How to Use the School Diary

Applicable to SIMS Version 

7.108 onwards. 

Permissions Required 

How to Use the School Diary 

All users have access to the School Diary. You will need to be a member of any of the following 

user groups in System Manager to view or add School Diary events: 

Administration Assistant, Admissions Officer, Attendance Manager, Attendance Operator (View 

only), Exams Officer (View only), Exams Operator (View only), Pastoral Manager, Profiles 

Coordinator (View only), Registration Tutor, School Administrator, SEN Coordinator, Senior 

Management Team, System Manager, Timetabler. 

Please see your System Administrator/Manager if you are unsure whether you have the 

required permissions. 

Introduction 

The School Diary is used to view and add events for the current and forthcoming academic 

years. Events, such as half-term dates, are added automatically when a new academic year is 

created. Additional events, such as staff meetings, sports days, etc. can then be added by 

users with the appropriate permissions. All users can add personal events by marking them as 

Private. The School Diary also links with Attendance ensuring that events such as half-term 

dates, school closures, etc. that do not require attendance records, are marked accordingly in 

Attendance. 

How to View the School Diary 

Select Focus | School | School Diary to display the School Diary page. 

By default, the current academic year is displayed. It is possible to view previous and future 

academic years, providing future years have been defined. To select a different year or term, 

click the + icons as required. 

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In addition, events can be viewed for a specific Day, Week or Month. 

Viewing Today’s Events 

Click the Today button on the toolbar to highlight today’s date in whichever view is currently 

selected (i.e. day, week or month). 

Viewing a Specific Day’s Events 

Click the Day button on the toolbar to show a single day view. 

Click a date 

here to view 

any events 

for that day. 

The required day can then be selected using the Date Selector on the right-hand side of the 

School Diary. Click the required date to view the events on that day. 

Viewing a Week’s Events 

Click the Week button on the toolbar to show the current week. 

How to Use the School Diary Page 2 of 8

The week displayed can be changed by selecting the appropriate date from the Date Selector 

on the right-hand side of the School Diary. 

Viewing a Month’s Events 

Click the Month button on the toolbar to show the current month. 

Hover over an event in the calendar to display the full description, as shown in the previous 

graphic. 

NOTE: The Date Selector on the right-hand side of the School Diary is not available when the 

view is set to display a month. Use the scroll bars to move through the remaining months of 

the academic year. 

Adding Events to the School Diary 

Users with the appropriate permissions can add to the School Diary, events that are visible to 

all users. In addition, all users can add events to their own view of the School Diary, e.g. 

hospital appointments, etc. There are several ways in which events can be added to the diary, 

depending on the current view. 

1. Select Focus | School | School Diary to display the School Diary page. 

2. Use any of the following methods to open the School Event dialog (please note that the 

dialog will be named according to the type of event you are creating): 

Click the Action button to display the School Event dialog. 

Select Create New Event and then the required event type from the Action dropdown 

menu. 

Double-click any date in the School Diary view (either in Day, Week or Month view). 


Right-click anywhere on the School Diary view (either Day, Week or Month view) and 

select New School Event from the pop-up menu. You can select any of the other 

menu items if you wish to create a different type of event. 

3. Enter a Description for the event. 

NOTE: Longer descriptions are visible only when you hover the mouse over the event, as 

described in Viewing a Month’s Events on page 3. 

4. Select the relevant Category from the drop-down list, e.g. Photos, noting that additional 

categories can be added by clicking the Categories button (providing you have the 

required permissions). 

5. If the event is planned for an entire day, select the All day event check box. This action 

hides the time drop-down lists from view. 

6. Specify the Start time for the event by entering the required date (if different from the 

default) or click the Calendar button to select the required date then select the time from 

the drop-down list. 

7. Specify the End time for the event by entering the required date (if different form the 

default) or click on the Calendar button to select the required date then select the time 

from the drop-down list. 

8. Select the Private check box if the event is of a personal nature. This prevents other users 

from viewing the details of the event. The Private check box should not be used for 

normal school events. Any events marked as Private are visible only from your personal 

Home Page. Personal appointments and days off can be added to your individual School 

Diary view as reminders. 

9. Click the OK button to save the event. 

Adding Recurring Events 

Some School Diary events may occur on a regular basis, e.g. staff meetings. It is possible to 

define an event once and identify it as a recurring event so that you do not have to repeatedly 

enter the event details. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Once added, recurring events can be deleted on an individual basis only. 

Ensure that the details are correct before adding the recurring event. 


2. Select Create New Event | User Defined Event from the Action drop-down menu. 


3. Enter a Description for the event and select the required Category from the drop-down 

list. 

4. Click the Recurrence button to display the Event Recurrence dialog. 

5. Select the All day event check box, if applicable. This disables the Event time and Event 

duration sections. 

6. Specify the Event time by selecting the Start and End times from the respective dropdown 

lists (unless this is an all day event). 

7. Indicate the Event Duration by selecting from the Days, Hours and Minutes drop-down 

lists (unless this is an all day event). 

8. Define the recurrence Pattern of the event by selecting the relevant radio button. 

To Specify a Daily Pattern: 

Either: 

OR 

Select the Daily radio button in the Pattern panel. 

Select the Every radio button and enter the number of days between each recurrence 

of the event, e.g. every 1 day, every 3 days. 

Select the Every weekday radio button if you wish to specify the days on which the 

event is scheduled to occur. Select the appropriate check boxes to indicate the days on 

which the event takes place. 


The previous example shows an event being repeated every Thursday. 

To Specify a Weekly Pattern: 

Select the Weekly radio button in the Pattern panel. 

Enter the number of weeks the event should be repeated in the Recur every field. 

Select the appropriate check boxes to indicate the days on which the event takes place. 

The previous example shows an event being repeated fortnightly on a Tuesday. 

To Specify a Monthly Pattern: 

OR 

Select the Monthly radio button in the Pattern panel. 

To repeat the event on a specific date, select the Day radio button, enter the date 

adjacent to the radio button then enter the number of months the event should be 

repeated. 

To repeat an event on a specific day of the month, select the The radio button, then 

select the required values from the drop-down lists, e.g. First and Monday. Enter the 

number of months the event should be repeated. 

The previous example shows the event is repeated on the first Wednesday of every 

month. 

9. Specify the range of recurrence by entering the Start and End by dates of the recurrence 

or click the Calendar buttons and select the required dates. 

Alternatively, select the End after radio button and enter the number of occurrences 

before the event ends. 

10. Select the Skip holiday check box to suspend the recurrence of the event during the 

school holidays, if required. 

11. Click the OK button to save the recurring event. 


Deleting Events 

Please note that deleting certain types of event may affect Attendance, if it is in use. For 

example, deleting a Teacher Training Day affects Attendance marks and Timetable details. 


2. Find the relevant date, highlight the entry and click the Delete button on the toolbar. 

Printing the School Diary 

The School Diary is printed using the reporting functionality in SIMS. A default report is 

supplied with the pre-defined reports available with each release, but further reports can be 

designed as required. For more information, please refer to the Reporting Catalogue. 

1. Click the Print button on the toolbar to display the Select Report for Diary dialog. 

2. Expand the Focus folder and click the Diary folder to display the available reports. 

NOTE: If you are deleting a duplicate record, ensure that any required data is added to 

the record you intend to keep. 

3. Select the required report and click the OK button. 

4. Select the required report parameters then click the OK button to produce the report. A 

report similar to the following is displayed. 


More Information 

All handbooks can be accessed from the Documentation Centre which is launched by clicking 

the Documentation button on the Home Page in SIMS. Once open, click the Handbooks 

button and select the required handbook from the Handbooks page. 

A selection of help sheets is available from the Documentation Centre in SIMS which can be 

accessed by clicking the Documentation button on the toolbar, then clicking the Help Sheets 

button. All available help sheets can be obtained from our SupportNet home page 

(http://support.capitaes.co.uk) by clicking the Documentation button, then selecting Help 

Sheets from the Categories drop-down list. 

Training courses 

For information on training courses, please contact your SIMS Support Provider. 

Providing feedback on this help sheet 

If you have any suggestions or comments about this or any of our other help sheets, please 

email helpsheets@capita.co.uk. 

Help Sheet Revision History 

Doc. Version Change Description Date 

1040-001 Initial Release. 18/01/06 

1040-002 Updated to reflect SIMS new look released with 7.78 plus some 

general improvements to text. 

21/08/06 

1400-003 Updated cross references with new handbook location. 05/11/08 

1400-004 Help Sheet transferred to the new template. 10/09/09

How to Use the School Diary

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