SIMS Next Gen

Lancashire County Council Education Digital Services have successfully enabled over 97% of our schools for SIMS Next Gen!

We are now encouraging all schools to onboard and use Next Gen, ready for the Summer 2026 Census, which can only be completed in Next Gen.

Exciting features are coming to SIMS Next Gen – Onboard your school today to benefit from these features coming soon.

All schools must have Unique Identities in M365, with Multi-Factor (MFA) enabled.
By completing these simple steps, you will help to protect the invaluable data held in your school, and significantly reduce the risk of a cyber-attack. 

To onboard onto Next Gen, simply email educationprojects@lancashire.gov.uk from your unique email address, confirming setup of all unique identities and enablement of MFA.

What are the benefits? 

• Access SIMS Anywhere - from home or the classroom.
• Efficient data-syncing - data syncs between SIMS Next Gen and SIMS 7 throughout the day.
• Optimised back-office operations - administrators can efficiently perform post-registration tasks and manage student records without waiting for data updates.
• Schools can seamlessly transition between the two systems, confident that the data will be there when they need it.
• Data integrity and accuracy - the most up-to-date information is always available in SIMS 7 whether this be attendance, pupil or staff data.
• Be part of the SIMS Next Gen journey and get access to all the latest exciting features as they are implemented.

What are the features?

SIMS Next Gen has a rapidly growing number of features, as well as providing schools with cloud-based only functionality.

Headteachers and leadership: 

• Staff Profile

• Staff Timetables

• Pupil Profile incl. SEND & Medical information

• Student Timetables

• Pupil Insights Reports

• Pupil Drill-down Reports

• Conduct: Detentions and Report Cards

Class Teachers: 

• Class Registers

• Fire Register

• Pupil Profile

• Class View incl. Smart Seating Plans & Key Pupil information

• My Markbook

• Assessment Manager Marksheets

• Conduct: Report Cards

Admin Staff:

• Attendance Management

• Class registers automatically writing back to SIMS 7

• Fire Register overview

• Pupil Profile incl. Medical

• View and Edit Consents

• Adding Dietary Information for Pupils

• Adding and Editing Pupil Premium information

• Custom Groups

• User Defined Fields for Pupils

• Recording Exclusions and Suspensions

• Creating new Pupil Profiles

• Bulk editing of Pupil information

• Student Timetables

• Staff Profiles

• Staff Absences incl. absence threshold flag, and exporting/printing absence list

• Staff Timetables

• Staff Employment details

• Staff Qualifications

• Staff Training details

Lots of additional features are available now, with lots more coming soon!

The multi-year programme of innovation will be complete by the end of 2026.
View the ESS SIMS Next Gen roadmap to see what’s available now and what’s coming. 

View Roadmap

You are three steps away from SIMS Next Gen!

SIMS Next Gen Class View - Streamline Classroom Management

Class View is an all-in-one classroom management tool for teachers which helps you manage your classroom more efficiently, and is now available in SIMS Next Gen.

By bringing together key pupil information and essential teaching tasks, Class View empowers teachers to make faster, informed decisions for early intervention, improving educational outcomes for children.

• Improve learning outcomes – create seating plans.
• Take the register and see attendance at a glance.
• Track key student information such as EAL, Pupil Premium, or SEND
• Monitor student performance, identify areas for improvement, and plan targeted interventions.
• Keep a record of medical incidents during school hours.
• Record conduct events, spot patterns, and provide appropriate feedback and support.
• Unlike third-party products, any updates made in SIMS Next Gen appear instantly in Class View

To view Class View in action, click here.
If your school is interested in adding SIMS Next Gen to your SIMS MIS please contact us at EducationDigitalServices@Lancashire.gov.uk.

Staff must use Unique Identities and MFA to access this service.

Watch our February 2025 webinar to learn all about SIMS Next Gen Class View.