Extracting Student Data from your MIS
The first step towards importing student data into Analytics is to extract this data for the cohort from your schools’ MIS. To help you do this, we provide links to student report definition files or further information for popular MIS’ such as SIMS, CMIS, Bromcom, iSAMS, Cloud School, and Arbor. These can be found in the following article - Extracting Data from your MIS - Arbor, Bromcom, Cloud School, CMIS, iSAMs & SIMS (Admin).
Each cohort will need to have their student data imported in separate files.
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If you have created and added additional filters to the Student Data Profile in CONFIG., you may need to manually edit the report definition to include these. The Sisra Support team have limited experience with MIS and as such do not provide MIS support. Therefore, we recommend contacting your MIS support team if you need any help editing the report definition. |
The data that you extract from your MIS will need to reflect the filters that you set up in your Student Data Profile. If you go to DATA > select keystage and cohort > STUDENTS > Import, then you can see an example of what your student data file in excel will need to look like, so you can see what data you need to export.
Please note, the example in your school may look different from the example above depending on what filters your have set up in CONFIG.
Working with KS5?
For KS5, if you’re working with Current Y13 or a Leavers cohort then we recommend extracting two student data files. One containing their historical student data from when they were in Y12 (from the time of the October census), and one containing their Y13 current student data.
Excel Add-In
We would recommend downloading and installing the Analytics Excel Add-In, which is an optional tool which can be used to help format your student and grades files ready to import/upload into Analytics. For more information, see the following section: Excel Add-In. The next section of this article then explains how to use this to prepare your student data.
Preparing Student Data
Once you have extracted student data from your MIS, you can run this through the Excel Add-In to ensure this is in the required format for import into Analytics. Below we have explained this step by step, or you can watch our video tutorial:
To do this, click the SISRA tab in Excel, then ‘Prepare Student Data’.
Students with a BLANK ID, name, subject or class will be excluded from the import.
A pop up should then appear allowing you to select the columns you want to include in your student data file, with the Excel Add-In attempting to automatically populate these for you. The heading of this window will show as 'Offline School’, if you’re using Offline mode. Columns highlighted yellow indicate there are no values in that column, whereas red can indicate a column hasn’t been selected. If you have separate columns for Forename and Surname, you can tick the 'Student Name is in two columns' checkbox to be able to select both columns.
If you are using ‘Online mode’, the dropdowns available will replicate the filters set up in your Student Data Profile in the CONFIG. area of Analytics. However, if you’re using ‘Offline mode’, these will match the filters that have been manually set up within the Excel Add-In. Check the correct columns have been selected, then click ‘Prepare Data’.
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The Excel Add-In will then format your file. Once this has finished, you will be asked to save the file and this will prompt you to save as a CSV (MS DOS) type, which is the file format required in Analytics. Enter an appropriate file name, browse to a suitable location on your PC, and click ‘Save’ and then OK. Do NOT save your files as CSV Macintosh or Comma Delimited; save as CSV (MS DOS). |
Before importing your file, we would also recommend checking the following in your file:
- The columns are in the same order as in the import format example shown in CONFIG. > Student Data (at the bottom of the page).
- If you’re importing a subsequent student data file for a cohort, that the sets of classes names (Subjects column) are consistent with your previous imports.
- You have one row per student, per CLASS they sit in, duplicated down the spreadsheet.
Below you can see an example of what a student data file ready to be imported into Analytics may look like (depending on your additional filters). If a student doesn’t have a value for a filter, you can leave this blank and Analytics will pull through the default value in its place, as set up in your Student Data Profile in CONFIG.
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The ‘Subject’ and ‘Class’ columns (columns C and D in the above example) must be populated within your student data files to ensure students are successfully imported. If these are left blank, Analytics will ignore these rows on import. If you have any students on extended leave within your school and you still want them to be included, you can enter dummy class or form group information into these. |
If you have students who rotate classes throughout the year (e.g. sitting DT Food Technology in Year 9 Term 1 and taking DT Graphics in the following term), it is recommended that the classes are split into different sets within your student data file, defined by the Subject column. This is explained in the following article - FAQ: How do I approach class rotations?
Importing Student Data
Once your file is prepared, you are then ready to import this into Analytics. For further information on this, please see the relevant article below for the key stage you're working with:
Thanks for reading!