our How SIMS helps brochure.

How SIMS helps...
What every primary school leader
needs to know about SIMS
PAGE 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 tracking
progress across the new national curriculum 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 primary school in
achieving its goals.
Contents
Improving teaching and learning
Effective school leadership
...............................4
.......................................7
Whole school communications .......................................8
Saving time and money
...............................................9
Helping you go the extra mile
.......................................10
I wouldn’t go anywhere
where I couldn’t have SIMS.
Linda Davis, Headteacher, Wistaston Academy
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 pupil’s progress
is tracked, helping to inform lesson
planning so that every child’s needs
are met.
Making Early Years progress
tracking easier
With the requirements to benchmark
a child’s learning journey at the start
of their education, we understand
your primary school wants to keep
track of your pupils’ progress as easily
and simply as possible.
The SIMS Early Years Assessment
Resources, with APP grids and
marksheets, allow teachers to
effectively record and monitor the
ability, attainment and progress of
their pupils from nursery through
reception and help support their
transition into year 1.
With SIMS Aspect Analysis and
Discover graphs also included,
schools and nurseries can easily
track the progress of their early
years pupils with a few clicks. So
you can get a group overview or
build a detailed profile of pupils’
development in a matter of minutes.
As well as saving time for your
Foundation Stage teachers, you will
have peace of mind that you have a
robust tracking solution in place and
can measure the impact your school
has had on children’s outcomes given
their starting points.
For more information visit
www.capita-sims.co.uk/EYFS
“With SIMS, we can easily
track progress, set targets
and manage interventions
to achieve the best possible
outcomes for our pupils.”
Rosie Simmonds, Headteacher,
Leverington Primary Academy
Watch the video:
Did you know SIMS can help track
pupil performance across Early
Years?
SIMS helped
Wistaston
Academy to raise
attendance from
93% to 96.4%
PAGE 5
Tracking pupils across the
new curriculum
Adapting to a life without levels can
be challenging for primary schools,
but whether you’re choosing to adapt
your current assessment strategy,
creating a completely new system
or using pre-defined material, SIMS
Assessment provides an efficient
solution to support your school.
The new Programmes of Study
screen within SIMS Assessment gives
teachers access to the entire national
curriculum programmes of study for
both the statutory and non-statutory
guidance. Teachers can use their
professional judgement to enter both
formative and summative assessment
detail into subject progress grids
for each strand of the new national
curriculum.
Instant analysis is provided on
the data entry screen, so teachers
always have sight of an individual’s
progress towards end of year or
school expectations. Quick access
to this information means timely
interventions can be introduced to
support teaching, learning and pupil
progress.
Progress Grids show teachers whether
each student is emerging, developing,
secure or has mastered a skill in a
simple traffic light display. This allows
schools to spot if a child is progressing
or not, no matter what assessment
system they follow.
“We use SIMS all the time - it’s revolutionised
our data and assessment tracking.”
Gail Kirby, Deputy Headteacher, Short Wood Primary School
Read the full case study
How SIMS helps...
SIMS Assessment - record and report on pupil 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 pupil’s
performance, attendance or behaviour
School Improvement Programme - let our expert consultants
review and develop your assessment practices with you
*
*https://www.gov.uk/government/news/disadvantaged-primary-pupils-to-benefit-from-extra-225-million
PAGE 6
Effective classroom
management
With the number of tasks that
teachers have to juggle during a
school day, they need the tools that
give them the maximum possible
time to focus on teaching.
Electronic
registration
saves schools
3-6 hours
per week
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, traffic lights on tracking
grids, report templates and a teacher
view on every pupil 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 pupil.
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 pupil 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.
With the SIMS Teacher app, you can also enter
behaviour information from wherever you are.
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.
Watch the video:
Did you know SIMS can help
you track your pupil premium
children?
How SIMS helps...
SIMS Teacher app - quickly and easily access assessment
marksheets and then enter grades, comments and marks.
Now includes the Programmes of Study
SIMS Homepage - give teachers and school leaders an instant
snapshot of current progress and conduct of all pupils
SIMS TeacherView - view a detailed summary screen for
each pupil
SIMS InTouch - send messages relating to a pupil’s
achievements, behaviour, unexpected school closures,
unexplained absences, special educational needs and more
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 gives 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 school
management teams information
on their current pupil 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.
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.
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?
“SIMS helps teachers and our senior
leadership team to keep on top of
their progress and allows us to easily
provide evidence to Ofsted.”
Jayne Mullane, Headteacher,
Mersey Vale Primary School
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 tailor-made 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, managing assessment without
levels, self-evaluation support to
governor training.
Watch the video:
Did you know how the SIMS
homepage can support primary
leaders and teachers?
Call 0800 170 1724
to find out how SIMS
can help with your school
improvement journey.
How SIMS helps...
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
PAGE 8
Whole school communications
Keeping parents in the loop
Safeguarding your pupils
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.
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 pupils, so you can facilitate immediate targeted
actions - helping you keep your pupils safe and support your positive learning
environment.
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 pupil, so why not share
some of it with parents?
Keep parents informed of their child’s
progress, achievements, attendance
and behaviour, so parents can give
children feedback too.
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 email, 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, quickly and easily.
Watch the video: Transform your school’s communication
with SIMS InTouch
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How SIMS helps...
SIMS Learning Gateway - give parents access to
information on their child
SIMS InTouch - send messages relating to a pupil’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
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 re-using information already in the system.
You only have to enter pupil information once,
saving hours for the admin office and, with SIMS
Discover, you can also set up timesaving automatic
alerts to inform staff about changes within a dynamic
pupil group.
“With Hosted SIMS we access
the system more easily so we
are recording more data and can
put all our effort into focusing on
the pupils and understanding
their needs. ”
Paul Pearson, ICT Manager,
St Mary’s RC Primary School
Watch the video:
Introducing Hosted SIMS
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.
How SIMS helps...
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 - school financial management,
advanced and graphical financial reporting and multi-year
financial planning systems
SIMS Agora - reduce costs by streamlining your payment
administration. Parents can pay for school meals, trips, uniform
and much more online
SIMS Dinner Money - manage and report on school meals
efficiently. Record, monitor and share your pupils’ meal choices
SIMS Teacher app - record attendance, assessment, achievement
and behaviour from wherever you are
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%would
of delegates
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 0844 893 9000* or visit
www.capita-sims.co.uk/training to find out more
*Calls to 0844/0845 numbers will cost three pence per minute, plus your phone company’s access charge.
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 have particularly valued
our SIMS whole support since
we converted to an academy
- the SIMS helpdesk is always
supportive and deals with our
calls efficiently.”
Sandra McCarroll, School Business Manager,
Cippenham Infant School
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, email, 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
Admin ICT support
• Helpdesk support - telephone,
email 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 email
• Support for software packages
including Microsoft and antivirus packages
• Restoration of your database
using the data from your most
recent viable backup
• A written SIMS strategy plan
To find out more about these packages call 0800 170 1732
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.
www.capita-sims.co.uk/stay-in-touch
SIMS website
Find out how other primary schools are using SIMS,
view upcoming events, the SIMS training calendar, top
tips and video demonstrations.
www.capita-sims.co.uk
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.
www.capita-sims.co.uk/MyAccount
Visit our blog
Visit the SIMS blog for best practice, insight and ideas
to drive school improvement.
www.capita-sims.co.uk/blog
Twitter
Follow us @CapitaSIMS for the latest SIMS news.
Capita SIMS, Franklin Court, Priory Business Park,
Cardington, Bedford MK44 3JZ
Tel: 01234 838080 | Fax: 01234 832036
Email: info@capita.co.uk | www.capita-sims.co.uk
SIMS5185 v2 01/16
Registered office: 71 Victoria Street, Westminster, London SW1H 0XA
Registered in England No. 22997 47. Part of Capita plc.