus your phone company s access charge.

11 PAGE 11 Find the best hardware for your school Having trouble choosing the best hardware and software for your school? Considering introducing tablets and mobile devices? We can help. We provide expert advice on choosing the most suitable solution for all your hardware and software needs and will source IT hardware and software for you at very competitive rates. We re here to support you When things go wrong or you ve got a question to ask, you need the very best support. With our support offering, you ll have a dedicated Customer Services Manager, be invited to regular software update events and benefit from discounted training and consultancy. We value the face-to-face support provided by SIMS, such as on-site visits to help with specific, more complex issues. Clare Gleave, Associate Principal, Colchester Academy We offer three levels of support so you can ensure you ve got the right package to meet your needs. Our flexible support options include: Whole support Helpdesk support - telephone, , remote and on-site visits Network support for SIMS and other applications Support for software packages including Microsoft and anti-virus packages Restoration of your database using the data from your most recent viable backup Senior leadership team overviews Curriculum team support for your curriculum network, including operating systems, software and peripheral devices such as printers, whiteboards, PCs and laptops Three on-site visits of up to three hours to meet your additional expert support requirements A written SIMS strategy plan Admin ICT support Helpdesk support - telephone, and remote Network support for SIMS and other applications Support for software packages including Microsoft and antivirus packages Senior leadership team overviews Restoration of your database using the data from your most recent viable backup SIMS only support Helpdesk support - telephone and Support for software packages including Microsoft and antivirus packages Restoration of your database using the data from your most recent viable backup To find out more about these packages call

12 Ways to keep in touch Make sure you don t miss out on the latest SIMS news, our events and support information. Stay in touch in a way that suits you: Achieve - the SIMS e-newsletter Sign up to receive monthly SIMS news sent directly to your inbox with information and links to case studies and how to videos. SIMS website Find out how other secondary schools are using SIMS, view upcoming events, the SIMS training calendar, top tips and video demonstrations. My Account Sign up to My Account, our free customer portal and join thousands of SIMS users in the online community. You will have access to handbooks, help files, event bookings and discussion forums. Visit our blog Visit the SIMS blog for best practice, insight and ideas to drive school improvement. Twitter Follow for the latest SIMS news. SIMS5186 v2 01/16 Capita SIMS, Franklin Court, Priory Business Park, Cardington, Bedford MK44 3JZ Tel: Fax: [email protected] Registered office: 71 Victoria Street, Westminster, London SW1H 0XA Registered in England No Part of Capita plc.