Installing SSP Admin Console

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1 The School Seating Planner admin console for SIMS is an application that enables School Seating Planner to integrate with SIMS in order to set-up, configure, and maintain the seating planner for your school using data from SIMS. Once you have completed the steps outlined below, the seating planner will be ready to use by all your teachers. At this point, you should also install the School Seating Planner Scheduler for SIMS so that updates from SIMS happen automatically and keep the information in the seating planner up to date (see section 10). For initial set-up, follow the steps in the sequence outlined below. Once this has been done, you can repeat any of the steps to change settings and update the information in the system. Installing SSP Admin Console The admin console is a user-interface application designed for use on the school data manager s workstation with access to SIMS. To install, double click on the setup icon and the installation wizard will guide you through the installation process. Once installed, you will find a shortcut in the programs menu and the desktop from where you can launch the application. The opening screen is shown below:

2 For data security the software uses encryption and requires access to the internet via https (port 443) - specifically You can now login, using your School Seating Planner administrator login together with your SIMS login credentials, server and database information. If you are unsure of the server and database information, this can be found in the connect configuration file (open the file using a text editor such as notepad) that resides in the SIMS.net installation folder on the workstation. In order for the software to work properly, the SIMS user must have a role that has third party reporting permissions enabled and allows reporting on basic student details, staff details, teaching group information and assessments. After successfully logging into the application, you will see a screen similar to the one below. The tabs at the top of the screen will take you to different data import or configuration screens. Overview of the initial data import process. To populate School Seating Planner with the information required, the application will export information from SIMS before sending this securely to the School Seating Planner. 1) First, pupil details are imported so that the system has all the information required for each pupil. This import can be configured so that the seating plans show the information that you require. 2) Staff details are imported next. This creates login details for each member of staff who will use the system. 3) Information about teaching groups is uploaded next. This allocates the correct teaching groups to the staff and assigns the students to the teaching groups so that the correct pupils are displayed when a teacher views a seating plan for one of their groups.

3 4) Finally, any subject specific assessment information that you wish to display on the seating plans is imported. To do this, you must first select the assessment aspects from SIMS that you wish to display for each subject in each year group. These selections are saved in the application for when you next login. 5) Once you have the information uploaded, you can decide what information to show on the desks. This can be different for each year group if you wish. The above process in explained in more detail on the following pages. Once this initial upload of data is complete, automate updates by installing the SIMS Scheduler application to keep the data in the seating planner up to date. Alternatively, it is easy to maintain the system using this application by revisiting one or more of the tabs and clicking the relevant update button. SECTION 1 Pupil Details Use the drop down menus to choose the data from SIMS that you wish to display in the on the desk icons in the seating planner. The main area of the desk refers to the parts on the diagram that are blank with a pale yellow background. The colour coded data (see below for more information about colour coding) is commonly used to display the pupil s baseline grade and is labelled Baseline on the example above. If you wish to display some assessment aspect from SIMS to display information that is not subject specific (e.g. reading age, ability band), you can do this here by choosing one of the Assessment aspects from the list. If you choose to do this, use the icon at the bottom of the screen to select the corresponding assessment aspects from SIMS that you wish to use for these.

4 The drop down lists will contain all available assessment aspects from SIMS. The Enable for pupil comments list is designed to be used with a comments aspect from SIMS. If this is selected, the teacher can view these comments in the seating planner for the pupils in their classes. Once you have made your selections, these will be saved in the application for the next time you log in. You can display baseline data on the seating planner by selecting Baseline in one of the drop down lists. You may want to use a different baseline grade for core subjects and noncore subjects and for different year groups. To accommodate this, the system allows you to select up to 8 baseline grade aspects by clicking on the icon at the bottom of the screen. You will later match the baselines to the subjects/year groups using the baseline map tab. One of the fields on the desk may be colour coded according to the data it contains. This is commonly used for the baseline data which may be a discrete grade/level or a score. To configure this, click on the colour icon. In the example, baseline grades have been selected to be colour coded as follows with years 7 and 8 using a different colour scheme to the other year groups: If you change the selections, click the save icon at the top right hand corner to commit your changes and use the icon on the top right to return to the data selection.

5 Once you have selected the data that you wish to be displayed on the seating planner, click the update button that appears under the image of the desk icon. If you wish to change your selections from this section just click the update button again and School Seating Planner will be updated with the new data. THE UPDATE PROCESS MAY TAKE SEVERAL MINUTES TO COMPLETE DEPENDING UPON THE AMOUNT OF DATA BEING SENT. ONCE COMPLETED, YOU WILL SEE AN ON SCREEN MESSAGE CONFIRMING THAT THE DATA HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY UPDATED IN SCHOOL SEATING PLANNER.

6 SECTION 2 Pupil Photos Click on the Pupil Photos tab to access this section. If you wish to have the ability for staff to view pupil photos in School Seating Planner, you can export photos from SIMS by clicking the button on this section. Many schools use a third party to provide pupil photographs, so please ensure that you have a licence to use the photographs in third party software. You can click this button at any time to update the photos in School seating Planner from SIMS. THE UPDATE PROCESS MAY TAKE SEVERAL MINUTES TO COMPLETE DEPENDING UPON THE AMOUNT OF DATA BEING SENT. ONCE COMPLETED, YOU WILL SEE AN ON SCREEN MESSAGE CONFIRMING THAT THE DATA HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY UPDATED IN SCHOOL SEATING PLANNER.

7 SECTION 3 Staff Details In this section, staff details are exported from SIMS. The table on the screen shows the data that is currently in School Seating Planner. Once you click the update button, the staff details will be updated and login credentials for the School Seating Planner will be created. By default, the username is set as the staff code and a password is generated as a random 4-digit PIN. You can use the check box at the top to allow staff to change their password. If they do, their new password will not be shown in the table and it will be displayed like the first teacher in the list above. You can reset their password if required by clicking on this cell in the table. You also have the option to allow staff to view other teacher s seating plans. This will also enable a feature where teachers can search for seating plans that include a specific pupil. You can click the update button at any time to update the staff details in School Seating Planner. THE UPDATE PROCESS MAY TAKE SEVERAL MINUTES TO COMPLETE DEPENDING UPON THE AMOUNT OF DATA BEING SENT. ONCE COMPLETED, YOU WILL SEE AN ON SCREEN MESSAGE CONFIRMING THAT THE DATA HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY UPDATED IN SCHOOL SEATING PLANNER.

8 SECTION 4 Teaching groups The screenshot shows an example of how the screen may look after clicking the update button. When the update button is clicked, the above information is exported from SIMS together class assignments (to assign the correct pupils to each class) and sent securely to School Seating Planner. You can click the update button at any time to update the teaching group details in School Seating Planner. THE UPDATE PROCESS MAY TAKE SEVERAL MINUTES TO COMPLETE DEPENDING UPON THE AMOUNT OF DATA BEING SENT. ONCE COMPLETED, YOU WILL SEE AN ON SCREEN MESSAGE CONFIRMING THAT THE DATA HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY UPDATED IN SCHOOL SEATING PLANNER.

9 SECTION 5 Aspects In School Seating Planner, you may require assessment information for each subject to be displayed on the desk icons in the seating planner. In SIMS, this information is stored in assessment aspects and there is likely to be a large number of these in SIMS. To make it easier to select the assessment aspects to use for each subject, this section allows you to choose which aspects from SIMS you will want to use within the School Seating Planner. After you have selected the aspects from this section, you will be able to map them to subjects in the next section before sending the required assessment information to School Seating Planner. Below is an example of how this screen may look: Click each item to select or deselect it. Your selections will be saved automatically for the next time you log in.

10 SECTION 6 Assessment map. This is where you can map the aspects from the last section to each subject. You may require different aspects for each subject for each year group. Use the drop down list to select the year group and then select the aspects that you require for each subject (identified by the SIMS subject code). Once you have selected the required aspects for one year group, you can use the copy and paste icons to copy these to another year group if required. After you have selected the aspects to be mapped to each subject grade, your selections will be automatically saved for the next time you log in.

11 SECTION 7 Assessment update. This is where you send the assessment information from SIMS to School seating Planner. You can select which year groups to update before clicking the update button. THE UPDATE PROCESS MAY TAKE SEVERAL MINUTES TO COMPLETE DEPENDING UPON THE AMOUNT OF DATA BEING SENT. ONCE COMPLETED, YOU WILL SEE AN ON SCREEN MESSAGE CONFIRMING THAT THE DATA HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY UPDATED IN SCHOOL SEATING PLANNER. You can also change the labels that will appear on the desks for each type of assessment grade. You can have different labels for each year group. Change the labels as required and click on the save icon to update this information in School Seating Planner.

12 SECTION 8 Configure Desks. Once the data has been imported, it is possible to configure how the data is displayed on the seating plans in School Seating Planner. Here you can set up to 7 different configurations and allocate them to different year groups. This allows you to display information slightly differently for each year group. To do this: 1) Use the configurations drop-down list to select the configuration you wish to change. 2) Use the other drop-down lists to select the information that you would like to display in each of the available positions. 3) Use the check boxes at the bottom of the screen to indicate the year groups that this configuration is for. 4) Click on the save icon that will appear whenever you make any changes to the selection. Most schools will have one configuration for each year group but it is possible to have more than one for each year group and teachers will be able to toggle between them when they view their seating plans on the system. The top right part of the desk has an extra option ( Kagan Colour ). If this is selected, teachers will be able to colour code this part of the desk when they view and save their seating plans on the staff console.

13 SECTION 9 Baseline Map If you are using baseline grades and you have uploaded more than one baseline grade for each pupil, you can manage which of these grades is displayed for each subject on the School Seating Planner. For example, you may want all English classes to display a different baseline grade to other classes or you may wish to display a different baseline grade in year 7 and 8 to the other year groups. When you select the Baseline Map tab, you will see a screen similar to the one below: Use the drop down lists to select which of the baseline grades (1 to 8) should be displayed for each subject and year group for the classes that are in the system. To change the baseline to be displayed for a particular subject, choose from the drop down menu and your selection will be saved automatically. The baselines correspond to the ones you identified in section 1 (pupil details).

14 SECTION 10 Automate updates Once you have completed the initial set up of the seating planner, you can keep the seating planner up to date automatically by using our SIMS scheduler application. Setting this up will ensure that any changes to pupil details, staffing, class and assessment changes are kept up to date in the seating planner without the need to log into the admin console. The automate updates tab has a link to the document that explains how to set this up. Once set up, you can also use this tab to display the most recent time that the scheduler successfully completed an update from SIMS.