Moving SIMS into the Classroom

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Getting the strategy right
Your building blocks for success
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Getting the strategy right
Your building blocks for success
We all know Rome wasn’t built in a day. Likewise we know that
getting SIMS into the classroom doesn’t just happen overnight. It
can seem like a huge task and many schools don’t know where to
start. Some schools start the process but need a little help getting
to the next stage. This is why we have put together a total solution
package to help you discover the power of SIMS in the classroom.
Whether you need to join us at the first step or another point in
the process, SIMS Professional Services is your partner for success.
The five steps to success:
Step 1 – Strategy, Design and Project Management
Step 2 – Purchase of Equipment and Installation
Step 3 – Implementation and Professional Development
Step 4 – Ongoing Support
Step 5 – Success
Read on to see what’s included in each step and flip over the leaflet to see how we’ve partnered
with other schools to help them discover the power of SIMS in the classroom.
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Step 1
Strategy, Design
and Project Management
The key to delivering excellent experiences of SIMS for end users ultimately lies in the ability of
technology and education experts to identify the right strategy, design the right solution and manage
the project skillfully.
Could you, or someone in your school, quickly and easily answer the following:
•
•
•
•
•
can your administration network cope with current demands?
is your current office network efficient?
is your administration system and data fully secure?
has your office system been built with the future in mind?
is every component of your office system fully supported?
Such skills may not be in abundance in your school, but they are in all our consultants.
We fully understand all the technical implications to deliver the complete SIMS in the classroom package
for every school. Because there is no one size to fit all, every solution is tailored, from ensuring that SIMS
fully contributes to delivering the school’s strategic objectives, to designing the most cost effective,
secure and efficient network. Using existing and/or new hardware and software components,
as well as removing all the headaches of project management.
We’ll even ensure that SIMS is as accessible and secure at home as it is in the classroom through
SIMS Learning Gateway and/or a virtual private network.
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Step 2
Purchase of Equipment
and Installation
Buy, install, use – simple, isn’t it?
But does someone in your school always know:
• the capability of your network infrastructure to handle more IT equipment and traffic?
• the right specifications for new hardware to ensure that any existing or new software
does what you want it to do?
• how to stretch your budget to ensure that you have a good IT platform and system
on which to deliver a media rich curriculum?
Ask the majority of IT companies what to do with your network and equipment and nine times out
of ten they’ll suggest ripping it all out and replacing everything with the latest models and equipment.
But scrimping on IT investment can also be a false economy and might in the long run mean you end
up using even more budget because your system simply can’t deliver the administrative or curriculum
network you need it to.
Our consultants have a unique understanding of technology and education. Following a thorough IT
and security audit, we will help you get the most out of your IT budget by providing expert advice on
ordering the right hardware and software that delivers exactly what you need today. We also ensure
that any investment is future proofed as much as possible so that your IT infrastructure can cope with
anticipated future demands.
Add in the fact that we also offer extremely competitive pricing, a range of hardware and software
all to SIMS specification, and a professional and responsive team of engineers to get your equipment
installed with minimum inconvenience, and it’s easy to see why many schools see us as a total solution.
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Step 3
Implementation and
Professional Development
Ever get the feeling that you could be getting more from your MIS?
Investing in new technology is one thing. Realising its potential is something else.
Are you and your staff:
•
•
•
•
making the most of what you know about your pupils?
confident about all aspects of data security?
able to see all the information you need from a single point of reference?
still slowed down by some administrative or time-consuming tasks?
To get the most out of any investment, you need to continue to adequately resource training
and development so that senior leaders and staff realise the full potential of the new software
or hardware tools.
Our consultants can provide ongoing support, training and advice for key SIMS modules that will
make a real difference to raising standards and driving forward a whole school approach to improvement.
We can provide consultancy and training on key modules such as:
•
•
•
•
•
Lesson Monitor
Behaviour
SEN
Assessment (including Tracking Pupil Progress)
Profiles
Our School Improvement courses are designed to ensure that all staff throughout the school make the
best use of SIMS, strategically and every day in the classroom. See our new range of courses developed
for summer 2009 – SIMS in the Classroom and SIMS and the Senior Leader.
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Step 4
Ongoing Support
When the IT system works everyone’s happy, but when things go wrong, does your school
have the ability to cope?
Are you fed up with:
• an unreliable network that means IT isn’t embedded into everyday practice?
• spending your time trying to get IT problems fixed rather than using IT to
deliver better educational outcomes?
• an IT system that feels like a constant drain on the budget?
• constantly meeting barriers that stop you creating the genuinely e-enabled
learning organisation you want?
There’s sufficient demand on the time of all staff in school already, without the additional burden of
having to manage the IT system too. But IT systems in schools today are organisation critical and time
consuming, so they need to be someone’s expert day job.
We can offer tailored support packages providing your school with an Onsite IT technician to work for
you to maintain your IT system to the highest level.
Our Service desk provides responsive and effective telephone and onsite support when things do go
wrong, support for upgrades, and remote support.
Packages of training courses specific to your school and local authority delivered either onsite or at a
local venue, a planned programme of IT refreshment with competitive pricing, a more predictable IT
spend that you can budget for and ongoing consultancy and advice that aligns your IT system with your
educational objectives.
By liberating your staff from the hassle of managing IT, you are free to pursue more pressing issues and
ensure your school achieves the most value from the investment you make in SIMS software and all
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Step 5
Success
Welcome to SIMS in the Classroom
Classroom practitioners with a view of the whole picture for each pupil at a glance.
Senior Leadership Team with a whole school picture to help drive forward school improvement.
An IT system and strategy that harnesses the full potential of all IT investment and delivers
a genuine e-learning environment.
A total solution from one provider.
Success is the reward from great strategies, well implemented.
When it comes to getting the plan right, you’re not alone.
SIMS Professional Services is your partner for success.
Call us today on 0844 893 9000
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“Efficient use of SIMS enables a head to function well at many levels; it is a teacher’s
tool and should be in the classroom. Implementing change is always difficult, but the
enthusiasm and motivation of the office staff and teachers alike is really supporting
the changes.”
The impact of moving SIMS in the classroom is clear to see
“Teacher understanding of their class, set or target group progress has been enhanced by
them inputting and accessing data directly; they can see patterns, and whole class, group,
set or gender differences at a glance. Previous reports are now available through the linked
documents section of SIMS; teachers find this really useful as they can see how the child
performed in previous years, giving them an even more complete picture.”
Val Cameron, Head Teacher, The Park Lane Primary & Nursery School.
Success is the reward from great strategies,
well implemented. When it comes to
getting the plan right, you’re not alone.
SIMS Professional Services is your
partner for success. Call us today
on 0844 893 9000
Capita Children’s Services
Franklin Court,
Priory Business Park,
Bedford, MK44 3JZ
Tel 0844 893 9000
www.capitacs.co.uk
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“We use Capita’s Onsite Technical Services to support
our curriculum and admin networks in their day to day
operation. Our technicians know the school inside and
out and we find having them here a great asset. They
are regarded around the school as staff members and
part of the team, and we find this relationship works
very well for us. The support and backup Capita
provide for our ICT needs is second to none.”
Mrs L Batt, Heads Assistant, Coppins Green
Primary School, Clacton.
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“The consultants were totally familiar with
the software’s features, and the primary
school context. They could respond to
issues and questions with clear thinking and
problem-solving strategies. They respected
teachers’ views, and valued all contributions.
They gave the ‘big picture’ – setting the
data analysis in its national context as well
as showing its power to inform our
learning strategies.”
Jane Girle,
Headteacher, Penn Wood
Primary and Nursery School.
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"I have nothing but praise for the way that
Capita's Network Infrastructure team has
handled the project. They presented the school
with a solution that has not only improved on
the way we use wireless; but has also improved
the way we work in the school."
Celia Irwin,
Head Teacher, Blisworth Primary School.
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“Capita staff are very professional, know the
software inside-out, and understand how we
want to use it.”
John Gregory,
Vice Principal, Minsthorpe Community College.