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.

After upgrading to 7.106 (June Update), colleagues at Ladybridge High School have discovered an issue with the display of preferred forenames in Take Register.

Prior to upgrading (from 7.102 March Update), students” preferred forenames were displayed in Take Register. After upgrading to 7.106, legal forenames were displayed, causing a degree of embarrassment to some students.

SIMS .net 7.104 (May Main Release) introduced an additional Attendance Setup option. I”ve detailed below the steps that need to be taken in order reinstate preferred forenames.

1. In SIMS .net, click on Tools | Setups | Attendance Setup | Module Setup
2. On Panel 2 Display of Names, put a tick in the box next to Show Preferred Forename instead of Legal Forename
3. Click on the Save button