We’re excited to share the latest features designed to empower your staff, streamline your processes, and, most importantly, enhance outcomes for your pupils. From AI-powered Smart Seating Plans that optimise classroom arrangements in seconds to Conduct Dashboards that give leaders actionable insights into pupil behaviour, our upcoming releases focus on reducing admin time and improving decision-making.
With modules like Attendance Management and Pupil Timetable, office teams can handle daily tasks with ease, while the enriched Pupil Profile provides a deeper understanding of each child’s needs—both in and out of the classroom. For MAT leaders, the continued development of Group Hub MIS brings centralised staff management tools to help you standardise operations across schools.
Let’s explore what’s on the horizon and how SIMS Next Gen is shaping the future of education management.
For teachers
Smart Seating Plans (AI-powered)
Create a seating plan in less than one minute.
Smart Seating Plans uses AI to create seating arrangements that boost engagement and improve learning outcomes.
This brand-new module reads and applies specific seating notes, such as “Don’t seat Isla next to Mia - they’re easily distracted,” to create seating arrangements that are truly tailored to your classroom. A feature you won’t find elsewhere.
- Select up to three key attributes like behaviour, SEND, or academic ability and decide how groups should be seated - together, apart, or clustered
- Generate optimised seating plans that best support each student’s learning in less than one minute.
For senior leaders
Reporting and Analytics
Faster, easier, and more impactful reports for schools.
Building on the success of our MAT reports, we’re excited to deliver nine new Pupil Insights reports designed to help users easily analyse data trends through clear graphs, charts, and high-level summaries. These reports will cover key areas like:
- School Overview
- Demographics
- Attendance Overview
- Persistent Absence
- Attendance Timeline
- Attendance by Codes
- Suspensions and Exclusions
- SEND
- Interventions
In addition, we’re introducing five detailed reports that provide individual pupil-level data in a tabular format, covering Attendance by Category, Attendance by Code, Pupil Premium, SEND, and Key Attributes giving school leaders the tools they need to quickly identify patterns and take informed action to drive school improvement.
Enjoy greater flexibility to customise and extract the insights you need and save time by saving report templates with your preferred filters.
For teachers and senior leaders
Conduct Dashboards
Your all-in-one solution for tracking and managing pupil behaviour.
Conduct Dashboards bring all your behaviour data into one customisable view, making it easier to monitor trends, identify issues, and take action that improves student wellbeing and learning outcomes.
These dashboards give you the actionable insight you need to make informed decisions, support safeguarding, and maximise the value of data recorded in SIMS Next Gen.
- Instantly access an overview of positive and negative behaviour across your school—identify patterns and recurring issues.
- Drill down into specific data, such as behaviour by class, year group, or individual students, to make informed decisions.
- Generate reports quickly for leadership discussions, safeguarding purposes, or parent communications.
For office staff
Attendance Management
Simplify and centralise attendance management.
Attendance Management simplifies how you track, manage, and report on pupil attendance. By consolidating all key tasks into one place, it saves time, improves efficiency, and ensures compliance with safeguarding and attendance regulations. Designed with flexibility in mind, schools can tailor attendance rules, apply automated processes for marks, and create sessions based on timetables.
- Quickly search for, add, and edit individual attendance records.
- Track pupil whereabouts in real time.
- Create and manage attendance patterns.
- Streamline statutory returns using automated data collection.
For all school staff
Pupil Timetable
Fast, easy access to pupil timetables.
Say goodbye to the hassle of searching for student timetables. With this brand-new feature in SIMS Next Gen, you can instantly access a student’s ‘now and next’ schedule in real-time, helping you save valuable time—especially in busy or urgent situations.
With Pupil Timetable, you can:
- View a student’s ‘now and next’ schedule at a glance from the Pupil Profile, Class View, or homepage.
- See subject details, lesson code, teacher name, room, and precise start and end times at a glance.
- Help students who’ve misplaced their timetable get back to class without delay.
- Locate students easily to deliver messages, arrange meetings, or address safeguarding concerns with up-to-date information.
Pupil Profile: Homelife
Understanding students beyond the classroom.
Homelife provides a comprehensive view of a student’s personal and home life information, enabling staff to offer tailored support and interventions where needed.
- View linked sibling records to understand family dynamics and provide cohesive support.
- Identify students with caregiving responsibilities to ensure appropriate assistance and understanding.
- Access critical safeguarding information to act quickly and effectively in the best interest of the child.
- Track transportation arrangements to ensure safe and efficient travel for students.
- Monitor post-16 employment details to support career development and transitions.
Pupil Profile: Additional SEND/ALN
Critical SEND/ALN insights, always at your fingertips.
This section of the Pupil Profile ensures that key information about pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) or Additional Learning Needs (ALN) is easily accessible and actionable for teachers, SENDCos, ALNCos and school staff.
- View and update additional support areas carried over from SIMS7, ensuring continuity and compliance.
- Access a new SEND/ALN Log, exclusive to SIMS Next Gen, where SENDCos/ALNCos can record detailed, tailored information about a pupil’s needs.
- Use the pinned status feature to highlight the most critical notes for display in other areas of SIMS Next Gen, such as the Class View Pupil Profile, ensuring that teachers have the right information at the right time.
For MAT leaders
Group Hub MIS: Staff Information
Group Hub MIS provides MAT leaders with a framework for sharing knowledge, experience, and good practices across all schools - ensuring consistency and compliance across the group.
Staff Information is part of the second phase of development for Group Hub MIS, offering a centralised way to manage and view staff records across your MAT.
- Easily search and view all staff records from a central location.
- Access basic information such as personal details, work information, timetable information, and absence records.
- Drill down to individual school MIS for a more detailed view of staff data when needed.
This functionality will continue to evolve, with future enhancements including the ability to create and manage comprehensive MAT-wide staff profiles, offering even greater flexibility and control.
Useful Links
Thank you!
As we look ahead to next term, our commitment remains clear: to deliver tools that make a meaningful difference in your schools and classrooms. Whether it’s helping teachers create more engaged learning environments with Smart Seating Plans, enabling school leaders to take data-driven action through Conduct Dashboards, or supporting MAT leaders with streamlined staff management in Group Hub MIS, these updates are designed with your needs in mind.
Thank you for continuing this journey with us. Your feedback fuels every step forward, and we can’t wait to hear how these new features enhance your day-to-day operations. Stay tuned for more exciting updates, and as always, thank you for choosing SIMS Next Gen to support your school’s success.