Preferences

|	Permissions required to access this module:
Section:
System Management
Permission(s):
Access PARS management options
Access PARS preferences

The configure preferences screen accessed via System management

Unlike user permissions, preferences are global; they affect all PARS users. Some preferences will have a noticeable affect on performance.

This page is accessed via:
PARS main menu > System management > Preferences

Assignments

• Alternative name for assignments

Rename 'assignments'. Homework is a common alternative name.

• Assignments this many days late are considered as exceptions (0=ignore preference)

Assignments that were due to be handed in more than X days ago are no longer considered missing.

• Automatically exempt absent students from assignments

PARS will not set assignments for pupils who are not present when the assignment is created.

Attendance

• Allow user-defined colour markers on attendance view screens

Allows user to access and apply user-defined colour markers on 'Attendance view' screen

• Choose a font for the Attendance View screen

Choose which font is used on Attendance view.

• Save marks chunk size

When saving large numbers of marks via Attendance view, the marks will be broken down into groups. This setting defines how many marks are in each group; the recommended number is 1000. You can increase this number, meaning each group will have more marks in so there will be less groups. This can increase the speed of saving marks, but if the groups are too large then PARS may time out.

• When sending messages in missing registers send as instant popups notices

Missing registers notices will pop-up on recipients screens as well as waiting in their inbox.

Automation

• Set whether or not a running Automation Service logs fully to the Windows Application Event log.

If any problems are encountered with the Automation Module, turn on this option then check the Windows event log after 24 hours. This log may be viewed by selecting "Event Viewer" under Administrative Tools on the Windows Control Panel or by adding the Event Viewer snap-in to the MMC console (Start-> run -> mmc).

Cover

• Number of discrete parts that classes are split into for cover purposes

Enable this option to allow classes to be covered by multiple parties (e.g. teacher "A" covers the first half and teacher "B" covers the second half)

Detentions

• Default print slips screen to view own incidents

When printing detention slips for parents, the screen will not show you other users' detentions.

• Email student when detention is scheduled

When a pupil is placed in detention, PARS will send an Email to that student with the details of the detention.

• Maximum number of pupils automatically assigned to a detention slot

Set a limit to the number of pupils added to a detention slot on one day (from 0 to 100). Any detentions set over the limit would default to the next available day. This only applies to Automatic detention scheduling. If you manually schedule a detention you can still add a detention in that slot

• Send a notice to the student when a detention is scheduled

When a pupil is placed in detention, PARS will send a notice to that student with the details of the detention.

• Send a notice to the teacher when a detention is scheduled

When a pupil is placed in detention, PARS will send a notice to the teacher taking that detention with the details of the detention.

• The number of days advance time for booking detentions

If the permission: Force automatic scheduling when saving detentions is set then the first Timeslot found this number of days after the pupil is marked for detention will be automatically scheduled.

If Use day is selected then it will jump to the day selected in the next option (The selected day in advance for booking detentions) before it searches for a free timeslot.

• The selected day in advance for booking detentions

When automatic scheduling for detentions is enabled, PARS will jump forward to this day before searching for a free timeslot.

• Use behaviour recorders identity when adding a detention to a behaviour

If a behaviour incident is recorded by one member of staff, and then a detention linked to that behaviour incident is recorded by another member of staff, the detention will appear to have been added by the first member of staff. This is useful when admin staff assign detentions via behaviour referrals but do not Take detentions registers.

Diary

The following three settings allow PARS to access your Exchange Web Services, so the exchange calendar can be viewed in PARS.

• Exchange EWS service service user account

A username to access the EWS service

• Exchange EWS service service user password

A password for the username specified above

• Exchange EWS service URL

The URL of your EWS service

• Include Non-Teaching periods

Show non-teaching periods on the timetable.

• Optional Exchange EWS service public calendar name

An optional name to be used fro your Exchange calendar

• Show SIMS events on Diary

Diary events on the SIMS calendar will be shown in PARS

Email

• BCC external contact emails to this address

Send a blind copy of External contact emails to a specified address.

• Default folder for loading of HTML emails.

PARS will first open this folder when choosing an HTML file to send via Email.

• Default style for sending text emails. This will convert all emails to HTML

If this setting is on, you will be able to use various fonts and pictures in your emails.

• Disclaimer to appear on the bottom of all emails sent from PARS

Specify a message to appear at the foot of all emails sent via PARS.

• Include images when emailing reports

If you are emailing a report, the report will be sent in the format you specified (typically Excel) and a picture file of the report will also be sent.

• Logs all attempts to send emails in Connect

All attempts to send emails via Connect will be recorded in a table in the database. This is a diagnostic setting that should be switched off, unless you are advised otherwise.

• Name to use when for emails sent from PARS

The 'From' field that will be used for emails sent from PARS. This is often set as the name of the school.

• Only send images when emailing reports

This will give you the option to save reports as .gif files. By saving the report as a .gif file it is possible to open the report in internet explorer.

• Reply address to use for emails sent from PARS

Emails sent from within PARS will appear to come from this address.

• SMTP Password

The password for the user specified below, that can access the SMTP server. NB this is needed to send emails via PARS.

• SMTP port

NB this is needed to send emails via PARS.

• SMTP server name or IP address

The name or IP address of your SMTP server. NB this is needed to send emails via PARS.

• SMTP Username

A username that can be used to access the SMTP server. NB this is needed to send emails via PARS.

• Upload attachments to Assignment emails so they are available in Insight

If this setting is off, then any attachments for Assignments will only be available in the email to recipients. If this setting is on, then a copy of the attachment is uploaded to the database, meaning the attachment can be accessed via PARS and Insight at a later date.

• Use authentification settings when sending emails

Your SMTP server may require this security setting in order to send emails.

• Use SSL when sending emails

Your SMTP server may require Certificates to encrypt emails before it will allow them to be sent.

External Contact

• Add copy of contact history to SIMS contact log

Send a copy of all communications to the SIMS contact log.

• Default to not adding contacts with a Court Order

By default, the box to exclude contacts with court orders will be ticked, from the External contact screen.

• Default to only contacting once where contactee has multiple children

By default, the box to send a message per household instead of per pupil will be ticked.

• Prefer emails to SMS on external contacts, batch selection screen

When this setting is used, emails will be the favoured method of communication from PARS, followed by SMS then postal mail. The alternative is SMS then Email then postal.

• Use Primary flag to indicate main

In SIMS, if a method of contact (telephone number, email, etc.) is marked as "Primary" PARS will consider this as if it were the "Main" method of contact.

• When adding to SIMS contact log also upload attachments to SIMS document manager

If the setting Add copy of contact history to SIMS contact log is active, then when copying communications to the SIMS contact log, any attachments will also be uploaded to the pupil's linked documents.

General

• Allows you to view Saturdays and Sundays

Weekends will be visible in PARS on certain Reports and on the Attendance view week view batch entry screen.

• Colour attendance squares based on physical meaning.

Attendance marks on registers and the Attendance view screen will be coloured green for physically present, red for physically absent and yellow for late.

• Count approved educational activity code as present

Attendance codes defined in the SIMS Attendance module with the statistical meaning "Approved educational activity" will count as a present mark when running reports.

• Delete contents of PARS TEMP folder on exit

When you exit PARS, all contents of the PARS TEMP folder, stored locally on your machine, will be deleted.

• Display houses

Display house groups within PARS.

• Grade comment entry preview checkbox is ticket by default

When entering grading comments, the preview checkbox will be ticked by default. This will tell you how often pre-configured grading comments have been used.

• Ignore component delivery dates when loading timetable

Occasionally timetables may appear missing and/or with corrupt data from within PARS, enabling this preference will ignore component delivery dates that may be incorrect/invalid in SIMS.

• Include teacher names on 'Student selection' screens

Displays teachers names on 'Student selection' screens.

• Logs every save of lesson marks

• Logs every save of Session marks

These two settings increase the amount of data that is recorded whenever a lesson/session mark is saved. The settings should only be used under advice and when it has been established that there is a problem that requires further investigation. The extra data gives information about the user who changed the mark, the person associated with the user and the time when it was saved. In addition it is possible to find out the following information via SQL statements that will return the value of a column headed "Annot":

U	Mark is being updated (i.e. a mark already exists at the time the mark is saved)
I	Mark is being inserted (i.e. no mark exists to be overwritten)
R	Rules applied. The various Registration preferences available are being followed indicating that the mark was saved via a register.
r	Rules not applied. The various Registration preferences available are not being followed indicating that the mark was not saved via a register screen.
H	A change has been made to the attendance mark history.
h	No change has been made to the attendance mark history.

A "Jump to history" button will appear on the Attendance view screen where this information is available.

• Minimise PARS to the taskbar when running spellchecks

PARS uses Microsoft Word to perform spellchecks. If necessary, PARS can be minimised to the taskbar during this process so that Microsoft Word is at the forefront.

• Number of records to store before writing to Rules Based Behaviour log

When saving large numbers of behaviour incidents via Rule based behaviours, the incidents will be broken down into groups. This setting defines how many incidents are in each group; the recommended number is 100. You can increase this number, meaning each group will have more incidents in so there will be less groups. This can increase the speed of running Rule based behaviours, but if the groups are too large then PARS may crash.

• PARS Connect URL - Used for IEPs and Student Review writeback

Enter your PARS Connect URL - this should not be the localhost address given by your server.

• Save Excel files as .xls rather than .xlsx

This affects which format excel documents are saved in. This is typically used to work around network security settings.

• Sessions only mode

Only session registers will be visible in PARS i.e. lesson periods will be hidden.

• Show initial in place of forename for staff

This may be useful where whiteboards are used to take registers or for other reasons where teachers' first names are to be hidden.

• Shows school logo on the Home Page

If the school logo has been added into SIMS (Focus | School | School details) it will appear in the background of the PARS homepage.

• Slow the PARS heartbeat by this factor

Every "x" seconds, the workstation version of PARS will poll the database for new notices, behaviour alerts etc. With a large number of machines across a school network this may add up to a noticable amount of network/server CPU bandwidth. The "heartbeat" timer may be set via this setting, the value of the setting multiplied by five equals the number of seconds between each heartbeat (e.g. a heartbeat of four means the database will be polled every twenty seconds). In theory, increasing this number should decrease the amount of network/server bandwidth.

• Use chosen name in place of legal name

Pupils with a legal surname that is different to their chosen name will have the preferred name displayed within PARS.

• Use sticky focus when entering comments

If the cursor "jumps" from a comment entry window to another window in the background or if focus is generally lost at any time when entering text (meaning the text entry window must be clicked on to "refocus" it) then use this setting to ensure that focus is not lost.

Grading

• Allow grade element links to be unselected after data has been entered. Warning, doing this means those grades will no longer be visible in PARS

This setting should be switched off at all times unless advised by TASC Software support staff.

• Any missing grades scans will base memberships on end dates

When checking to see which pupils have missing grades, a pupil will not be considered 'missing' if their membership in the class ended before the Grade Element closed.

• Default folder for exporting of grade sheets

Enter a location here to define a default folder for gradesheet exports.

• Force a particular rounding direction for grade averaging.

See below for a detailed description of grade rounding.

• Hide colour coding on custom grading reports

• Hide External ASM Aspects from PARS

SIMS aspects for exam modules will be hidden from PARS.

• Hide reg groups from class selection screens

When choosing a class to enter grades, reg groups will not be displayed for selection.

• Include comments column when exporting to Excel

Add a column to the Excel sheet for comments when exporting grade sheets.

• Include highlighted symbol column when exporting to Excel

Add a column to the Excel sheet for pupils' highlight symbol when exporting grade sheets.

• Initial grading view

When the Grade entry screen is initally loaded, it will default to either display core, student review, gradebook or active grades as set here.

• Log each attempt to save grades

All attempts to save grades will be logged in a management report. This will increase the amount of time taken to save grades and should only be used where instructed by TASC Software staff.

• Maximum number of characters allowed in a grading comment

Place a limit on the number of characters allowed in grading comments.

• Round grades up

See below for a detailed description of grade rounding.

• Show reminders for missing grades on diary screen

Reminders will appear in the notices panel at the bottom of the homepage page indicating when grades are due to be entered.

• Show student data columns on grade entry screen

Display columns showing pupils':

- Free School Meal (FSM) status
- FSM within the last 6 years status
- Pupil premium status
- English as an Additional Language (EAL) status
- Special Education Needs (SEN) status
- Gender

• Single view only on grade screen

Have only one view containing all grade elements on the grade entry screen, instead of multiple views.

• The number of days before the grade is due to open that warnings are shown.

PARS will begin sending reminder messages this many days before a Grade Element opens, for teachers to enter grades.

• Use colour coding from ASM marksheets

Pull any colour coding from SIMS marksheets into PARS.

• Use grade priority in preference to element date

Order grade elements by their priorities instead of their data entry dates.

• Use NC Year when checking element-year group links

Use pupils' National Curriculum year when to decide which year group they are in. This is only needed when some pupils are in a different year group to the one that would be normal for their age.

Notices

• Include SIMS notices when fetching notices

SIMS notices will be displayed in PARS if this is on.

• Maximum total size in MB for notice attachments (0=disable attachments)

When adding attachments to notices the maximum size of the attachments can be set from here. If this is set to 0 then users cannot add attachments to notices.

• Prevent potentially unsafe files from being sent as attachments

This will stop any files that are deemed to have unsafe extensions from being sent. A list of files that are seen as dangerous can be viewed from here.

• Prompt user to confirm sending of SMS messages when sending notices.

When sending a notice if a user has a mobile image next to their name this will ask the sender when the notice is accepted "Do you wish to send SMS messages with this notice?"

• Send a Missing Register notice to form tutors when sessions are mapped.

When a session register is mapped to a lesson period, it is still the responsibility of the tutor to ensure that a mark is recorded for each of their pupils. Most of the time with mapped periods, a teacher other than the tutor is the person who actually records the session mark. This means that the tutor will receive notices for missing marks in registers that they don't normally take. This setting can be used to toggle between sending and not sending notices to tutors where they are not the person who actually records the attendance mark.

• Send an email where possible when sending a notice from detentions

If sending a notice from a detention, a copy of that notice will be sent as an email to the recipient.

• Send an email where possible when sending a notice from missing registers

If sending a notice regarding missing registers, a copy of that notice will be sent as an email to the recipient.

• Send an email where possible when sending all notices

If Email has been set up and the recipient of a notice has an email address in SIMS, they will receive an SMS message with the notice content every time a notice is sent via PARS.

• Send an SMS where possible when sending a notice.

If text messaging has been set up and the recipient of a notice has a mobile phone number in SIMS, they will receive an SMS message with the notice content every time a notice is sent via PARS.

• Show notices for due assignments on the home page

PARS can generate notices for due assignments so that staff can keep track of which assignments should be collected from students.

• The default lifespan in days of a notice (0 means never)

After this many days, notices will expire and be deleted from the database.

• The default subject message for emergency alerts

In here the subject message to be displayed when the Emergency alert button is used.

On Report

• Show warning message about pupils on report when register closes

Show a summary message of which pupils are on report when a register closes.

• Show warning message about pupils on report when register opens

Show a summary message of which pupils are on report when a register opens.

Pupil info

• Only show this year's Behaviour on Pupil information screen.

Previous year's data is not shown on the Pupil information behaviour tab.

• Timetable grid printout shows two weeks

When printing pupil's timetables, show the coming two weeks instead of one.

Reviews

• Filter output.xml to only contain single class data when generating a review for a single class

When generating Student Reviews for only one class, only use the data that was recorded in that class. The alternative is to use data from all classes, for the pupils within the class selected.

• Send MHT files to this URL when uploading to Document Manager

You can upload MHT files to a seperate URL, if you do not want them to be uploaded to the SIMS document server.

• Use default browser to open student reviews

Specify an alternative browser to use when generating Student Reviews. The default is internet explorer (by searching for IEXPLORER.EXE)

• Use MHTML format for output of student reviews, merit and demerit slips, detention letters, etc.

This should always be on unless you advised to do otherwise by TASC Software support staff.

• Use Microsoft Word for output of student reviews, merit and demerit slips, detention letters, etc.

This should never be on unless you advised to do otherwise by TASC Software support staff.

School Information

• Hide non-attendance days from School Info screen

Non school days, such as Saturday and Sunday, will not be displayed or used when looking at the School Information screen.

SIO

• Use barcodes on SIO screens

Scanners will use barcodes to find pupils' Admission Numbers when singing in or out.

A more detailed explanation of rounding grade averages

Two of the options mentioned above ("Force a particular rounding direction for grade averaging" and "Round grades up") may be used in combination to alter the way that grades are averaged when running reports and summaries.

Adding a grade to a grade scheme. Note the "score" which is used when averaging and rounding grades.

Note that when referring to rounding "up", PARS will round to the "higher grade score" (as defined in the grade scheme) and NOT "higher grade rank". So your grade scheme may define an "A" grade as the earliest ranked grade but with a score of 1, whereas an "E" may have the latest rank but a score of 10. In this case rounding a grade up will result in the pupil receiving a later grade.

Preferences selected?		Averaged grade score*
Force rounding	Round up	<0.5	0.5	>0.5
		Resulting grade score
No	No	0	0	1
Yes	No	0	0	0
No	Yes	0	1	1
Yes	Yes	1	1	1

• This refers to the non-integer part of the grade. To find out how a score of (e.g.) 7.2 will "behave", refer to the <0.5 column (i.e. 0.2 < 0.5). A resulting grade score of "0" in this case means 7.0, a score of "1" means 8.0.