Before we start, you'll need to make sure you have 'third party reporting' user rights in SIMS. First, a bit of background to explain why we need this special right.

Each pupil has a unique UPN number and admission number. The UPN number is unique across England and Wales and the admission number is unique within your school.

When we create reports with Power BI we need a unique way to identify each pupil. UPN or admission number would appear to be the best candidates for this job.

But using either of these two columns could create problems when we try to ensure that our pupil data remains confidential. This is especially important when we try to ensure we are complying with GDPR regulations. In a nutshell, both these unique references could be used to identify our pupils.

However, SIMS contains another unique reference for each pupil, called the Third Party ID which is only available to us if we have Third Party Report rights in SIMS.

The Third Part ID is a unique and randomised number that can't easily be used to identify a pupil. It's not foolproof, but it is more secure than UPN or admission number.

This video shows you how grant yourself the rights to access this column in your exports.

Note that if you don't have access to SIMS System manager (i.e. your SIMS menu doesn't show Focus | System Manager) your SIMS administrator will be able to help.

If you have problems, don't worry, you can continue this course as usual and use UPN or Admission Number, but before you start sharing any 'live' reports, I do recommend that you use the third party ID.

Watch the video below. Questions? Feel free to ask questions in the comments section.