SIMS Pre-Admission eForm Templates - Guidance for SIMS Schools (Group Edition) – Forms & Flows

For Group Edition

Please note: Operoo will no longer support new versions of SIMS after July 31, 2023. Specifically, this will end support for the integration between Operoo and SIMS. If you are using the 2-way SyncMonkey integration, please contact the Support Team who will help and guide you through migrating your integration from SyncMonkey to Wonde.

Important: This guidance and process is only applicable to SIMS schools who use Group Edition.

Before selecting any of the SIMS Pre-admission eForm Templates (located under “Use an
Operoo Best Practice Parent eForm Template”)

listed below please ensure you read and understand the details listed within this article.
If you have any questions please contact the Support Team

or your Customer Success Manager.

SIMS Pre-Admission Form (Entire Form)
SIMS Pre-Admission Form (Ethnic, Cultural and Family Background only)
SIMS Pre-Admission Form (Consents only)

Please note: The SIMS Pre-Admission Form (Entire Form) can also be sent as a Student eForm for Sixth
Form students. Please create a Student eForm and navigate to “Use anOperoo Best Practice Parent eForm
Template” to locate the template.
If you are going to send out the eForm to students, you need to ensure you have Student Logins enabled.

Please do not create multiple Consent eForms, only one Consent eForm must be created. If multiple
Consent eForms are created, when the data is verified and synced to SIMS, the 2nd eForm synced
will remove the consent data from the 1st eForm. For example, if the 1st eForm data contains photo
consent options and the 2nd eForm contains trip consent data. When the 2nd eForm responses are
verified and synced to SIMS, this will remove any photo consents against that student.

All of the questions on these eForm Templates will sync back to SIMS (with the exception of the
Parent/Guardian signature and Date), provided Administrators read, understand and follow the
guidance below. If it is not followed, the result could be that the data does not sync from Operoo

to SIMS.

This document provides guidance to Administrators on the following;

What cannot be altered in any of the eForm Template(s)
What customisation can be done to the eForm Template(s)
SIMS Validation
What the reference of "Replace options with SIMS lists" means
Section specific guidance
The workflow process

What cannot be altered in any of the eForm Template(s)

Within each eForm Template, Administrators cannot make the following customisations;

Delete or alter the Special Case Tag field

At the top of each eForm Template, there is the section “Special Case Tag” and within the section
there is a reference of “sims_enrollment_form”. This reference cannot be altered and must remain
as it is.

Altering this reference will mean you cannot see the eForm responses when going to prepare
and verify the data.

Delete or alter the Question name identifiers

Under each question (except the final signature and data quetsions), there is a unique reference called a “Question name identifier” (QNI). For example, with the question “Preferred Forename”, there is a QNI of “preferred_forename_student”. The QNI is a unique identifier which is the link between the eForm response the parent provides and SIMS. These references cannot be altered and must remain as they are. The QNI is an internal reference and is not shown to parents.

Altering these references will result in the data not syncing to SIMS.

Rename individual line options (applicable to Single choice, Multiple choice and Yes/no questions)

Administrators cannot rename individual line items. For example, with the question “Gender”, the options of “Female” and “Male” cannot be altered to “Girl” and “Boy”. The options in the eForm must match what is in SIMS otherwise the selection made by the parent or carer will not sync to SIMS.

What customisation can be done to the eForm Template(s)

Within each eForm Template, Administrators can make the following customisations;

Rename the eForm Template(s) title(s)

For example, the Title of "SIMS Pre-Admission Form - School Year 2021 - 2022 (Entire Form)" could be renamed to
"Pre-Admission Form - School Year 2021 - 2022".

to

Edit the question title(s)

For example, question “Preferred Forename” could be renamed to “Preferred First Name”.

to

Delete entire questions

For example, if the question “Mode of Travel” is not a question asked to parents, Administrators can delete this question from the eForm.

Delete individual line options (applicable to Single choice, Multiple choice and Yes/no questions)

For example, with the question “Country of Birth”, if the country “Antarctica” was not an option parents should be able to select, Administrators can delete that individual option.

Change the order of the questions

For example, if Administrators would prefer to ask “Gender” before “Child’s NHS number”, Administrators can change the order of the questions.

or

Add new questions

Best practice is that schools create additional eForms for any data they need to collect outside of the SIMS Pre-Admission eForm, however, Administrators can add new questions.

For example, if a school is asking for the GP details for a student, these questions can be added to the eForm, but the response will not sync back to SIMS.

It's important to note that any questions added will not sync to SIMS.

If new questions are added, Administrators will need to manually add the responses to SIMS (either by exporting the responses from Operoo in a CSV and then copying and pasting the data into SIMS, or manually typing the response into SIMS. If additional questions are added to the SIMS eForm, the Question Name Identifier field is to be left blank.

SIMS Validation

There are certain fields in SIMS that have validation on them, if the response given by the parent or carer does not meet the validation requirement, SIMS will not accept the data (the data will not sync to SIMS) and an error will be provided to the school in the Sync Logs in Operoo.

In the main eForm Template on the questions where these SIMS validations are relevant, we have built in a minimum and maximum character limit and pre-set this value inline with the validation rules.

If a school alters these character limits prior to making the eForm live, and a parent or carer completes and submits their response with more characters than SIMS allows, the data will not sync to SIMS. If this takes place, the school will need to manually update SIMS with the response provided by the parent or carer.

The SIMS validation rules are below;

Apartment cannot exceed 40 characters
Chosen name cannot exceed 60 characters
County cannot exceed 40 characters
District cannot exceed 40 characters
Email address cannot exceed 60 characters
Email address provided must be valid, for example, the response cannot be "unknown", and must be name@domain.co.uk/com
Home phone number cannot exceed 20 characters
House name cannot exceed 40 characters
House number cannot exceed 40 characters
Job title cannot exceed 30 characters
Middle name cannot exceed 60 characters
Mobile phone number cannot exceed 20 characters
NHS number cannot exceed 10 characters
NI number cannot exceed 13 characters
Postcode cannot exceed 8 characters
Preferred forename cannot exceed 60 characters
Preferred surname cannot exceed 60 characters
Street cannot exceed 40 characters
Student contacts forename cannot exceed 60 characters
Student contacts surname cannot exceed 60 characters
Town/city cannot exceed 40 characters
Work phone number cannot exceed 20 characters
Workplace cannot exceed 60 characters

What the reference of “Replace options with SIMS lists” means

With every Single choice or Multiple choice question there is the button “Replace options with SIMS lists”.
When this button is clicked, all the lists that are in the school’s SIMS will be shown, and can be selected by an Administrator.

Once the relevant list has been selected, the values in that list will override the options Operoo has for that specific question with the values that are in a school's SIMS. Please see the example below;

The SIMS Lists that are shown, can be selected and used by Administrators are as follows;

SIMS List	Questions used for in the eForm(s)
country	“Address, Country” - all instances
genders	“Gender”- all instances
language	“First Language” for all student contacts “Child’s home language (the language your child now speaks at home)”
modes_of_travel	“Mode of Travel: We would like to find out more about how your child will get to school. Please select from the list below.”
nationality	“Country of Birth”
person_titles	“Title (Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, Dr, Other- please specify)”- all instances
relationship_type	“Relationship to child” - all instances
religion	“What is your child’s Religion”
student_asylum_status	“Do your child have Asylum Status”
student_ethnicity	“What is the Ethnic background of your child”
student_english_additional_language	“Are there are other languages spoken at home outside of English”
student_first_language	“Child’s First Language (the language your child was initially exposed during their early years)”
student_national_identity	“How would you describe your child’s National Identity”
student_service_children_in_education	"Service children in education"
student_parental_consent	“Parental Consents”
student_speak_welsh	“Does your child speak Welsh”

All other lists which are shown below cannot be used;

address_type
dietary_needs
document_status
document_types
email_locations
meals
medical_conditions
medical_event_descriptions
medical_event_types
paramedical_supports
pre_admission_status
student_proficiency_in_english_level
student_ethnicity_data_source
student_first_language_source
student_status
telephone_locations
telephone_types

Please note: The options on the eForm must match exactly what is in the schools SIMS. If the selection made by the parent or carer does not exist as an active value in SIMS, the response by the parent or carer is ignored in the sync from Operoo to SIMS. For example, please do not add an 'N/A/Not applicable/No' option under the question 'Does your child have Asylum Status' as these options do not exist in SIMS.

If this does occur, there will be an issue flagged in the Pre Enrolment eForm data Matching screen when the Administrator prepares and verifies the responses prior to syncing the data from Operoo to SIMS.

Administrators must save the eForm and then go back into the editing screen before the Replace Option with SIMS List feature can be used.

Section specific guidance

Used in conjunction with the overall customisation allowed listed above under sections “What cannot be altered in
any of the eForm Template(s)” and “What customisation can be done to the eForm Template(s)”.

Section 1: Basic Details

Question “Address, Post Code” must be set as a Required question and cannot be deleted. Deleting this question may result in the data not syncing to SIMS. Also, as SIMS by default has validation on the Post Code field, Administrators will need to either turn off the validation in SIMS, or review the responses provided by parents and amend the format (if necessary) before syncing the data to SIMS.
If you do not want to include the question "Address, Country", this can be removed. However, if it is removed, when the data is synced back to SIMS, United Kingdom will be selected as the default Country.

Section 2: Parent/Guardian Contacts

Questions “Relationship to child” must be set as Required questions and cannot be deleted. Deleting these questions will result in the data not syncing to SIMS. This is for all instances of the question.
Question “Address, Post Code” must be set as a Required question and cannot be deleted. Deleting
this question may result in the data not syncing to SIMS. Also, as SIMS by default has validation on
the Post Code field, Administrators will need to either turn off the validation in SIMS, or review the
responses provided by parents and amend the format (if necessary) before syncing the data to SIMS.
If you do not want to include the question "Address, Country", this can be removed. However, if it is removed,
when the data is synced back to SIMS, United Kingdom will be selected as the default Country.

Please note: If only 2 contacts are required to be provided by a parent, you can delete the
remaining questions for Parent/Guardian Contacts three (3) - nine (9).

If you do not want to include the question "Priority Contact Number", this can be removed. However, if it is removed,
when the data is synced back to SIMS, the contact will sync back without any priority number. For best practice, it is recommended to leave this question in the form.

Section 3: Non Parental Emergency Contact Information

Questions “Relationship to child” must be set as Required questions and cannot be deleted. Deleting these questions will result in the data not syncing to SIMS. This is for all instances of the question.
If you require an address to be provided, questions “Address, Post Code” must be set as a Required questions
and cannot be deleted. Deleting this question may result in the data not syncing to SIMS. Also, as SIMS by default has validation on
the Post Code field, Administrators will need to either turn off the validation in SIMS, or review the
responses provided by parents and amend the format (if necessary) before syncing the data to SIMS.
If you do not want to include the question "Address, Country", this can be removed. However, if it is removed,
when the data is synced back to SIMS, United Kingdom will be selected as the default Country.
If you do not require an address to be provided, you can delete all Address questions and only the data provided
will sync back to SIMS. For example, Contact Relationship Type, Name, Email, Phone Number.
If you do not want to include the question "Priority Contact Number", this can be removed. However, if it is removed,
when the data is synced back to SIMS, the contact will sync back without any priority number. For best practice, it is recommended you leave this question in the form.

Section 5: Consents

The individual options provided (Copyright Permission, Data Exchange, etc.) are examples. In order for consents to sync from Operoo to SIMS, Administrators must use the feature “Replace options with SIMS lists'' to ensure the options in SIMS are an exact match for the options that parents and carers can select in the eForm(s).

Postcode questions have a built in validation where the parent must provide a valid postcode. To ensure parents do not enter a postcode with additional spaces which then does not meet the validation requirements, it might be worthwhile to give them an example, e.g. Address, Post Code (e.g. SW1A 1AA).

The Workflow Process

The following steps are a guide and may differ from school to school, additionally, the order
may also differ;

Pre-admission student data is uploaded into SIMS by the school
The Pre-admission feature is enabled in Operoo and the relevant pre-admission status(es) is selected (this is under Sync Settings and can only be done by Operoo). Data will only sync from SIMS to Operoo based on the status selected. For example, if the status selected in Operoo is “Accepted” only pre-admission student data in SIMS with a status of “Accepted” will sync to Operoo.
Create a Pre-admission Group in Operoo. Multiple Groups may be required if a school has multiple Pre-admission students where the Pre-admission Forms differ (i.e. Nursery and Reception)
Select the required Pre-admission eForm Template(s) from under “Use an Operoo Best Practice Parent eForm Template”. Make any required changes (ensuring the guidance list above is followed) as well as selected members, altering settings, and if required adding Triggers. Once the eForm is finalised, enable the eForm.
Parents and carers will complete the eForm(s). Once submitted, the eForm responses can be located in the Administrators Form Library.
Administrators can then review the eForm responses. If required, Administrators can use the “Respond on their behalf” feature to tidy up the data. For example, alter Berks to Berkshire. The data will sync into SIMS as it on the eForm.
Once the Pre-Enrolment eForm Data Matching functionality has been enabled in the school account, Administrators can then prepare, verify and sync the data from the "Pre Enrolment eForm data Matching" screen in Operoo to SIMS.

Please see this Knowledge Base article for full guidance, and a step-by-step guide on the SIMS Pre-Enrolment eForm Data Matching process - SIMS Pre-Enrolment eForm Data Matching and Verifying eForm Responses

Contact addresses will not be linked to student addresses or other contacts once the data is synced from Operoo to SIMS. This process, which can be done in bulk will need to take place in SIMS via the Housekeeping Tool. Also, please note that the sync will remove linked addresses from students and contacts when it updates addresses. 

We recommend that if changes are made by the Administrator to the eForm responses, i.e. altering Berks to Berkshire, the Administrator locks the eForm response so the parent or carer cannot alter the data back to its original form. Once the eForm response has been verified in Operoo by an Administrator the eForm response will automatically be locked.

Just a gentle reminder that parents and carers who have an Operoo account can see each other’s eForm responses by default. If you’d like to alter this behaviour, see how via this Knowledge Base article - How does an Administrator handle split families with individual contacts seeing all eForm responses

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