SIMS / Arbor
The school management information systems that hold the authoritative record of every pupil — attendance, timetable, attainment data, SEND information, and statutory returns to the DfE — and that Secondary School Teachers use daily to register attendance, review pupil profiles, and access assessment data.
What it is
About SIMS / Arbor
SIMS (School Information Management System, by Capita) and Arbor (by Arbor Education) are the two dominant school MIS platforms in England, and together they are used by the majority of state-maintained secondary schools. The MIS is the authoritative single source of truth for a school's pupil data — every pupil's enrolment record, timetable assignment, attendance history, assessment results, SEND status, free school meal eligibility, looked-after child status, and parental contact details all live in the MIS, and it is from this system that the school makes its statutory data returns to the Department for Education (the School Census, the annual census submission that determines pupil-led funding through the National Funding Formula). SIMS has been the dominant school MIS for over 30 years and is deployed in the majority of English secondary schools. Its depth of functionality is comprehensive but its interface reflects its legacy as an on-premises Windows application — functional and powerful, but with a learning curve that requires structured training. Most secondary school teachers interact with SIMS primarily through the registration module (taking the morning and afternoon registration electronically, with the attendance data immediately available to the attendance officer), through the Assessment Manager (where teachers enter assessment grades and progress data at the end of each assessment cycle), and through the Find a Student search (pulling up a pupil's full profile — their photo, timetable, attendance percentage, SEN information, and behaviour notes — before a parents' evening appointment or a pastoral conversation). SIMS also drives the reports that teachers receive periodically: the class attendance report showing which pupils are below the school's 90% target, the assessment tracking sheet showing attainment against target grades, and the SEN register showing which pupils in each class have an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP) or are receiving SEN support. Arbor is the fastest-growing MIS in England, particularly in primary schools and those converting to academy status that are replacing SIMS at contract renewal. Arbor's interface is fully cloud-based and browser-native (no local installation required), and its dashboard approach surfaces the data that matters most — the school's attendance rate, the number of fixed-period exclusions this term, the percentage of cohort on track for expected progress — as live KPIs rather than static reports. Teachers interact with Arbor through the same core workflows as SIMS (registration, assessment entry, pupil profiles) but through an interface that requires less training to navigate. Arbor's open API also makes integration with third-party platforms (Classcharts, Satchel One, Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams) more straightforward than SIMS's historically more closed data architecture.
What you can do with it
Capabilities
Take an electronic registration in SIMS — opening the SIMS Registration module at the start of form period, selecting the class from the timetable, marking each pupil as Present, Absent (with the appropriate absence code — Illness, Authorised Absence, Unauthorised), or Late (with arrival time), submitting the completed register so the data is immediately available to the school's attendance officer and the statutory attendance record is updated in real time
Look up a pupil's full profile in SIMS before a parents' evening appointment — using Find a Student to search by surname, opening the pupil's record, reviewing their current attendance percentage (and the breakdown of absence types), their current assessment grades against target grades in each subject, their SEN status and the specific provisions on their SEN support plan, their behaviour notes from the last term, and their photograph — taking the two minutes of review that prevents the scenario of discussing a pupil's progress without knowing who you are talking about
Enter assessment grades into SIMS Assessment Manager at the end of an assessment cycle — opening the marksheet for the relevant class and assessment point, entering each pupil's attainment grade and effort grade, flagging any pupil whose current attainment is significantly below their target grade (triggering the intervention flag), saving the marksheet, and checking that the submitted grades have been accepted and are visible in the whole-school assessment tracking report
Review the attendance report for a class in Arbor to identify pupils at risk — opening the Attendance section of the Arbor dashboard, filtering by class and the current academic year, reviewing the list of pupils sorted by attendance percentage ascending, identifying the pupils below 90% (the standard threshold for intervention in most schools), checking the breakdown of their absences (persistent illness pattern, term-time holiday, unexplained unauthorised), and referring the three pupils below 80% to the attendance officer for home contact
Access the SEN register for a class in SIMS before a lesson — running the SEN Information report filtered by the relevant class, printing or saving the output showing each pupil's SEN need type (Cognition & Learning, Communication & Interaction, Social Emotional & Mental Health, Sensory & Physical), their provision level (SEN support or EHCP), and their specific classroom adjustments (extra time in assessments, seat at the front, printed rather than board-copied notes) — using this information to ensure the lesson plan accounts for the full range of needs in the room
How to learn it
Learning Resources
Capita SIMS training (capitasoftware.co.uk/sims — training catalogue for schools) — Capita provides structured training courses for SIMS registration, assessment, and reporting; most schools purchase a training package with the SIMS licence; new teachers are typically trained by the school's SIMS Manager (the designated administrator) during induction
Arbor Help Centre and Academy (help.arbor.is and arbor.is/resources) — free for Arbor schools; Arbor provides video tutorials, step-by-step guides, and a live Academy covering registration, pupil profiles, assessment entry, and reporting; the interface is significantly more intuitive than SIMS and most teachers achieve basic proficiency within one induction session
School induction with the MIS Manager — in practice, MIS proficiency for classroom teachers is almost entirely learnt through school-specific induction; the MIS Manager configures the system for the school's specific assessment framework, grading scales, and reporting structure; the most efficient route is a one-hour induction session with the MIS Manager supplemented by asking specific questions as they arise
Information Management in Schools (DfE guidance — free at gov.uk) — the DfE's guidance on the School Census and statutory data returns explains what data schools are legally required to collect and why; understanding the downstream use of MIS data (funding calculations, Ofsted inspection evidence, Progress 8 calculations) motivates the care with which registration and assessment data must be entered
Pro Tip
SIMS stores data in a highly normalised relational structure that makes ad hoc queries difficult — the reports you need most often (class attendance summary, assessment grades by pupil, SEN register by class) are all available as named reports in the SIMS Reports Library but are not always discoverable. The first week of term, ask your school's SIMS Manager which reports are most useful for classroom teachers in your school's specific setup and how to find them. Time spent on this in week one saves repeated confusion across the year — and makes your pastoral and assessment conversations with parents and leaders far more informed.
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Roles that use this tool
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