Your half-termly Scomis News Update. This email looks best with images enabled. |
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Scomis Winter 2019 Newsletter |
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Welcome to the Christmas Edition of our Password Newsletter. We wish all of our customers a very happy and relaxing Christmas break and look forward to working with you in the new year! |
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Scomis is through to the finals of the Service and Support category of the Bett Awards 2020. The Award celebrates UK-based companies and educational organisations that provide effective services, support and professional development to ensure that ICT really makes an impact in the classroom. Outstanding Customer Service- We focused our application on our continuous high quality service, satisfied customers, collaboration with schools and examples of higher standards achieved. This included a case study of how we have worked with Abbottskerswell Primary School to help them become one of the top 1% schools in the country for their Key Stage 2 SATs results. For more information click here.
Unique and Innovative- We also demonstrated how the innovative use of existing and emerging technologies can enhance teaching, personalise learning and support business management processes. Two examples of innovative new services we have developed in response to customer need include ScoLearn Digital and our transformational Managed Reporting Service.
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The winners will be announced at the Bett Awards 2020 Ceremony taking place on Wednesday 22nd January. |
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Read our case study which explores how through working collaboratively, the school gained recognition as one of the top 1% primary schools in the country for Key Stage 2 SATs results in July 2019, with 100% of pupils achieving the expected standards in Reading, Writing and Maths. 'Our collaboration with Scomis has helped to introduce and embed new and innovative ways of working across the school. This has improved pupil outcomes and reduced teacher workload. We are grateful to our partnership with Scomis- we couldn't have achieved this without them!' Kev Martin, Head Teacher, Abbotskerswell Primary School This is indicative of the type of support that Scomis provides to schools and Trusts. To find out how we can help you contact your Account Manager on 01392 385300. |
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The Tech She Can Charter is a commitment by organisations to work together to increase the number of women working in technology roles in the UK. It aims to tackle the root cause of the problem at a societal level by inspiring and educating young girls and women to get into tech careers and sharing best practice across the organisations involved.
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Debbie Foweraker, the Head of Scomis Group has signed up to the charter on behalf of Devon County Council, Scomis and our customers. More information about what this will mean for will follow.
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You can find out more about the Tech She Can charter here. | | |
We have a breadth of knowledge and experience in our Account Management Team. Our Account Managers will be happy to come and see you for an account meeting we can work with your school to discuss your strategy for SIMS, ICT and identify any areas where Scomis may be able to help you move forward.
Laura Hipkin has recently joined us as an Internal Account Manager and she is based at our offices in Great Moor House in Exeter. Please get in contact with Laura on 01392 385300 to schedule your account meeting, we look forward to hearing from you. |
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As part of our planning process we have now set our annual price increase at 2.5%. This will come into effect on 1st April 2020 for maintained schools and on 1st September 2020 for academies. |
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Click the button below to find information on the changes brought about in the SIMS Autumn Upgrade and the latest news on SIMS Primary. You can also read the SIMS Autumn Upgrade bulletin here. |
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We monitor our performance on a termly basis, updating the figures on our website to show how we are measuring up to our targets. You can now find our Annual Service Report here. |
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Next year we will be attending and exhibiting at several events nationally so make sure you come and say hello! - 7th February 2020 - Teaching Schools South West Computing Conference - Tiverton
- March 2020 - LearnED Roadshow Birmingham
- 2nd June 2020 - LearnED Roadshow Exeter - Sandy Park
- 26th June 2020 - LearnED Roadshow London - QEII Centre
If you're attending any of these events and want to arrange a meeting with us, simply get in touch with your Account Manager on 01392 385300. |
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Thank you to all who attended our Autumn User Groups and made them such a success! Please find below the dates for our Summer 2020 User Groups: - 19th May 2020 - Cornwall - Royal Showground
- 3rd June 2020 - North Somerset - Clevedon Hall
- 4th June 2020 - Devon - Exeter Racecourse
- 5th June 2020 - Virtual - Online Webinar
- 10th June 2020 - Portsmouth - Portsmouth Marriott Hotel
- 11th June 2020 - Oxford - Kassam Stadium
For more information get in touch at scomis@devon.gov.uk or call 01392 385300. |
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Effective immediately, schools who subscribe to the Scomis Hosted Application Service will now be able to access their SIMS via the Microsoft Remote Desktop Web Client – this is free to customers and allows users to connect via a web-browser from any location!! It is not a replacement for the standard Microsoft RDP Client but is an additional option designed for 'light' users such as teachers using Chromebooks.
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For more information and the technical specifications for the Microsoft Remote Desktop Web Client, please refer to the following FAQ: https://faq.scomis.org/kb23191/For more details on ALL of the ways you can access your hosted SIMS, please refer to the following FAQ: http://faq.scomis.org/kb9079/Please click on this link to find the letter which has also be sent to every customer's main billing email address. |
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At the request of Capita, we are just one of six SIMS Support Units to attend 3 weeks of intensive Train the Trainer sessions on SIMS Finance, which is the new cloud-based financial software designed for Academies and Multi-Academy Trusts. We currently have 2 customers working live on this software and have expressions of interest from many more. We have designed this video to give an overview of SIMS Finance and provide clarity on the functionality available. If you would like a demonstration of the software or further information after viewing, please do not hesitate to give us a call. |
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As an academy group, have you ever asked your schools: - What are your current pupil exclusions?
- What is your current staff absence?
- What is your current Key Stage 2 assessment data?
- What is your school's current pupil attendance?
- How many pupils, broken down into year group, are Pupil Premium?
Reporting and managing data can be challenging, especially within a school. Asking for data from several schools can be time consuming and inconsistent in format. The new Scomis Managed Reporting Service is a web-based solution which gathers data overnight and combines it into a ready to use dashboard for your academy group. The dashboards make it easy to understand the data, combining key performance measures and useful pupil demographic filters for a consolidated view. Being automated, your academy group will have data at their fingertips without having to put demands on the schools. Find out more here. |
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Looking for a single sign on solution for parents? SIMS Parental Engagement solution, powered by SIMS InTouch, SIMS Pay and SIMS Parent App provides a joined-up approach to enable schools to better engage with parents by giving them a clear view of their children's school life. Whatever the current level of parental engagement in your school, Scomis provides solutions and products that can initiate and control the parent engagement agenda, helping you work with parents to improve pupil progress. For more information about the suite of products click here. Find out how St Mary's Primary School is improving efficiency and parental engagement through SIMS Parental Engagement Solution here.To find out more, give your Account Manager a call on 01392 385300 or email at scomis@devon.gov.uk |
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Under the new Ofsted framework, inspectors will gather evidence and evaluate the extent to which a school's provision meets the needs of different cohorts including Pupil Premium and SEND pupils. At our recent User Groups we ran a policy and strategy session focused on the efficient and effective use of data to support outcomes for these pupils. We looked at DfE instructions and Ofsted Do's and Don'ts, before looking at examples of successful intervention strategies. This was followed by a demonstration to show delegates how SIMS can be used effectively to help drive outcomes. For a copy of the presentation click here. More useful guidance and information can also be found here. If you would like to find out more about how we could help your school or trust in this area please contact us on 01392 385300. |
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Scomis supports schools on every step of the journey to the cloud and exploiting cloud technologies. We offer customers: - Free Cloud Technology Demonstrations – giving schools a no-obligation trial of cloud technologies
- Free School / MAT Cloud Readiness Audit – confirming schools are cloud ready
- Scope and Design of Solution based on Customers' Needs – ensuring solutions meet school's individual needs
- Phased Implementation Roadmaps – allowing schools to smoothly implement change and minimise disruption
- Hardware Procurement Services - helping schools obtain Best Value
- Installation and Commissioning Services – provided by Scomis technical experts
- Onsite Post Installation Handover and School Staff Training and Consultancy – allowing school stakeholders to exploit cloud tools to reduce workload whilst improving collaboration
- Ongoing Scomis Support - removing the burden from a school of managing their systems
" You have helped us a school to move form a school that was constantly firefighting IT issues and patching things up, to developing a strategic vision of what we want IT to be like in our setting; thank you." (Devon Primary School Head Teacher) For more information get in touch with your Account Manager on 01392 385300. |
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Microsoft has published that after 14th January 2020, technical support and automatic updates which protect devices will no longer be available for the above operating systems. Running Windows 7 and Server 2008/2008 R2 after this date runs the risk of your school network being vulnerable.
Scomis strongly recommends that customers move to Windows 10 / upgrade legacy servers before January 2020 to continue to benefit from security updates available to fully supported operating systems.
Things to consider:
- Are you able to upgrade your devices to Windows 10 and your servers to a supported platform?
- Can your existing servers support devices running the Windows 10 operating system?
- Do you have the resource to upgrade your devices and servers to supported operating systems?
- Do you require new hardware? (Windows 10 has different hardware requirements from Windows 7)
- Have you thought about moving some of your services to the cloud to reduce the requirement for on-premise servers?
For advice and guidance on the above, please refer to our FAQ and contact your Account Manager to arrange a free consultation. |
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Scomis' popular classroom courses are now available for schools nationwide through our new online digital learning service, giving customers the ability to learn any time, any place and at their own pace. The service gives access to high quality flexible learning alongside our classroom-based training, remote training, webinars and bespoke on-site consultancy. |
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With ScoLearn Digital you can: - Get the information you need when you need it and where you need it
- Have a varied learning pace
- Revisit content as many times as you like
- Receive certification on completion of courses
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To view or purchase a course, simply visit https://scomis.learningpool.com and visit the Quick Buy option at the top of the page. More courses will be added based on customer feedback and demand.
Power BI Education uses academic data to create visually stunning analysis and reports for any school / academic institution. Scomis is now able to offer a 1-day training course to anyone interested in developing their understanding of Power BI and how they can use Power BI to develop analysis and communicate business information in an academic setting. Delegates are required to have an understanding of SIMS.net reporting so that they can produce reports from SIMS containing the data which they want to report on using Power BI. A working knowledge of Excel would be advantageous but not essential as you are led through the structured exercises. For more information visit our website https://www.scomis.org/training/course-timetable/ Click here for the course Syllabus in more detail. Power BI for Education Syllabus |
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To view our upcoming classroom courses find our timetable here.To discuss any further training needs, give us a call on 01392 385300 or email scomis@devon.gov.uk. |
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Scomis, Great Moor House,
Bittern Road, Sowton,
Exeter, EX2 7NL |
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| This message was sent to austin.m.robison@devon.gov.uk by Scomis. Follow this link to . |
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