Schools rely heavily on their Management Information Systems for day-to-day operations such as: Attendance and dinner money; Monitoring pupil progress; Statutory returns and; When an inspector calls.This is why good support for these systems is paramount, not just for resolving problems and how to use the system but also extracting every bit of value from the systems’ capabilities.
The Challenge
- Attendance and dinner money
- Monitoring pupil progress
- Statutory returns and;
- When an inspector calls.
The Solution
Our Helpline is highly experienced and provides a complete range of support for the day to day use of SIMS and related systems (e.g. Microsoft Office for SIMS reports, Collect, online payments and Dinner Money).
It is so important that you make the most of the systems you have. Sometimes it is assumed that the system you have can’t do something. This is rarely the case and our teams, who know the systems inside out, can explain how to do it. We also provide free quick audits of your SIMS and office operations that will pinpoint what’s working well and what can be improved.
Our Training and Consultancy Services for SIMS are focussed around school improvement, so work often centres around the use of Assessment (including SIMS Discover) together with SEN and behaviour. However we can train any aspect of SIMS from census to new user courses and the latest product releases.
The ICT Service has been providing SIMS support to Cambridgeshire schools for over 20 years and is accredited by Capita. Many of our staff have worked in schools either as school leaders/teachers or in the school office and we remain firmly focussed on the educational benefits of the use of ICT.
How Our Service Works
We provide support on all aspects of school ICT including SIMS and a full range of technical and curriculum advice and support. We provide a range of training delivery methods from the traditional ‘classroom’ groups and workshops to in-school consultancy and ‘remote tutor’ where we provide 1:1 training on your own data or systems.
We also run more general conferences, forums and other briefing events to help staff keep up to date with developments. We like to work with schools in groups where expertise is shared between schools, advisory teams where appropriate, and we aim to ensure all national and local agendas are met. In recent years we have facilitated groups using assessment, behaviour, timetabling and finance.
Our Service Desk (The Helpline) is staffed throughout the year from 8.00am to 5.00pm (4.30 Fridays).
Availability
All schools in Cambridgeshire, academies and single site schools outside Cambridgeshire. Maintained schools outside Cambridgeshire should enquire about using our SIMS support service. Please refer to our Terms & Conditions of Service and Support
