SIMS September Readiness Checklist

If there have been any SIMS upgrades, please check that the connection between SIMS and Schoolcomms is still working.

Test this by running the Schoolcomms import and checking your data issues here

If your Schoolcomms import fails or if the Run Import button is greyed out, it indicates that Schoolcomms is unable to connect to your SIMS database, click here for information to assist you with resolving this.

Your import settings determine the contacts and data that are imported from your SIM database.

To review your Schoolcomms Import Settings go to Schoolcomms desktop > Management > Import Management > Edit settings

Access the Import Settings help guide here

Access information to assist with scheduling your import here

Click here to view the SIMS permissions needed for a successful Import

For members contact details to be successfully imported into Schoolcomms, there are certain guidelines which need to be followed.

Access the SIMS Data requirements help guide here

Parental Responsibility needs to be applied in SIMS for parents to be able to give consent, view online reporting information, see balances, and make bookings on School Gateway.

Click here to access information on Parental Responsibility and how to review and identify any gaps in data currently imported into your Schoolcomms account.

When your pre-admissions have been entered in SIMS, they can be imported into Schoolcomms (we import pre-admissions with the status Applied, Offered, Accepted, Admitted, and Reserved).

Once the admission date on the intake group is reached, they will be admitted.

Please remember to update the status of any pre-admissions who are not admitted to the school to the status Rejected or Withdrawal to ensure they are no longer imported into Schoolcomms.

Access the Pre-admission Help Guide here  

Access the Pre-admission FAQ guide here

The academic promotion routine in SIMS will automatically increment students’ year groups once you have reached the start of term date, which will be updated in Schoolcomms after the import is run.

If you experience issues in September with class groups being incorrect, you may need to Validate Memberships in SIMS. We would advise you to contact SIMS Support before running the Validate Memberships routine to confirm that there are no implications of doing so.

Every time you run an import Schoolcomms will run a check on your data and if there are any anomalies it will produce a report of data issues which you are prompted to view and action, any changes will need to be actioned via SIMS and then the import re-run to remove the data issue.

Access the Data Issues help guide here

Your school multi-user administrators can create, UNLOCK, amend, and delete staff Schoolcomms user accounts.

Access the Create Additional Users help guide here

If your school has a Scheduled Import setup using your Schoolcomms user credentials, please ensure the credentials are updated on the Task Scheduler, you may need your IT Support to assist you with this.

Access information to assist with scheduling your import here

Leavers

School leavers need to be given a leaving date (employment end date for staff members) and once the leaving date has passed, they will be taken off roll. Once they are leavers, they can be permanently deleted from Schoolcomms.

Access the Delete Leavers help guide here

Once students are identified as leavers in Schoolcomms, they can still be messaged as normal, however they will no longer show in their MIS groups. We would recommend that you manually create a Leavers Group in Schoolcomms to continue to message them in bulk before they are deleted as leavers.

Access the Groups help guide here

Please ensure that if you need to contact students directly, that this is completed before your academic promotion is run in SIMS. Otherwise, you will need to manually re-add your student self-contacts in order to message them.

Access the support guide to assist you with adding members manually in Schoolcomms here

In order for them to no longer be passed to Cypad (at which point they should change to Closed on Cypad and Anonymised), you will need to follow the Delete Leavers process in Schoolcomms.

As part of our improving security standards, schools will be asked for proof of ownership when adding new bank accounts to Schoolcomms.

Access the Bank Accounts help guide here

Click here for information to assist you with extending existing payment requests for the new academic year.

Click here to access information to assist you with creating new payment requests.

Access the full Payment Requests help guide here

For credit balances for leavers etc., access the Refunds help guide here Alternatively, if they have a sibling at the school, you could transfer the credit to them in Schoolcomms via manual transactions. Click here for further information.

For ongoing clubs i.e. Afterschool / Breakfast clubs you can extend the existing club, remove leavers and add any new starters then create a new connecting payment request via the club.

Click here for information to assist you with extending existing clubs and connecting payment requests.

Click here to access information to assist you with creating a new club.

Access the full clubs help guide here

Add new students to clubs and payment requests once they have been imported after they have reached their date of admission within SIMS.

Click here to access information to assist you with creating new dinner plans or amending existing dinner plans for the new academic year.

Dinner bookings on School Gateway cannot be made for pre-admissions. They can be added to the dinner plan and the school can make bookings on their behalf.

Access the Schoolcomms Dinners help guide here

UIFSM year groups will not be updated until the first import is run following your academic promotion being completed in SIMS.

We would advise that you do not allow parents to pre-book meals in the Summer.

Depending on when the first import in the new academic year is run in Schoolcomms, pupils and class groups will update in Cypad after the next data sync:
School members – 6am, 11am, 3pm, and 6pm each day.

Pre-admission students will show in Cypad however parents will not be able to book through School Gateway until the pupil is admitted. The school can manually apply pre-orders for any new starters until they are admitted.

The status of leavers will change to Closed and will be anonymised once they have been deleted from Schoolcomms, they will then no longer appear on the Whiteboard.

Access the Meal Manager help guide here

Encourage your new and existing parents to register for School Gateway.
Useful letter templates can be found in the School Gateway Success Guide here.
There are also useful App/Payments invite templates within Messaging.
 
Access the full parent guide here.

Access the School Gateway help guide here.

Please remind parents to ensure they are on the most recent version of School Gateway for the best user experience. They can check for updates via their respective app store.

Please note, if you have Timetables switched “on” in Online Reporting and you have already applied your timetables in SIMS, there is a chance that the timetables for the new academic year will show in School Gateway as this academic year ends.

If you do not want the new timetables to be displayed to users before September, either do not apply the curriculum timetables in SIMS until September, or switch off the timetable view in Online Reporting until the new term starts.

Access Online Reporting help guide here

Top up text credits to ensure you have enough for the new academic year.

Access the Ordering Text Credits help guide here

Archive sent messages and clean up the inbox.

Access the Desktop Archiving help guide here

Access the Archiving via the Web help guide here