Sims office User Top Tips and Techniques – Primary

17. 
    Click the Save button and click the Close button to close the user defined field.
    
18. 
    Open up a pupil record and select panel 5: Family/Home. The newly created user defined field should now be displayed.
    
19. 
    Now select a specific year group and add their data collection year group to the newly created field for a few of the pupils. Ensure that each pupil record is saved throughout the process.
    

Alerts, Notifications and Communication

Chapter Introduction

One benefit of a management information system (MIS) like SIMS is that it can draw attention to certain situations, saving time in having to search for the data.

It is also useful to ensure that key data about pupils is at your fingertips.

This chapter intends to highlight some of these areas available in SIMS.

Internal messaging is available to all SIMS schools which provide the mechanism for sending messages to staff within SIMS.

The new InTouch module greatly enhances this functionality and enables communications by way of the existing system and texts or emails to be sent to any people that exist in SIMS. Refer to Appendix A to find out further information.

Step by Step – Sending an Emergency Alert

The Emergency Alert functionality is designed for classroom staff to send a message to staff who are on call if an incident occurs in the classroom and assistance is required.

A message is sent to the nominated staff member and the message is displayed on their SIMS Home Page. As the message is automatically sent as a high priority, the designated member of staff’s machine will beep to alert them to a new message (as long as the machine has a sound card).

However, before this functionality can be made available for general internal use, the members of staff who are the designated nominees for receiving such messages need to be added.

1. 
   Select Tools | Setups | Emergency Alert to activate and select the designated staff to which emergency alerts are to be sent.
   

2. 
   Ensure the Use Emergency Alert check box is selected.
   
3. 
   In the example given, Mrs Gillian Grosvenor is already selected to receive internal notifications. Click the + Add button to the right of the panel to add additional staff to the Selected Staff list.
   
4. 
   Type Myles in the Surname field, and then click the Search button.
   
5. 
   Mr Kevin Myles is displayed. Click the OK button.
   

NOTE: The email and SMS options are only available to schools that have opted to purchase SIMS InTouch.

6. 
   The message text that is contained in the alert is shown at the bottom of the panel. The appropriate teacher, room and class information is merged when they activate the message.
   
7. 
   Click the Save button, and then click the Close button to close the Emergency Alert Configuration screen.
   
8. 
   From the top of the screen click the Send Emergency Alert button.
   

Send Emergency Alert button

9. 
   The person sending the alert receives the Emergency Alert Sent message and the designated member of staff receives notification, either in sound or as a pop-up alert that they have a new message.
   
10. 
    For this exercise an emergency alert is sent to Mrs G Grosvenor, the login used on this course.
    
11. 
    Select Focus | Home Page and look at the My Messages [InTouch] panel to view the message.
    

NOTE: For schools not using InTouch, the messages panel is entitled My Messages.

12. 
    Once the message has been opened there is the option to reply to the sender or reply to all the recipients. The nominated person might find it useful to select Reply to All to let other recipients and the sender know whether they are able to attend the incident or not.
    
13. 
    Click the Close button to close the message.
    

NOTE: The message can be deleted once it has been read. If old messages are not regularly deleted the mailbox may become full and prevent further messages being received.

Step by Step – Setting up a Reminder

SIMS has the capability to set up reminders for those data items that need to be periodically followed up.

1. 
   Pupil related reminders enable office staff to set up when free school eligibility needs to be reviewed; when part-time attendance periods are ending and when medical events, such as medical inspections, are to occur.
   
2. 
   SEN reminders, which are likely to be more useful to the SEN co-ordinator, enable reminders for pupil reviews, events and provisions to be set.
   
3. 
   Admission reminders which enable reminders for a number of events relating specifically to the admissions process to be set.
   

For this example setting a reminder for free school meal eligibility will be looked at.

1. 
   Select the pupil record for Stephen Ackton, and then click the Dietary hyperlink.
   
2. 
   Highlight the current entry for free school meal entitlement and either double-click or click the Open button.
   
3. 
   Either enter the End Date manually or click the Calendar button and select a date up to thirty days in the future.
   
4. 
   Click the OK button, and then click the Save button to save Stephen’s pupil record.
   
5. 
   Select Focus | Alerts | Setup Reminders.
   
6. 
   Ensure that the Free School Meal Eligibility Active check box is selected and the Days in Advance is set to 30.
   

7. 
   Click the OK button, and then view the reminders listed in the My Reminders panel on the SIMS Home Page.
   
8. 
   A reminder regarding free school meals is displayed. Open the reminder message and notice that Stephen Ackton’s review date is listed.
   

NOTE: If the reminder does not display it may be necessary to refresh the SIMS home page by closing it and selecting Focus | Home Page.

Step by Step – Adding a Quick Note

Adding a Quick Note to a pupil’s details is a very useful way to alert all staff to certain key information for a pupil.

If quick note information has been entered then it displays prominently in the basic details panel when their record is displayed. It also shows prominently in the pupil teacher view, which is the default pupil view for class teachers.

Before embarking on the use of quick note the school should formulate a policy on what data should and should not be put in the quick note. If it is used for many different purposes then the importance can sometimes be lost.

It is also good practice to date any entries into the quick note.

1. 
   Select the pupil record for Tilly Danes.
   
2. 
   Select the quick note by clicking the Quick Note button. This enables text to be added as it relates to the selected pupil.
   

   Quick Note button

3. 
   Enter a note about Tilly, for example, Tilly carries an Epipen.
   

4. 
   Click the Save button to save the pupil record.
   
5. 
   Close and re-open Tilly Dane’s pupil record and see that the quick note always displays when text is present.
   
6. 
   Click the Student Teacher View link from the right-hand side to see where a class teacher would view this information.
   

NOTE: A report may be run periodically to check all the quick note data that is held against pupils.

Step by Step – Communication Log

The functionality in the communication log has been introduced to support the InTouch module, which enables communication via SMS and email with pupil contacts and keeps a record of what has been sent. Some schools may wish to investigate the use of the communications log to manually add the details of communication with parents or members of staff to form an electronic record which staff can view.

1. 
   Select Focus | Pupil | Pupil Details and choose the record for Benny Evans.
   
2. 
   In the Links panel on the right-hand side, click the Communication Log hyperlink to display the Communication Log browser.
   
3. 
   Click the Search button to view any existing communications relating to Benny. If required, filters can be applied when looking for Benny’s communication details.
   
4. 
   To set up a new communication log click the New button.
   

5. 
   Select a Communicatee by clicking the browse button.
   

NOTE: Ensure that the person communicating with the school is already known to SIMS.

Browse button

6. 
   Click the Search button to display all pupil contacts. However, there are filter options available, including the Role drop-down list which enables a smaller number of people to be available for selection if the surname or forename of the person is unknown.
   

1. 
   Select Marianne Evans by double-clicking or clicking the OK button.
   
2. 
   Select Telephone from the Type drop-down list, Received from the Direction drop-down and Public from the Log Confidentiality drop-down list.
   

NOTE: The different options available in Log Confidentiality are: Public – the message will be available to all members of staff with sufficient access. Private – the message will be available only to the person who created it. Confidential – the message will be available only to members of staff with school administrator or senior management team permissions.