Many assessment systems have grown ‘like topsy’ over the years, often containing thousands and thousands of marksheets that can make finding the right marksheet very difficult. Here’s how to set up your marksheets for the new academic year so that your teachers just see most recent marksheets.
You’ll find that marksheets based on whole year groups work fine at the start of the new academic year. That’s because SIMS promotes pupils from one year to the next as part of the end of year routines.
But registration groups and teaching classes are different: they are usually re-created new each year. So last year’s marksheet no longer show any pupils after the start of the new academic year and you need to delete them are create the new marksheets for the new year. In this post, I’ll show you how…
Identify the template behind the marksheet
Marksheets names are made up of two elements separated by a colon. The part before the colon refers to the underlying template from which the marksheet is derived and the part after the colon refers to the group of pupils it represents.
For example a marksheet called KS2 Maths Y6: 6R is based on a template called KS2 Maths Y6 and is populated by pupils in a reg group called 6R. A marksheet called Year 11 English : 7x/Sc1 is based on a template called Year 11 English and a teaching class called 7x/Sc1
Open the template and delete the old marksheets
- To the template go to Focus | Assessment | Templates and locate your template
- Go to section 3 ‘marksheets’
- Each marksheet is identified by the group of pupils that it contains.
- Highlight the marksheet to be deleted and click the red cross to the right hand side of the marksheets box.
- Repeat as necessary. You can use shift and click to select multiple marksheets
Create the new marksheets
- Open the templates as above.
- In section 3 ‘marksheets’ click on the new button and choose the relevant registration group, teaching class or year group.
- When you create a marksheet, SIMS will take care of granting access to the right people. So the member of staff who teaches the class will get automatic access to any marksheets based on the class. The heads of year will get access to the marksheets based on courses, and the heads of year get access to marksheets based on year groups.
Alternatively, delete the lot and start again
This may sound like drastic advice, but when it comes to marksheets it makes sense. Many systems contain legacy marksheets that a) no-one remembers what they are for or b) don’t contain any pupils. You can bulk delete marksheets using Tools | Performance | Assessment | System Utilities.
Finally, don’t be scared…
If you delete a marksheet you do not delete any results. The pupil’s results remain in SIMS. If you ever delete a marksheet in error you can always recreate it from the template.
No results are harmed when you delete a marksheet!
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If you need a little extra help with your SIMS system I'm here to help. Contact me at david@davidpott.com for consultancy and training. Or you can subscribe to my termly assessment newsletter using the button below.
Can ypu set up new marksheets first then delete old ones
Hi Lynda, yes you can – although marksheets based on teaching classes often need to be be created at the start of the new academic year.
This is really useful David, however the marksheets seem to have been set up correctly, but there are no students displayed. I checked course manager and the classes and students are present. What have I done wrong?
When you choose the classes, check the group membership date above. Usually these two dates should reflect the current academic year, but sometimes they get stuck on the previous year.
Having made marksheets, and templates how do I turn the marksheet info into the progress check template for parents?
Not quite sure I understand the question? Do you use SIMS Learning Gateway or the Teacher App? There’s usually a tick box in the template that published the marksheets.
Hi I am struggling as new to this, I have successfully made all my templates and am now attaching the classes to this to create the Marksheets, all years are ok apart from Year 7. I’m thinking this is possibly due to the fact that I can promote all years from previous years but not year 7 as there is nothing to promote from. Can anyone help?
I’ve looked everywhere I can think of, but it must be something I’m doing wrong or just not doing
The year 7 classes probably won’t be available for you until the new timetable starts. Put a couple of hours to one side at the start of September to create marksheets for every class. Meanwhile marksheets created fir year groups and subject departments should be fine.
Good afternoon
I am trying to set up a year 10 marksheet but it has been assigned to the entire year group rather than a select group of individuals. I deleted the old marksheet but my only option for a new one was again, an entire cohort list.
Check the way the year group is set up in pastoral manager (focus | school | pastoral structure). Navigate to year 10 and check who the supervisors are (right click) – it sounds as though all staff have been added. Remove all members of staff except the one who have responsibility for Y10.