Monday 15th September 2008, 22:11 - posted by Neil Gregory
A number of schools have reported that previous members of staff are showing as available for cover in Cover 7. I logged a call with Capita as we were led to believe this issue would be resolved in the August 2008 Main Release (7.108) of SIMS .net.
Capita have acknowledged that this issue hasn”t been fixed but informed me that there is a workaround.
In SIMS .net, navigate to Focus | Person | Manage Classroom Staff.
Click on Search and open the record for the member of staff you don”t wish to appear.
Beside Cover Option (on section 2: Classroom Information), select Does not provide cover from the drop down list.
Save the record by clicking on the Save button.
John H. and I have spoken to a few cover manager colleagues in schools regarding “getting started” with Cover 7. As a result, I”ll be arranging visits in order to assist you with the move away from using Nova-T4 for cover.
Monday 28th July 2008, 08:41 - posted by John Howarth
Our very own Neil Gregory has been awarded for his Outstanding Contribution to SIMS User Acceptance Testing in 2008.
Over the past 12 months, Bolton Council has participated in user acceptance testing (UAT) programmes for Cover 7, Attendance 7, Lesson Monitor 7 and SIMS Learning Gateway.
We have also attended software consultation groups for the technical aspects of SIMS, primary and secondary school administration and the SIMS performance suite.
It should be recognised that Neil has contributed a significant amount of his own time to various UAT programmes and we applaud him for his involvement.
In an email to Bolton Council, Stephen Pagano (SIMS User Acceptance Test Manager at Capita Children’s Services) wrote:
“Many thanks for your continued contribution to SIMS UAT. The impact of colleagues of your calibre testing our product is fantastic and I know 22,000 schools see the benefit!”
The next step in our association with SIMS UAT is that we extend the invitation to colleagues in schools. This was tremendously successful with the Cover 7 Field Trial (thanks once again to Turton and Canon Slade), so watch this space for details!
There wasn”t a photographer available to record Neil accepting the award but there was, unfortunately, a caricaturist. Please click on the image below to the reveal this blatant misrepresentation in all its horror. 
Tuesday 8th July 2008, 23:00 - posted by John Howarth
I am in the process of contacting secondary schools to discuss the latest SIMS .net upgrade. While many colleagues who attended the Cover 7 training courses last week will be keen to get their hands the new module, there are a few things to consider before upgrading to 7.106.
.net Framework 2
Microsoft .net Framework 2 must be installed on SIMS clients prior to upgrading to the SIMS June 2008 Update Release. If .net Framework 2 is not installed, it will not be possible to log into SIMS .net.
Personnel 7
Personnel 7 is activated as part of this release as it is required for Cover 7 to operate normally. Please note that the additional functionality provided by Personnel 7 is not currently supported by Bolton Council.
Nova-T6
A link for Nova-T6 has been added to the shortcut panel in SIMS .net.
The problem is that anyone with access to Nova-T4 gets FULL access to Nova-T6 via the new link. Access to Nova-T6 via Nova-T4 is unaffected.
This isn’t expected to be resolved until the August 2008 Main Release (7.108).
Full details of this update and the previous release (which wasn’t installed by most schools due to stability issues) can be found in the Release Notes, available at the following internet links:
If you have any suggestions on how your school might get around the Nova-T6 access issue, please leave a comment below.
As always, please don”t hesitate to get in touch if you wish to discuss this further.
Thursday 12th June 2008, 16:12 - posted by John Howarth
On May 20th 2008, Steve Buckthorpe (Turton High School and Media Arts College), Jan Buffey and Dave Lever (Canon Slade CE Secondary School) kindly introduced the new SIMS cover management software to Bolton schools.
Both schools have participated in the Cover 7 field trial as well as our own Neil Gregory.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those mentioned above. I”m absolutely positive that their contribution to the development of the module will benefit all schools come September.
All secondary schools are encouraged to use Cover 7 from September 2008 as Capita are withdrawing support for cover management in Nova T4 by the end of the year. As a consequence, the Schools ICT Unit will only formally offer support for Cover 7 from the start of the new academic year, although we understand some schools will want to run the two systems side-by-side for a short period of time.
There are a limited number of spaces remaining on the instructor led courses in June/July, so please click here to reserve a place for your school.
If you would like to express a view on the seminars or your first impressions of the Cover 7 software, please feel free to leave a comment below.
