1. Post 16 Summer Return 2006 for Wales
Jim Haywood
31/03/2006
Post 16 Summer Return 2006 for Wales

2. Post-16 Summer Return Modules included School information
Pupil identification
Special needs
Welsh Baccalaureate
Learning activities

3. Post-16 Summer Return Schools to Provide the Return
Secondary Schools with Post-16 pupils must provide this Return
Special Schools with Post-16 pupils are excluded from this Return

4. Select PLASC/ELWa Defaults to set the folder for the Post 16 Summer Return

5. Click to browse folders

6. You may find it helpful to use different folders for each type of Return

7. It is probably sensible to use a folder name that distinguishes this Summer Post 16 Return from the Autumn version

8. Click save when you are happy with the folder names

9. Keep your workspace uncluttered by closing

10. ELWa is no longer a suitable name, so we use Post 16 Summer for this Return and we will use Post 16 Autumn for the one later in the year

11. We will click New to create a new Return file
This screen should be familiar to those involved with PLASC. As with PLASC, you can copy any of the Return files and delete any Return file that has not been Authorised.

12. You can modify the dates as required, but don’t forget to use a description that will help you to identify this file

13. Click Next to go to the next panel

14. This should be familiar from PLASC and you can click School Detail to update the information as necessary

15. If you make changes don’t forget to save them

16. Click Next to go to the next panel

17. The Post 16 Summer Return is providing an update to the Pupil Learning Activity information already submitted via PLASC. So for this Return the starting point is the information in the PLASC Return rather than information from other parts of SIMS .net.
Most schools will only have one authorised PLASC Return to choose from, but if more than one has been authorised it is important to choose the one that is the official PLASC Return for the school.

18. This is the most important panel and provides three sets of functionality for adding the Pupil Learning Activity completion information. This includes powerful bulk update facilities that need thought before being applied. However, you don’t need to worry too much as is it easy enough to create a new Return file if you get this wrong.

19. In some cases all pupils involved with a learning activity have the same, or very similar, completion information.
In other cases all learning activities for a pupil have the same, or very similar completion information.
Sometimes the Pupil Learning Activities do not fit with either of these patterns, so information must be entered on an individual bases.
All three methods are catered for and you can mix and match as necessary.

20. We’ll start with by using Bulk Update by Pupil to allocate learning activity completion information for pupils who have left since PLASC. We enter the completion information for the pupil and it is applied to all the learning activities for that pupil.

21. We can restrict the list of pupils by NC Year, Reg Group and Enrolment Status. We can choose a combination of these three, but in this case we’ll get a list of all those who left since PLASC.

22. Select Leaver

23. Click Search to apply our restriction

24. The two post 16 pupils have left since PLASC are listed along with their leaving date

25. Choice is restricted to status’ that indicate completion
We will treat these pupils on an individual basis as they left for different reason and on different dates. If we had a long list of leavers and they shared the same completion information we could enter the information for a selection of those listed as described for updating pupils who are still on roll
Terence withdrew from all of his learning activities without completing any of them
Choice is restricted to status’ that indicate completion

26. The date defaults to today date, but we can select the appropriate date

27. Terence withdrew from his learning activities on the same day he left the school

28. Charles completed all of his learning activities on the day he left the school
If we make a mess we can click Cancel to abandon the changes. We click Finish to apply the changes.

29. We can also use Bulk Update by Pupil to allocate learning activity completion information for all learning activities for particular pupils who are still on roll.

30. We’ll restrict the display to NC Year 13 pupils who are on roll
Click search to apply the filter

31. In this case we have used control click
Select all pupils using right mouse click at the top of a column, or shift click and control click for multiple selection of pupils.
In this case we have used control click

32. You can then choose a status for one of the selected pupils and this will then make that selection for all the selected pupils

33. In many cases you will want to apply the same date for the selected pupils

34. We may also want to enter a particular status and date to use for a particular pupil’s learning activities

35. You can click Cancel at any time to abandon the update.
If you are happy with your choices you can click Finish to get them applied.

36. Bulk update is not allowed to overwrite Pupil Learning Activity completion information that already exists
In this case the update of completion information will be applied to all learning activities for the pupils specified, except where completion information already exists for that pupil’s learning activity.

37. Bulk Update by Learning Activity is useful when all the pupils on a learning activity complete that activity on the same date.

38. The default position is to search for all Subject/Level combinations, but we’ll restrict the display to a particular Subject.

39. We’ll choose Chemistry

40. Click Search to apply the filters

41. There is only one row displayed in this case as Chemistry is only available at GCE A level.

42. Choice is restricted to status’ that indicate completion

43. The actual end date should be entered

44. Bulk update is not allowed to overwrite Pupil Learning Activity completion information that already exists
In this case the update of completion information will be applied to all pupils with learning activity E, except where completion information already exists for a pupil with this activity.

45. If you enter a status you must also enter a date and visa versa
The entries are not applied until the Finish button is clicked.

46. This browse can be used to view and edit Pupil Learning Activities on an individual basis. Unlike bulk update, you can modify existing completion information.
The browse can be restricted by NC Year, Reg Group SEN Status and Enrolment Status or any combination of these.

47. Select a pupil

48. Select one of the learning activities for that pupil

49. You can now view and edit the pupil’s learning activity as necessary

50. Click Next to go to the next panel

51. We could enter completion times at this point, but we can leave this until after we have validated

52. Clicking Validate creates an XML file with the extension UNA
Clicking Validate creates an XML file with the extension UNA. This XML file is then validated and an error/query file is generated as necessary.

53. All NAW validation rules are applied to the XML file and any that fail are represented in this list.
# indicates that double clicking will take you to the relevant entry in SIMS .net

54. You may want to print this summary where there are a large numbers of failures reported, but this isn’t necessary for these six.

55. We’ll miss out the completion error for now and double click on error 4180 for Mark Abbot instead

56. This takes us straight to the offending learning activity information for Mark Abbot and we can adjust as necessary
As you can see the problem is that the status is set to continuing, but an actual end date has been provided

57. The problem for Jodie Abraham is a bit different, but we can still double click to move straight to the problem

58. As you can see the problem is that the status is set to withdraw, but no actual end date has been provided

59. The problem for Arron Able is in STAR, but we can still double click to move straight to the problem

60. As you can see, we must add a post code for Arron Able

61. This is the last of the failures and is similar to the previous problem. Luke Bryant has a post code, but its format is invalid.

62. As you can see Luke Bryant’s post code is invalid
As you can see Luke Bryant’s post code is invalid. This is an unusual error as it is very difficult to enter the wrong format for a post code – we validate the format of UK post codes and will not allow invalid formats to be saved.

63. We only have one query and in this case we can confirm that the information in the XML file is correct

64. We made some changes to the Return so we should save before proceeding

65. Now we should run validate again to make sure we have dealt with all the failures.

66. Oops
I forgot to enter the completion times, but I can put this right by double clicking to move to that panel.

67. We are limited to 999 hours for each member of staff

68. Don’t forget to save and then run Validate again

69. You can run validate as many times as you like and, as it determines the content of the XML file, it is always sensible to run it after saving changes.

70. The Summary report is available in English and in Welsh

71. This is the summary in Welsh
This is the summary in Welsh. It is provided in HTML format which can be printed or saved as required.

72. HTML is a good format for transfer to Office products

73. We can select the content of the table ..

74. ... and paste it into a spreadsheet, where you can reformat and add formulas as required

75. We click Authorise when we are happy with the Return and ready to send it to the NAW

76. Having more than one Authorised file can be confusing so we ask users to be sure before we proceed.

77. Authorising a Return changes the extension from UNA to XML ready for dispatch

78. Summary reports are available, but all other functionality is disabled for a Return that has been Authorised.

79. Thank you for finding the time to go through this demonstration