SIMS User Group Meeting - 9th December 2021
SIMS User Group Meeting
Date: Thursday 9th December 2021
Time: 2.30 pm - 4.00 pm
Venue: St Martin’s Primary School, Rowan Road, West Drayton UB7 7UF (Tel: 01895 717701)
The SimsforSchools team would like to invite you to join us for our next user group meeting where we will give an update on new and planned developments in SIMS. We would also welcome any SIMS related topics that you would like us to cover during the session. Please forward any suggestions to the SimsforSchool team and we will endeavour to include these on the meeting agenda.
We look forward to seeing you at this terms session.
Refreshments will be provided.
**If you are planning to attend this meeting, can you please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. as confirmation**
Autumn 2021 School Workforce Census - 4th November 2021
Please login and select the School Workforce Census Category to download the census preparation/production notes for your school
Autumn 2021 School Census – 7th October 2021
Please login and select the School Census Category to download the relevant school census preparation/production notes for your school.
School Census Collection Dates - Academic Year 2021/2022
School Census collection dates for academic year 2021/2022 are:
Autumn Term: Thursday 7th October 2021
Spring Term: Thursday 20th January 2022
Summer Term: Thursday 19th May 2022
SIMS Newsletter - April 2021
Please click here to access the April 2021 issue of the SIMS Newsletter
COVID-19 Related SIMS Attendance Subcodes
Following consultation with the DfE, a range of subcodes have been added to the SIMS Attendance/Lesson Monitor application for session marks I (Illness) and X (Non-compulsory school age or COVID-19 related). The aim is to assist schools with differentiating pupil/students’ absence from school in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new subcodes have been added to schools SIMS databases for use via the Take Register/Edit Marks routines.
Please click here to access a presentation demonstrating the routine for adding the new subcodes to registers. Please take a few minutes to watch this brief presentation for an explanation of the process for entering the new subcodes.
Please Note: These codes are for reporting purposes only and will only be reflected in School Census in terms of their aggregation into attendance session code totals as per the table below:
| Subcode |
Description |
Attendance session code |
| I01 |
Illness |
I |
| I02 |
Illness Confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19) |
I |
| X01 |
Non compulsory school age pupil not required to be in school |
X |
| X02 |
Pupil self-isolating with coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms |
X |
| X03 |
Pupil self-isolating due to potential contact with a confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19) INSIDE the school setting |
X |
| X04 |
Pupil self-isolating due to potential contact with a confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19) OUTSIDE the school setting |
X |
| X05 |
Pupils required to self-isolate as part of quarantine requirement (after arriving in the UK from a non-exempt country or territory) |
X |
| X06 |
Pupil not in school because they have been advised specifically by their Doctor or public health authority that they are clinically extremely vulnerable and should not attend |
X |
| X07 |
Pupil advised specifically not to attend school as part of restrictions to education set out in Government advice |
X |
Pupil Premium Allocation Date Change
Pupil premium 2021-2022
On 17 December, the Government announced that the pupil premium rates will remain unchanged for the financial year 2021-22 and that, from 2021-22 onwards, pupil premium allocations for mainstream and special schools will be based on the October census. Pupil premium funding for the financial year starting on 1 April 2021 will therefore be based on the October 2020 census instead of the January census as would have previously been the case. We have now published further information on this administrative change on www.gov.uk. It can be found under “allocation changes from 2021 to 2022”
This administrative change brings the pupil premium in line with how the rest of the core schools’ budget is calculated and going forward it will provide both schools and DfE with greater certainty around future funding levels earlier in the year.
Total pupil premium funding is expected to increase to more than £2.5 billion in 2021-22 as more children have become eligible for free school meals as a result of the impact of the pandemic.
Pupil premium COLLECT report
As the spring school census will only be used to inform the pupil premium allocation for PRUs, AP academies and AP free schools, the report will only return pupil numbers for these school types. For all mainstream schools and special schools, the pupil premium report will be made available in the autumn census.
Parents Email Report
Parents Email Report Design
Please click here to access the routine to design a report to show parent email addresses for use in case of emergency.
Attendance Report for Local Authority Monthly Return
Please see below the routine for producing the required information for the whole school session attendance section of the monthly return spreadsheet:
Attendance whole school: from start of academic year to current month
This can be obtained via route: Reports | Attendance | Group Reports | Group Analysis by Attendance Category Report then:
- Enter the required date range
- Select Group Type of Whole School
- Click Search
- Click Print and OK
Patches to delete data no longer collected by DfE Census
As the DfE census will no longer collect Proficiency in English, Pupil Country of Birth or Pupil Nationality data, Capita SIMS have released three patches to delete data that is no longer collected from school databases:
- Proficiency in English Patch - Deletes all records for Proficiency in English information for all past, present and future students. Where a student has multiple proficiency entries, the patch will remove all instances of this.
- National Identity Patch - Deletes the National Identity for all past, present and future students.
- Country of Birth/Nationality Patch - Deletes the Country of Birth and where present the Nationality (actually called Nation inside the expanded Nationality and Passport Details record, only where passport details are blank) for all past, present and future students.
If you would like any or all of these patches to be applied to your school Sims database, please contact the SimsforSchools team via email at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
