PREPARING FOR 2017/2018 TIMETABLE AND USING OPTIONS SIMS.NET BOOKLET 1 OF 5 IN THE SECONDARY END OF ACADEMIC YEAR SERIES
CONTENTS: INTRODUCTION... 2 CHECKLIST... 3 CREATING 2017/2018 ACADEMIC YEAR... 4 RUNNING DATABASE DIAGNOSTICS... 10 SETTING UP YEAR GROUP PROMOTION MAPPING... 11 CREATING A NEW TIMETABLE FILE IN NOVA T6... 14 SETTING UP YEAR GROUPS AND BANDS IN NOVA T6... 16 CREATING OPTION BLOCKS IN NOVA T6... 18 EXPORTING BAND STRUCTURES TO SIMS.NET... 20 ALLOCATING NEXT YEAR S YEAR 10 TO BANDS... 21 CREATE TRANSFER FILE FOR OPTIONS... 24 1
INTRODUCTION This guide is intended to help secondary schools prepare for the 2017/2018 timetable and, where applicable, to set up the system in order to use SIMS Options. Steps 1, 2, 3 and 8 can be carried out by a member of the admin team, but it is advisable that steps 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9 are carried out by the timetabler. Steps 4, 5, 6 and 7 can be carried out at any time, but step 8 can only be carried out after steps 1 to 7 have been fully completed and 9 must be completed last. All steps must be carried out by schools intending to use SIMS Options, steps 3, 6, 7, 8 and 9 do not need to be completed at this time by schools not using SIMS Options. For ease, steps are summarised overleaf in the form of a checklist. In all cases, before proceeding please contact your network manager to take a full SIMS back up. 2
CHECKLIST 1. Create 2017/2018 academic year 2. Run Database Diagnostics 3. Set up year group promotion mapping (Options users only) 4. Create 2017/2018 dataset in Nova T6 5. Set up year groups and bands in Nova T6 6. Create option blocks (Options users only) 7. Export band structures to SIMS.net (Options users only) 8. Allocate next year s year 10 and 12 to bands (Options users only) 9. Create a transfer file for use with Options (Options users only) 3
1. CREATING 2017/2018 ACADEMIC YEAR This process involves defining term and half term holiday dates, INSET days and bank holidays for the following academic year (2017/2018). Further school closures (additional INSET days etc) can be added at a later date via the school diary if they are not known at the time of creating the academic year. It is strongly recommended that all other users log out of the system when this is being done as the process requires a lot of resource and can take anything up to 20 minutes to create (as the system is creating attendance records for each pupil for next year). When creating an academic year, the start date of the first term is deemed to be the first day of the academic year, regardless of whether pupils will attend school on that date (for example, if there is an INSET day). The academic year is considered to end 365 days later. For example, if the academic year starts on 04/09/2017 then an end date of 03/09/2018 will be automatically supplied. To create the academic year in SIMS.net go to: Routines > School > Academic Year The Define an Academic Year Wizard is displayed. 4
Click Next to begin defining the next academic year. Define the school working week by selecting the relevant AM and PM session against each school working day any errors will be indicated in the bottom section of the window. Click Next. 5
Define the term start and end dates by clicking on each cell and then on the drop down arrow and selecting the relevant date any errors will be detailed in the bottom section of the window. Ensure the Term holiday name is correct, ie Christmas holiday for the Autumn term, Easter holiday for the Spring term and Summer holiday for the Summer term. Click Next. Click Add Holiday to add all half term holidays. Click the drop down arrow in the Category field and add Half Term as the Category. Use the calendar buttons to add a half term Start Date (Monday) and End Date (Friday). Add a Description. Click OK. 6
Click Add Holiday again and repeat steps until all half term holidays have been defined. Click Next. Click Add to define any known INSET days these can be added at a later date if not known at this time. Add Staff Training day under the Category field. Use the calendar to add the date. Enter a description. Click OK. Click Add and repeat to add all known INSET days. Click Next. 7
Click Add holiday to define all public holidays. Enter Bank Holiday as the Category. Use the calendar to enter the date. Enter a description. Click OK. Click Add and repeat to add all known public holidays. Click Next. The academic year is now ready to be created. Check the summary to ensure all dates are correct. If they are not, use the Back button to go back to the relevant stage and amend the information. Click Create when happy that all the dates displayed are correct. The following error message will be displayed, read and click Yes. 8
The academic year will take a while to create. When finished the following message is displayed. Click Close. 9
2. RUNNING DATABASE DIAGNOSTICS Before going any further it is a good idea to run the database diagnostics routine to detect any problems with the data. This routine can be run by anyone with System Manager access rights. To run database diagnostics from within SIMS.net go to: Tools > System Diagnostics > Database Diagnostics. Click Run. Click Yes. The diagnostics routine will run (displaying only an egg timer) and detail checks conducted at the top of the screen. For information on fixes applied, scroll through the checks at the top of the screen and view results at the bottom no action needs to be carried out, necessary fixes will have been automatically applied. Click Close when finished. 10
3. SETTING UP YEAR GROUP PROMOTION MAPPING To move pupils to the correct year group for next year, promotion paths must be set up in SIMS for year groups only. As SIMS.net is able to work in more than one academic year setting up the promotion mapping will not affect this year and promotion of pupils from one year group to the next will not take place until the first day of next academic year. To set up the promotion mapping in SIMS.net go to: Routines > School > Promotion. The Promotion Data Check message opens, shown below Click OK. The Validate Memberships routine is run to check all group memberships. This may take some time to complete, once finished the Set Up Promotion Mapping window is displayed, as shown below. 11
From here, the promotion paths for each of the current year groups can be set up as follows: In the Academic Year section select Academic Year 2016/2017 from the Promote From drop down list - please ensure you choose the correct year as it is very difficult to reverse this process if the wrong year is chosen. Click Load. The current year group and predicted promotion path is listed in the Year Group section of the window. The Registration Group section can be ignored this time as this will be dealt with at a later date. Check that the predicted promotion paths are correct for year groups. If they are not, select the appropriate year group for the pupils to move into next year by using the drop down arrow in the Promotion Path column. Once all year groups have been mapped click the Override membership check box from the Year Group section. Click Finish. The Set Up Promotion Mapping window closes and the Promote Pastoral Groups page is displayed as shown. 12
Click on the + by each relevant year group to view all promotion mappings for that year group by individual pupil, as shown below (ignore information in the registration group columns). Click Save if all pupils are correctly mapped. Click Close to finish. 13
4. CREATING A NEW TIMETABLE FILE IN NOVA T6 To begin working on next year s timetable a new data set (spl file) needs to be created in Nova T6. Where appropriate curriculum items from this year s timetable can be copied into the file for next year, for example year 10 option blocks can be copied into year 11 for 2017/2018. To create a new data set in Nova T6: Run Nova T6 and load a data set containing the current timetable (this must be a construction data set). Go to Data > Transfer Curriculum. The Transfer Curriculum window is displayed showing all blocks in the timetable and columns for each active year group within the school. To copy a block to the same year group next year (year 7 block into year 7) click once into the adjacent white cell (placing a tick in the cell), click again to copy the attributes (teachers and rooms) placing a smiley face in the cell. To copy a block into another year group for next year (year 10 block into year 11) click once into the adjacent yellow cell (placing a tick in the cell), click again to copy the attributes (teachers and rooms) placing a smiley face in the cell. 14
Click OK to finish. Go to the Cycle or Model screen and select Data > Save Data Set. Navigate to the SIMS folder (on the network drive, usually SIMSshare) and then to SNOVA\NT6\2017, entering an appropriate name for the data set this will now be your timetable file for 2017/2018. 15
5. SETTING UP YEAR GROUPS AND BANDS IN NOVA T6 Year and band structures should now be checked within the new data set to ensure they are as intended. Year groups will only be active for those years which hold blocks set up by the transfer curriculum process. To set up year groups in Nova T6: Go to the Model screen and look at the Year section on the left hand side of the screen. Click the + button to add a new line and overtype the XX in the Name column with the name of the first missing year group, moving across to the NCY column and entering the same. Move across to the Total column and enter an approximate pupil total for that year group. Repeat to add all missing year groups. Save the data set. 16
To set up bands in Nova T6: Each year group set up above will have one band defined by default, as shown below. Click on a (the default band name) and enter the name of the band. Click on the button to the right of the band name to add a new band. Rename as above. Repeat to add and rename all bands for each year group. Save the data set. 17
6. CREATING OPTION BLOCKS IN NOVA T6 Creating option blocks for year 10 is optional at this stage and depends on data to be imported from Careers Wales Online (CWO). If free choice data is being imported from CWO then it is necessary to set up option blocks at this stage, if however blocks have already been defined on CWO then it is not necessary to create them again. To set up option blocks in Nova T6: Go to the Model screen. Select year 10. Right click within the grey area to the right of the band and select Add block. 18
Within the white cell at the left hand corner of the block, add a single letter identifier for an option block this would usually be A, B, C, D etc. Click on to the word Block at the top and type the block name, ie Option A. Hold the Ctrl key down and drag the bottom of the block to cover all bands, if appropriate. Repeat to add all options blocks for the year group. Save the data set. 19
7. EXPORTING BAND STRUCTURES TO SIMS.NET Once all year group, band structures and option blocks have been set up, band structures can be exported to SIMS.net where pupils should be allocated to bands for use with Options (see step 5). To export band structures from Nova T6 to SIMS.net: Go to either the Model or Cycle screen. Select Data > Export Curriculum and Timetable to SQL. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Enter the start date of the 2017/2018 academic year in the Start Date field (ie 04/09/2017) and enter the last day of the working academic year in the End Date field (ie 24/07/2018) - this is the last date staff are in school regardless of whether or not this is an INSET day. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Click the Export Band Structure only checkbox. Click OK. Please follow the usual procedure for sending the timetable from Nova to SQL, instructions given in Chapter 18 (page 18-343) of the Nova T6 manual, available by clicking on the Help button within Nova T6. 20
8. ALLOCATING NEXT YEAR S YEAR 10 TO BANDS Pupils must be allocated to bands to import them in to and out of Options. To do this, the 2017/2018 academic year must be set as the current academic year in SIMS.net. To set 2017/2018 as the current academic year in SIMS.net go to: Tools > Academic Management > Set Academic Year The Select Academic Year window is displayed. Click Academic Year 2017/2018 and click OK. Click OK you do not have to restart SIMS in order to activate this change. 21
To allocate pupils to bands in SIMS.net go to: Focus > School > Academic Structure > Curriculum Assignment by Scheme. The Find Curriculum Scheme window is displayed. Select Curriculum Year 10 from the Year Taught In field and click Search. Double click Base Bands in Year 10 from the schemes listed to view. Click Working Academic Year and OK. For each pupil click the cell in the appropriate column to assign them to the appropriate band. Click Save. Close when finished. 22
NB: Remember to set the current academic year back to 2016/2017 through Tools > Academic Management > Set Academic Year. 23
9. CREATE TRANSFER FILE FOR OPTIONS To populate Options with year groups, bands and courses an import from Nova T6 is required. This is done by importing a transfer file (xpl) created from within Nova T6. To create an Options transfer file: Run Nova T6 and load the newly created 2017/2018 timetable data set. From within the Cycle or Model screen, go to Data > Export to Nova T4/Options. Navigate to the SIMS folder (on the network drive, usually SIMSshare) then to SNOVA\TRANSFER. Enter the file name and click Save. Close Nova T6 when finished. 24