SIMS Spring Release is now available

The SIMS Spring release is available now and we’ll be in touch soon to arrange a date for your school to receive it. In the meantime, here are some of the key enhancements.

Assessment

May 2016 will see the inaugural assessments against the new national curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2 and SIMS Assessment has been updated to reflect the latest changes. Outcomes for KS1 and 2 will no longer be reported using levels; instead scaled scores will be used for tests and new descriptors used to record teacher assessments. You might be interested in our new training course New Key Stage Procedures and Reporting which focusses on the new requirements for this year. For secondary schools, there is a new set of importable resources which enables schools to analyse their key performance information. New templates and reports will allow secondary schools to record results and immediately display analysis for individuals, key groups and cohorts on attainment and progress Key Performance Indicators, such as A*- C English and Maths, Ebacc, Attainment 8, Progress 8 and Best 8. If you use your own aspects for tracking, you can still use these new reports by using the Mapping Tool in SIMS to link school aspects to Capita aspects.

Programme of Study

There are several enhancements to PoS functionality this Spring, including the creation and customisation of user-defined subjects, strands and statements from the new Managing Content page, enabling you to reflect the language and curriculum taught in your school.

New Summative Assessments in the Teacher App

The Spring release features updates to the Programme of Study area in the Teacher App including new summative assessments plus the addition of group filters and new on-screen analysis. Also, for iOS users, there will be the ability to include attendance comments; so staff can add comments at registration directly into the Teacher app and also view comments that have been recorded directly in SIMS.

Summer Census

This release is required to prepare for and run the Summer Census, the date for which is Thursday 19th May 2016. Look out for the Summer Census blog after Easter. Schools wishing to plan ahead might like to make an appointment now for their consultant to visit near that date or alternatively, consider using our Remote Service for School Census.

When to upgrade

If you haven't heard from us already, we will be contacting you soon to schedule a date for your school to receive the release, but you can contact us if there is a particular date that you’d prefer. The number for our MIS Service Desk is 0345 222 1551 • option 3 or you can email us at MISservicedesk@schoolbusinessservices.co.uk