Implementing SIMS
Behaviour
A guide supporting training and consultancy
This document seeks to describe information to be gathered in preparation for a school
startng to use SIMS Behaviour Management
Contents
Implementing Behaviour in SIMS ..............................................................................................1
Introduction ...........................................................................................................................1
Behaviour, Achievement and Conduct ..................................................................................2
Setting Up Behaviour Management ......................................................................................2
Behaviour Types .....................................................................................................................3
Behaviour Additional Information .........................................................................................3
Achievements.........................................................................................................................4
Pro-Formas .............................................................................................................................5
Implementing Behaviour in SIMS
Introduction
This document has been produced to complement training and on site consultancy offered
to support the implementation of behavior management using your school’s SIMS system.
As such it focuses on the aspects of the system commonly used by schools new to the
process – SIMS behavour analysis and reporting, together with more in depth areas such as
sanctions, detentions and report cards are the subject of other documentation.
Improving behaviour in schools is one of the government’s key aims. Schools put enormous
effort and resources themselves into promoting positive behaviour and responding
professionally to those occasions when a pupils’ behaviour falls below the accepted
standards.
Irrespective of sector, school staff need, in accordance with their behaviour policy, to keep
detailed records of significant positive and negative events relating to their pupils and the
school’s support and intervention, including copies of correspondence and associated
documentation. Such records are vital for pastoral staff, important to senior leaders and
useful to other members of staff.
Traditionally records of this sort have been kept on paper in pupils’ personal files, record
cards or spreadsheets, but this has made it difficult for staff to contribute to and create the
widest picture of a pupils’ behaviour and achievements. For the same logistical reasons,
gaining access to the information is sometimes difficult – and almost impossible when it
comes to examining or analysing a class, year group or whole school.
The functionality in SIMS enables a school to record the behaviour and achievement events
of individuals or groups of pupils, manage exclusions and detentions, create report cards
and further interventions. Such information can be viewed instantly and easily by all
members of staff using SIMS.
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Coupled with other aspects of SIMS, this information can be reported upon in a variety of
formats, analysed and used to create letters or certificates - for individuals, groups or the
whole school. Electronic versions of documents, including scans of hard copies, can be
attached to the pupil record and therefore made accessible to the appropriate individuals.
Permissions to use SIMS are assigned using System Manager and ensure that functionality is
displayed strictly according to an individual’s requirements. Schools with few requirements
are therefore not overwhelmed by unwanted complexity and those with more extensive
needs are not frustrated by a lack of functionality.
Using permissions, it is also possible to protect sensitive areas of data, such as medical
information. Such data will be blanked out in report outputs and will not be visible on
screen.
Behaviour, Achievement and Conduct
SIMS records both negative and positive incidents, using the Behaviour Management
functionality. Negative incidents are termed behaviour incidents within Behaviour
Management and positive incidents are termed achievements. The term conduct is used to
describe both behaviour incidents and achievements. This is the convention which is used
throughout this guide and in the SIMS software itself.
Each behaviour incident or achievement can be allocated a number of points. As
achievements and incidents are recorded for a pupil a cumulative total of the number of
points is recorded and refreshed each academic year. By default SIMS allocates one point to
each event (although a school can vary this), enabling a simple count to be maintained. This
enables schools to monitor and compare points for both behaviour and achievements. The
numbers of points for both behaviour and achievement, along with the number of
detentions, report cards and interventions are clearly shown in the top section of the pupil
behaviour screen.
Setting Up Behaviour Management
Several drop-down lists are used when recording behaviour incidents, achievements and
detentions. Many of these can be edited to meet the needs of the school. It is worth
spending the time to plan and to review how these lookups are working for the school at a
later stage and, if necessary, remove any unwanted values, deactivating values (so that they
are not visible, but can be activated in the future if required) or adding new values.
NOTE: If this area has not been reviewed for some time schools may find that a number of
lookups are no longer required or have become duplicated over time. It is advisable to keep
available options in lookups to a minimum in order to restrict those that can be selected and
also increase the value of data analysis.
Schools starting to use behaviour are asked to consider the types of behaviour which they
wish to capture and whether or not they would wish to have classroom staff recording
behaviour or whether records will be maintained by the office. It is important to try to keep
the list of behaviour types as small as possible whilst retaining the level of analysis which
the school will want to use at a later date. Please note that it is possible to remove and to
add new items to the list at any stage.
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Behaviour Types
Behaviour Code Behaviour
Description
Points
Include in
Register? (to
allow class
teachers to
record the
incident with a
right-click)
Is this a
Bullying Type?
(Behaviours
linked to
bullying allow
all bullying to
be aggregated)
AGP
Aggressive
Behaviour
towards pupil
1
Y
Y
AGS
Aggressive
Behaviour
towards staff
5
N
N
DEF
Defiance
2
Y
N
HME
No Homework
1
Y
N
Behaviour Additional Information
In addition to being able to set up the types of behaviour incident for managing pupil
behaviour, you can also set up the following lookup lists to record additional information.
The process for managing these lookup lists is very similar to the process for managing
behaviour types. Evidently the more information which is recorded, the more analysis is
available – however, there is a balance to be struck in ensuring that data is only captured
where it is going to be of use and that administrative burdens are not created unnecessarily.
Behaviour Activity Type – the activity during which the incident took place, for example,
English, physical education.
Behaviour Location – add/remove locations to match those in the school, for example,
classroom, corridor, and hall.
Behaviour Action Taken – lists the sanctions that the school may use to resolve a behaviour
incident.
Behaviour Status – the status of the incident such as resolved, unresolved, more
information required. Consider the definition of resolved, for example, if the consequence is
detention then logically the event is resolved. If a pupil subsequently fails to attend
detention then this in itself becomes a further (and more serious) behaviour event. The
Review/Follow Up section can be used to record what happened next and whether further
sanctions were set.
Behaviour Time – enables the time of day when an incident occurred to be defined.
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The table below shows example values
Behaviour
Activity Type
(what the pupil
was doing
when the
incident
occurred)
Behaviour
Location
Behaviour
Action Taken
Behaviour
Status
Behaviour Time
English
Classroom
Resolved
Morning
Maths
Hall
Removed from
class
Unresolved
Afternoon
Extra-curricular
Reception
Discussed with
pupil
Further
Intervention
Required
Dinner time
Playground
Discussed with
Parents
Before school
After school
Referred to
headteacher
Letter to
parents
Achievements
SIMS delivers similar functionality to record achievements and it is important to note that
schools are encouraged to recognise achievement as much as poor behaviour.
The achievement configuration elements are as displayed in the table below
Achievement
Code
Achievement
Description
Points
Include in Register? (to allow class
teachers to record the incident
with a right-click)
EXE
Excellent Effort
2
Y
ATW
Attendance Award
2
N
COM
Community Event
3
N
EHM
Excellent Homework
1
Y
In addition to recording the achievements, it is possible to record supporting information
and the actions taken by the school in recognition as follows.
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Achievement – Award Given
Achievement - Subject
Gold Award
Maths
Head’s Certificate
Reading
Letter to Parents
Extra-Curricular
Pro-Formas
Please find below a series of pro-formas which can be completed in preparation for
configuration of the system
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Behaviour Code Behaviour Description
6
Points
Include in
Register? (to
allow class
teachers to
record the
incident with
a right-click)
Is this a Bullying Type?
Behaviour Activity Type Code
7
Behaviour Activity Type Description
Behaviour Location Code
8
Behaviour Location Description
Behaviour Status Code
9
Behaviour Status Description
Behaviour Time Code
10
Behaviour Time Description
Behaviour Action Taken Code
11
Behaviour Action Taken Description
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