Academic

Management

Applicable to 7.162 onwards

Revision History
Version Change Description Date

7.162 – 1.0 Initial Release. 16/01/2015

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7.162 – 1.1 changed to My Account throughout the 08/07/2015
document.

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C|Contents
01| Getting Started with Academic Management ................. 1
Overview of Academic Management ............................................... 1
Setting Permissions ........................................................................ 2
What’s New in this Release? ........................................................... 2
Accessing Help and Additional SIMS Documentation ...................... 3
Academic Management Terminology............................................... 3
Logging Into SIMS and Opening Academic Management ................ 3
Links with Other SIMS Modules ...................................................... 4
Using the Mouse and Keyboard in Academic Management .............. 4
Reporting in Academic Management ............................................... 4
Preparing Academic Management for Use ....................................... 4

02| Fundamentals of Academic Management ....................... 5

Overview ........................................................................................ 5
Summary of the Main Academic Management Screens ............ 5
Overview of the Academic Management Process .................... 5
Differences Between Defining Academic Data in Nova-T and
Academic Management ................................................................... 6
Understanding Historical Databases ............................................... 6
What is a Non-Historical Database? ........................................ 6
What is a Historical Database? ................................................ 7
Types of Historical Databases ................................................. 7
What Reports are Available from a ‘Simple’ Historical Database?
............................................................................................... 8
Data Entry in a Historical Database ......................................... 8
Understanding the Academic Structures in a School ....................... 8
Typical Rules When Assigning Students to Classes ................. 9
Rules When Constructing Timetables ...................................... 9
Describing Academic Structures ............................................. 9
Understanding Academic Structures ....................................... 9
Eligibility ............................................................................... 10
Academic Structures in Other Timetable Software ................ 10
Academic Structures in Academic Management ............................ 11
Examples of Academic Structures in Academic Management 11
Examples of Schemes in Academic Management................... 12
Preparing to Use Academic Management ...................................... 13
Final Preparation in SIMS ..................................................... 13
Timetable Cycle Definition .................................................... 14
Applying the Timetable Cycle Definition ................................ 14
03| Assigning Multiple Students to a Single Scheme using the
Curriculum Assignment by Scheme Page .......................... 15
Introduction ................................................................................. 15
Selecting a Curriculum Scheme ..................................................... 16
Selecting the Schemes to be Displayed in the Browser ......... 16
Selecting an Effective Date Range ................................................ 17
Configuring the Tick Grid .............................................................. 18
Choosing a Selectable Field for Display ................................. 18
Sorting the Student List ........................................................ 24
Changing the Width of the Group Columns............................ 24
Changing the Display Order of the Group Columns ............... 25
Understanding the Information in a Tick Grid ............................... 25
Viewing the Academic Year ................................................... 25
Interpreting Group Sizes....................................................... 26
Viewing the Maximum Size of a Group over the Effective Date
Range ................................................................................... 26
Students with Incomplete Assignments ................................ 27
Read-Only Cells ..................................................................... 28
Membership and Eligibility Details for a Selected Student .... 28
Differentiating Between Tagged and Selected Students ........ 29
Adding/Editing Student Group Memberships ................................ 29
Filtering the Student List .............................................................. 30
Adding Student Group Memberships ............................................. 31
Manually Adding a Group Membership for a Single Student .. 32
Manually Adding a Group Membership for Several Students . 32
Selecting the Students to be Assigned .................................. 32
Assigning the Selected Students to a Group.......................... 33
Adding a Group Membership for an Ineligible Student .................. 33
Adding an Ineligible Student to the List in the Tick Grid ....... 33
Assigning an Ineligible Student to a Group ........................... 34
Removing an Ineligible Student from the List in the Tick Grid34
Checking for Timetable Clashes ............................................ 35
Randomly Allocating Students to Classes ..................................... 35
Rotating Students Between Groups/Classes ................................. 36
Using the Student Carousel Rotation Wizard ................................ 36
Deleting Student Group Memberships ................................... 41
Changing the Effective Date Range ............................................... 41
Understanding Membership and Eligibility Flags ........................... 41
Membership Flags ................................................................. 41
Eligibility Flags...................................................................... 42
Switching Between Open Pages .................................................... 42
Undoing and Redoing Recent Actions .................................... 43
 Viewing a Student’s Group Membership Timelines ........................ 43
Student Button...................................................................... 43
Using the Action Button to Perform Tasks in the Tick Grid ............ 44
Tick Selected Cell(s) ............................................................. 44
Delete Selected Cell(s).......................................................... 44
Remove All Memberships ...................................................... 44
Select All Students ................................................................ 45
Tag/Select ............................................................................ 45
Sort by .................................................................................. 45
Display .................................................................................. 45
Viewing Single and Split Totals ............................................. 45

04| Assigning a Curriculum to a Single Student using the

Curriculum Assignment by Student Page .......................... 47
Introduction ................................................................................. 47
Comparisons of the Tick Grid on the Memberships of Groups of a
Scheme Page and the Student Curriculum Summary Page .... 48
Selecting a Student from a Browser .............................................. 49
Important Information Regarding the Historical Curriculum
Membership Details Dialog ........................................................... 49
Recording a Student’s Group Memberships ................................... 49
Viewing the Academic Year ................................................... 51
Working With Singleton Schemes ................................................. 52
Deleting a Student’s Group Membership ............................... 52
Changing a Student’s Group Membership.............................. 53
Using the Student Curriculum Summary Page ....................... 53
Changing the Effective Date Range ....................................... 54
Viewing the Maximum Size of a Group over the Effective Date
Range ................................................................................... 55
Adding a Scheme for an Individual Student .................................. 56
From the Student Curriculum Summary Page ....................... 57
From the Historical Curriculum Membership Details Dialog... 57
Reviewing a Student’s Timetable .................................................. 57
Viewing a Student’s Timetable .............................................. 58
Reviewing and Resolving Timetable Clashes ......................... 59
Using an Existing Student’s Curriculum to Create a Curriculum for a
New Student ................................................................................. 61

05| Assigning a Whole Curriculum to One or More Students

using the Whole Curriculum Editing Page ......................... 65
Introduction ................................................................................. 65
Viewing and Editing a Student’s Whole Curriculum....................... 67
Selecting a Key Group of Students ........................................ 67
Selecting an Effective Date Range......................................... 68
 Configuring the Whole Curriculum Membership Grid............. 70
Viewing the Academic Year ................................................... 70
Exporting the Whole Curriculum Membership Grid to a
Spreadsheet Application ....................................................... 71
Altering the Display of the Whole Curriculum Membership
Information in Microsoft Excel .............................................. 71
Understanding the Information in the Whole Curriculum Membership
Grid............................................................................................... 72
Membership Grid Toolbar ...................................................... 74
Viewing the Maximum Size of a Group over the Effective Date
Range ................................................................................... 75

06| Managing Detailed Historical Information ................... 77

Introduction ................................................................................. 77
Using the Historical Curriculum Membership Details Dialog .......... 77
Viewing the Maximum Size of a Group over the Effective Date
Range ................................................................................... 79
Relaxing the Eligibility Rules of a Group ............................... 79
Using the Exclusive Button ................................................... 80
Viewing the Academic Year ................................................... 80
Editing Group Memberships Using the Historical Curriculum
Membership Details Dialog ........................................................... 81
Deleting a Membership Record Without Adding a Replacement
............................................................................................. 81
Setting a Precise Date Range for Group Membership ............ 82
Relaxed Mode ....................................................................... 82
Exclusive Mode ..................................................................... 82

07| Editing the Resources of a Lesson ............................... 83

Introduction ................................................................................. 83
Selecting a Lesson ........................................................................ 85
Viewing Lesson Resources ............................................................ 86
Adding a Member of Staff as a Lesson Resource (Resource is ‘Free’)
..................................................................................................... 87
Adding a Member of Staff as a Lesson Resource (Resource is
Already Booked for the Selected Lesson) .............................. 89
Adding a Room as a Lesson Resource (Resource is ‘Free’)............ 91
Adding a Room as a Lesson Resource (Resource is Already
Booked for the Selected Lesson) ........................................... 94
Removing a Resource from a Lesson............................................. 96
Rotating Staff and Room Resources of a Lesson ........................... 97

08| Academic Promotion in SIMS ..................................... 101

Introduction ............................................................................... 101
Important Information Regarding Academic Promotion ............. 102
Before Running Academic Promotion .......................................... 102
 Advice on Running Academic Promotion ..................................... 103
Setting Up Academic Promotion Rules ........................................ 103
Editing Academic Promotion Rules ...................................... 104
Understanding the Academic Promotion Rules Page ........... 108
Example .............................................................................. 112
Promoting Your Academic Structure ........................................... 113

09| Importing and Exporting Student Group Memberships121

Introduction ............................................................................... 121
Why Should I Use the Import and Export Routines? ................... 122
Creating Class Memberships for the Next Academic Year.... 122
Memberships of ‘Double’ Options Classes ........................... 123
Using the Export File as a Backup File ................................. 125
Important Note on Permissions Required to Import and Export Data
................................................................................................... 125
Exporting Student Group Memberships for Destination Groups of a
Curriculum Scheme ..................................................................... 125
Viewing and Editing Student Group Memberships in a Spreadsheet
Application.................................................................................. 129
Importing Student Group Memberships for Destination Groups of a
Curriculum Scheme ..................................................................... 131
Understanding the Validation Checks Performed when Importing
Data into Academic Management ................................................ 136
Validating the Import File Format ....................................... 137
Identifying the Link Between the Data Rows in the Import File
and the Visible/Filtered Students in the Tick Grid ............... 137

10| Managing Classroom Staff ......................................... 139

Introduction ............................................................................... 139
Searching for Classroom Staff..................................................... 140
Viewing and Editing Classroom Staff Details ............................... 141
Importing Classroom Staff Automatically ................................... 145
Understanding Staff Codes ......................................................... 145
Adding a Member of Classroom Staff Manually ........................... 146
Deleting a Member of Classroom Staff ........................................ 147
Removing Assignability from the Selected Year .................. 147
Removing All Assignability .................................................. 147
Understanding Subject Specialisms ............................................ 147
Updating the Subject Specialism List .................................. 148
Understanding Staff Roles .......................................................... 148
Editing the Role History of a Member of Classroom Staff ............ 149
Relaxing the Role Membership Eligibility Rules ................... 151

11| Additional Information .............................................. 153

Selecting Dates from the Calendar .............................................. 153
 Selecting the Academic Year ....................................................... 153
Understanding Named Date Ranges ............................................ 155
Important Points for Consideration when Defining Named Date
Ranges ................................................................................ 156
Defining Named Date Ranges .............................................. 157
Understanding Curriculum Cascading ......................................... 159
Cascading Group Memberships After Submission from Nova-T
(Automatic) ........................................................................ 160
Cascading Group Memberships After Submission from Options
(Automatic) ........................................................................ 160
Cascading Group Memberships for a Single Scheme (Manual)
........................................................................................... 160
Cascading Group Memberships for a Single Student (Manual)
........................................................................................... 161
Academic Management Buttons .................................................. 162
Buttons With a Keyboard Shortcut Equivalent .................... 162
Buttons Without a Keyboard Shortcut Equivalent ............... 163
Keyboard Shortcuts Without Button Equivalents ................ 165
Academic Management Menus in SIMS ....................................... 166

Glossary ......................................................................... 167

Index ............................................................................. 171

 01| Getting Started with Academic Management

01|Getting Started with Academic

Management

Overview of Academic Management ................................................ 1

Setting Permissions ......................................................................... 2
What’s New in this Release? ............................................................ 2
Accessing Help and Additional SIMS Documentation ....................... 3
Academic Management Terminology................................................ 3
Logging Into SIMS and Opening Academic Management ................. 3
Links with Other SIMS Modules ....................................................... 4
Using the Mouse and Keyboard in Academic Management ............... 4
Reporting in Academic Management ................................................ 4
Preparing Academic Management for Use ........................................ 4

Overview of Academic Management

Academic Management forms part of the SIMS suite and deals primarily with
the assignment of students to classes, by presenting the user with assignment
tasks (or Schemes) based on the curriculum structure in SQL. It also allows for
the limited editing of student timetables.
Academic Management is the long term replacement for the student
curriculum section of Nova-T, as it forms part of SIMS and links directly to the
SIMS SQL database. With all of the data being held in the SIMS SQL database,
you benefit from being able to draw on all the SQL data and reports currently
available in SIMS.
Academic Management allows schools to maintain an accurate record of
changes in student curriculum assignments and timetables that might occur
over time. For example, if a student was incorrectly assigned to a class last
term, it is possible to edit the class assignment retrospectively, even if the
class is no longer running. As the SIMS SQL database is a historical system, it
allows for the creation of dated records, both in the past and in the future.

Additional Resources:
To learn about some of the terminology used in Academic Management,
please see the Glossary at the back of this handbook
More Information:
Academic Structures in Academic Management on page 11

Academic Management 1
01| Getting Started with Academic Management

Setting Permissions
When running Academic Management in SIMS, use the Login Name and
Password assigned to you by the System Manager. This will have been set up
using the System Manager module. For more information, please refer to the
Managing SIMS Users, Groups and Databases handbook. All handbooks can be
accessed from the Documentation Centre which is launched by clicking the
Documentation button on the Home Page in SIMS. Once open, click the
Handbooks button, select the required category, then click the required
handbook from the Handbooks page.
The default data available with the current version of System Manager
provides a number of groups to which a user can be assigned membership.
Each group offers a different range of Academic Management functionality, so
it is possible to tailor the level of access for each user.
The groups, to which users should be granted membership, are those that
have assigned to them the role of Curriculum. For example, membership of
the Timetabler group or School Administrator group provides access to all
of the functionality available in Academic Management. The Curricular
Manager group allows users to perform most tasks, with the exception of
timetable import, timetable edit and applying the current timetable. It is
envisaged that this will be the most widely used group for daily use of
Academic Management. Other groups are available, which provide more
restricted access to Academic Management.
System Manager should be run to create user accounts for those people who
require access to Academic Management in SIMS. To grant a user access to
Academic Management, these users should be allocated membership of
appropriate groups.
The groups that are provided as default data should be used as a starting point
for schools, to enable them to grant their users access to Academic
Management in SIMS quickly and conveniently. However, if the groups
provided as default data are not appropriate for your school, it is possible to
create groups and assign the appropriate Permissions accordingly.

What’s New in this Release?

The following enhancement has been incorporated in this release:

Reason for Withdrawal Indicator on the Curriculum Assignment by Student

Page
Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment by
Student
An additional column has been provided in the Course Membership(s)
dialog, which enables you to specify a Withdrawal Reason when changing
the Status of a student's course membership to Withdrawn.
More Information:
Recording a Student’s Group Memberships on page 49

2 Academic Management
 01| Getting Started with Academic Management

Accessing Help and Additional SIMS Documentation

A wide range of documentation is available from within SIMS via the
Documentation Centre and can be accessed by clicking the
Documentation button on the SIMS Home Page. The range of
documentation includes handbooks, tutorials, mini guides and quick reference
sheets. Once open, click the appropriate button (e.g. Handbooks), then
navigate to the applicable option.
References to any other documents mentioned in this handbook can be
accessed from the Documentation Centre unless otherwise specified.
Additional supporting documentation can also be found on our My Account
website (https://myaccount.capita-cs.co.uk). The most popular documents
can be located by selecting Knowledge Base, SIMS Publications (located
in the Popular Searches list) and then clicking the Find button.
Alternatively, use the search facility on the My Account Home Page to display
a list of all Documents containing the search criteria.
Select the product you need help with to filter search results.
Surround a phrase with double quotes to find that exact phrase.
Prefix words with + to make them essential.
Prefix words with - to exclude them from results.

Academic Management Terminology

Academic Management incorporates some new and existing terms. Each term
is described in its appropriate section within this handbook. Brief descriptions
of all terms can be found in the Glossary at the back of this handbook.

Logging Into SIMS and Opening Academic Management

1. Select Start | All Programs | SIMS Applications | SIMS from the Taskbar.
2. Enter your SIMS login details and click the OK button.
The User name and Password will be those specified by the System
Manager.
The first time a user logs into SIMS using a specific user account, the password
must be changed for security reasons. If a user has previously logged into
another SIMS SQL module (e.g. Attendance, Examinations Organiser, etc.),
the password will already have been changed.
3. SIMS opens with the Home Page displayed.
4. Select one of the following menu routes to display the appropriate area of
Academic Management functionality in SIMS:
Focus | School | Academic Structure | Whole Curriculum Assignment
Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment by
Scheme
Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment by
Student.

Academic Management 3
01| Getting Started with Academic Management

Links with Other SIMS Modules

Academic Management forms part of the SIMS suite, and uses the data held in
the main SIMS SQL database.
Nova-T4 and Nova-T6 provide the details of the curriculum plan that can be
seen in Academic Management. Once the curriculum plan created in Nova-T
has been exported to SQL, the data can be viewed and edited, students can be
assigned to classes and ad hoc changes can be made to a student’s timetable.

Using the Mouse and Keyboard in Academic Management

The majority of the functionality available within Academic Management can
be accessed via the keyboard as well as the mouse. The methods of navigating
around SIMS are a matter of personal preference and many people, for
convenience, use a combination of keyboard and mouse. Buttons are provided
throughout Academic Management in order to perform many of the available
functions, and many of these buttons have alternative keyboard shortcuts.
More Information:
Academic Management Buttons on page 162

Reporting in Academic Management

Please refer to the Producing Student List, Student Analysis and Timetable
Reports in SIMS handbook for detailed information concerning the reporting
capabilities in Academic Management.
This handbook can be accessed from the Documentation Centre which is
launched by clicking the Documentation button on the Home Page in SIMS.
Once open, click the Handbooks button, select the required category, then
click the required handbook from the Handbooks page.

Preparing Academic Management for Use

A number of processes should be carried out before using Academic
Management for the first time. These include the selection of the Academic
Year in which you wish to work and the setting up of a Named Date Range.
More Information:
Selecting the Academic Year on page 153
Defining Named Date Ranges on page 157

4 Academic Management
 02| Fundamentals of Academic Management

02|Fundamentals of Academic
Management

Overview ......................................................................................... 5
Differences Between Defining Academic Data in Nova-T and
Academic Management .................................................................... 6
Understanding Historical Databases ................................................ 6
Understanding the Academic Structures in a School ........................ 8
Academic Structures in Academic Management ............................. 11
Preparing to Use Academic Management ....................................... 13

Overview
Academic Management can be used throughout the academic year, to ensure
that class membership details are accurately kept for your establishment. It is
used mostly at the end of an academic year, when class memberships for the
following year are being defined. It can also be used throughout the year to
make ad hoc changes to the timetable, such as when students are moved from
one class to another or to correct any errors made when the curriculum was
originally set up.

Summary of the Main Academic Management Screens

Screens that make up the Academic Management functionality in SIMS can be
summarised as follows:

Screen Relates To Limitation

Whole Curriculum Students, groups and time Membership Groups

Membership

Memberships of Groups of a Students and groups Single Scheme,

Scheme (Tick Grid) limited time

Student Curriculum Schemes and time Single student

Summary

Historical Curriculum Groups and time Single student,

Membership Details single Scheme

Overview of the Academic Management Process

The Academic Management process can be broken down into the following
steps:
1. Select Focus | School | Academic Structure and then Whole Curriculum
Assignment, Curriculum Assignment by Scheme or Curriculum
Assignment by Student.

Academic Management 5
02| Fundamentals of Academic Management

2. From the browser, select the group, Scheme or the student you want to edit.
3. Select the Effective Date Range for the data you are about to enter or edit.
4. Edit the data based on the Effective Date Range selected.
5. If you want to edit data for a part of the selected Effective Date Range, or you
want to edit a student’s timetable to resolve clashes, etc., open the Historical
Curriculum Membership Details dialog.

NOTE: Once the group membership for a student has been modified in this
dialog and is therefore not uniform over the Effective Date Range, further
editing of their membership for this Scheme can be performed in this dialog
only.

6. Save the data.

Differences Between Defining Academic Data in Nova-T

and Academic Management
Academic Management provides some of the functionality originally supplied
by Nova-T4. In order to understand the method of creating academic data
using SIMS, it is useful to understand how this data was previously created in
SIMS.
The main difference between Nova-T and Academic Management is that
Academic Management provides both current and historical data for viewing
and editing, whereas Nova-T provides current data only. Nova-T can be used
to print out individual student timetables, which can then be distributed.
Academic Management relies on Nova-T to provide the academic structure
and the timetable information.

Understanding Historical Databases

A historical database, as used by Academic Management, offers a number of
advantages to its users. Before explaining the reasons for using a historical
database, it is important to understand the difference between a historical and
non-historical database.

What is a Non-Historical Database?

A non-historical database, such as that used by Nova-T4, has no concept of
start and end dates. Consequently, what is displayed on-screen must be
assumed to be correct at this time. Once a change is saved to the database,
any previous data stored in that area is overwritten and can no longer be
accessed. Therefore, Nova-T4 represents a snapshot taken at a particular
moment in time.
Such a snapshot might continue to be correct and valid for a period of time,
until a change is made to the data. For example, a class might be rescheduled
to a different timetable period or to another room, a student might be
re-assigned to a different class, or they might leave the school and all class
memberships must be terminated. When a change is made to the database,
any previous information is lost.

6 Academic Management
 02| Fundamentals of Academic Management

In a non-historical system, a complete ‘archive’ can be maintained by making

a backup of all data prior to its editing. Working in this way allows such
questions as ‘To which Maths class did Claire Jones belong on November 17?’
to be answered, by recovering from backup the snapshot taken on that date
and viewing the appropriate record.
However, many questions and reports relating to a date range (e.g. ‘Between
1 September and 17 November, of which Maths classes has Claire Jones been
a member?’) cannot be answered or run in such a system.

What is a Historical Database?

A historical database, such as the SIMS SQL database which is used to store
Academic Management data, uses start and end dates for certain pieces of
information, allowing a ‘history’ of data to be maintained. For example, a
student might change class part way through the year, so membership dates
for both the old class and the new class can be kept and viewed at any time.
Once a change involving start and end dates is saved to the database, the old
record is maintained as ‘history’ while the new record is deemed ‘current’.
In a historical system, it is possible to view how the data looked on any given
date, by changing the Reference Date. This modifies the view to display the
data which was correct on the selected Reference Date. Only by using start
and end dates for each item of information, is it possible to view the data as it
would have appeared on a particular date.

Types of Historical Databases

There are two types of historical database systems. In the most
comprehensive type, each dated record can be associated with four distinct
dates:
The date on which the information became valid, i.e. the start date.
The date after which the information ceased to be valid, i.e. the end date.
The date on which the record was created.
The date on which the record was subsequently modified.
Using this type of historical database, it is possible to answer questions about
the specific content of the data at a particular time, and to determine the facts
as they appeared to be on any chosen date.
For example, at a Maths department meeting at the end of November, it was
decided to move a student from Maths set 2 to Maths set 1 from the beginning
of January the following year. On 12 March of that same academic year, it
would be possible to determine:
On 15 October, to which Maths class did we expect the student to belong
on 5 January?
On 9 December, to which Maths class did we expect the student to belong
on 5 January?
A simpler type of historical database system, the type employed by Academic
Management, stores two dates only for each record, the start and end dates.
Therefore, the records created by Academic Management enable the
answering of questions such as:
To which Maths class did the student belong on 18 November?
To which Maths class did the student belong on 5 January?

Academic Management 7
02| Fundamentals of Academic Management

What Reports are Available from a ‘Simple’ Historical Database?

Many useful reports can be created using a simple historical database. The
following table provides four examples:

Report Aim Selection Data

Criterion Reported

To produce a list of all students who will be in class Future Date Future Date
10C/Sc2 on 5th January 200n, together with their
registration group and date of birth.

To produce a list of all students who will be starting Future Date Current
Music in Year 10 next year, together with their current Date
registration group.

To produce a list of all students who have been taught Date Range Current
by a particular teacher, together with the teacher’s Date
current address.

To produce a list of all Maths students whose end of term Two Dates Two Dates
assessment improved by more than 10% from
December to April, together with a list of their marks.

It is straightforward to produce only the first of these reports from a ‘snapshot’

database. However, all of them can, in various circumstances, be useful
additions to a school’s report set.

Data Entry in a Historical Database

Information relating to class changes, room changes, teacher changes, etc.,
usually becomes available in advance of its introduction in a school, and
decisions are made before implementation. For example, a new teacher is
appointed and starts work at the beginning of the following term; or a Year 12
Art class is- moved from Tuesday morning to Wednesday afternoon, effective
from next month.
Changes are occasionally made and not immediately reported to secretarial
staff, so this information might be entered into the system after the change
has been implemented. Alternatively, data might have been entered in error
and this mistake might not have been discovered until a much later date. In
this case, a correction would have to be made retrospectively.
For these reasons, it is just as likely that data has to be entered which is valid
‘from next Tuesday’, ‘from last Monday’, ‘starting next term’ as it is to be
recorded ‘starting from today’. In a non-historical system, it would be both
misleading and inaccurate to enter data ‘today’ that relates to a future date. It
would also be inconvenient to delay data entry until the information becomes
valid.

Understanding the Academic Structures in a School

The main purpose of Academic Management is to enable students to be
assigned to their classes. Once this has been achieved, student course
memberships can be allocated and timetables created. Subsequently, detailed
modifications can be made to student timetables.

8 Academic Management
 02| Fundamentals of Academic Management

Typical Rules When Assigning Students to Classes

When assigning students to classes, there are a number of rules that schools
typically follow. For example:
students in Year 10 are assigned to Year 10 classes.
membership of registration group 7B might also imply membership of
various classes for different subjects.
membership of an English class in one ‘half’ of a year, requires that the
student be assigned to a Maths class in the same half of the year.
membership of a History class in Year 11, Option D, means that the
student cannot belong to any other class in Option D.
Whilst it is usually apparent that such rules exist, schools occasionally break
these rules, e.g. an exceptionally able Year 10 student might be assigned to a
Year 12 Maths class.

Rules When Constructing Timetables

Some of the rules governing how students are assigned to classes relate
directly to the way that the timetable is constructed. It might not be necessary
to divide a year into two halves. If a year is divided and English classes in one
half of the year are scheduled at the same time as Maths classes in the other
half, then introducing a rule about how to assign students to these classes
helps to prevent clashes on the timetables.

Describing Academic Structures

The concept of year halves, thirds, quarters, etc. is widely used in secondary
schools. Nova-T4 described these subdivisions of a year as bands. There is no
common, widely used language to describe such concepts and no common
practice among suppliers of timetable software in the use of such terms as
band, block, option pool, option block, group and class. Many of these
terms carry a meaning for timetablers and management staff in schools but
they are not always understood in the same way, and they can lead to
confusion and misunderstanding.
Academic Management imposes no restrictions on how academic structures
should be named. Instead, when curriculum and timetable data is exported
from a timetable program to the SIMS SQL database, the structures and their
descriptions are exported at the same time.

Understanding Academic Structures

Classes invariably belong to a particular year, i.e. a National Curriculum Year.
They exist within a hierarchical structure, in which a year is progressively
divided in a variety of ways into smaller units, with classes as the simplest
unit. This structure can be described as a tree structure, using the analogy of
the year as the trunk, leading to branches, twigs and finally the classes as
leaves. Therefore:
A year consists of a set of one or more bands. Students belonging to a
year are each members of a band. A student cannot belong to more than
one of these bands, as they are mutually exclusive, or disjoint.

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02| Fundamentals of Academic Management

Two or more bands from a disjoint set can be re-divided into a new set of
disjoint bands. These new bands are known as sub-bands and any
student who is a member of one of the parent bands can be assigned to
one (and one only) of the set of sub-bands. More complexity can be
introduced into the curriculum plan by defining another set of sub-bands
from the set of sub-bands just created.
It is possible to create a set of sub-bands from a single band. It is not possible
to create sub-bands from bands which do not all belong to the same disjoint
set. The use of sub-bands is sometimes inevitable, but it causes inflexibility in
constructing the timetable and is to be avoided where possible.
A block consists of a collection of one or more disjoint groups. Each block
has a relationship to one or more bands belonging to a disjoint set, in that
students belonging to these bands are eligible for membership of one of
the groups.
All the terms used so far, i.e. year, band, sub-band, block and group,
describe academic structures that form part of a curriculum plan, but do not
necessarily relate to subjects such as Geography or Music. Subjects are
displayed at the next level in the hierarchy.

Eligibility
Most of the structures discussed so far can include student memberships.
Therefore, it is important to discover which students belong to a particular
year, band, sub-band or group and this introduces the concept of eligibility.
To belong to a band, a student must be a member of the associated year.
To belong to a sub-band, a student must belong to one of its parent bands.
To belong to a group in a block, it is necessary to be a member of one of
the bands which the block serves.
A group can be associated with one or more classes. Membership of the
group typically implies membership of each of these classes. Each class is
associated with a subject and therefore, a class consists of a set of
students (members of the group) studying that subject.
A class can be divided into two or more disjoint link classes. To be
eligible for membership of a link class, a student must be a member of its
parent class.

Academic Structures in Other Timetable Software

Not all timetable software uses the same structures. Some programs
incorporate additional structures into their design. Conversely, some
programs have fewer structures, e.g. some do not provide sub-bands. Above
all, the terminology used in these various programs varies a great deal.
Modelling & Construction used the term cluster to describe a provision for
students who are eligible for membership of one of a set of linked classes, and
other programs interchange the meaning of group and class.
The two concepts underlying the structures used in the curriculum plans of
most timetable programs are those of eligibility and of disjoint sets. One or
more collections of students (which might be years, bands, sub-bands,
groups, etc.) together form the eligible population from which the members of
a set of mutually exclusive (disjoint) bands, classes, etc. are drawn. These two
concepts of eligibility and of disjoint sets form the basis of Academic
Management.

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 02| Fundamentals of Academic Management

Academic Structures in Academic Management

The following diagram demonstrates the structure of academic data within a
school and aims to explain some of the terminology introduced by Academic
Management. The data structure displayed is typical of that found in many
schools.

This example demonstrates part of the academic structure for a school, and
focuses on the structure of Year 7.
In Academic Management, the term Scheme refers to the link between source
groups (containing students who are eligible) and destination groups; the
eligible students from the source groups of the Scheme can be placed in one of
the destination groups. Examples of Schemes in the previous diagram are
Bands in Year 7 and 7x Maths.
Examples of source groups in the previous diagram are Year 7 (source group
of the Scheme Bands in Year 7, containing students who are eligible for
destination groups 7x and 7y) and 7x and 7y (source groups of the Scheme
7x Maths, containing students who are eligible for the destination groups
7x/Ma1, 7x/Ma2, 7x/Ma3 and 7x/Ma4).

Examples of Academic Structures in Academic Management

The previous diagram, which flows from top to bottom, demonstrates part of a
typical academic structure in Year 7. The largest collection of students from
which group memberships can be created is the source group Year 7, which
contains ALL students in Year 7.
Using a Scheme called Bands in Year 7 it is possible to divide these students
into smaller groups, or bands. As a result, students are assigned to either
Band 7x or Band 7y which in this case, are destination groups of the Scheme
Bands in Year 7.
In order to assign the students in Band 7x class membership for Maths, it is
necessary to use a Scheme called 7x Maths. In this case, Band 7x is the
source group of the Scheme 7x Maths. This Scheme has four destination
groups, which are the classes to which students can be assigned – 7x/Ma1,
7x/Ma2, 7x/Ma3 and 7x/Ma4. The same method can be used to assign
students in Band 7y to their Maths classes, using a Scheme called 7y Maths
(not displayed in the diagram).

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02| Fundamentals of Academic Management

Examples of Schemes in Academic Management

Four examples of Schemes and their associated source and destination groups
are:

Source Group(s) Scheme Destination Groups

Year 10 Bands in Year 10 Band a Band b Band c

Year 10 Band a + Year 10 Band b Option G 10G/Fr1 10G/Fr2

10G/Ar1

10G/Ar1 10G/Ar1 Cluster 10G/Ar1a, 10G/Ar1b

7-A/PE + 7-B/PE 7-AB PE Classes 7AB/PE/Boys

7AB/PE/Girls

The same page, the Tick Grid on the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme
page, is used to assign students in Year 10 to Year 10 bands, students in Year
10 Band a or Band b to classes in Option G, and students in the group 10G/Ar1
to one or other of the two link classes belonging to the group. These first three
Schemes in the table are respectively a Band Scheme, a Block Scheme and a
Cluster Scheme.
The fourth example of a Scheme in this table is one which Academic
Management would support, but Nova-T does not. It is not uncommon for
schools to timetable two classes together for PE, and redivide them into a
boys’ and a girls’ class. This represents a possible future development.
Some or all of the destination groups of one Scheme might be source groups
for another. In the first two examples of Schemes in the previous table, the
bands 10a and 10b are destination groups of the first Scheme, and source
groups for the second. The Schemes in the curriculum plan form a hierarchical
structure (a tree structure).
The tree structure can be described in terms of years, bands, sub-bands,
blocks, clusters, classes, etc., depending on the timetable software used to
construct the curriculum plan, but in all cases there will be levels in the
hierarchy and it is possible to describe moving up or down the tree structure
from one level to another.
The following diagram illustrates part of a curriculum plan for Year 7, and
shows how the destination groups of one Scheme can be source groups for
another. In this diagram, groups are shown with a pale yellow background
(e.g. Band 7a, 7 – 1, PeB, etc.) and Schemes with an orange background
(e.g. Bands in Year 7, Block 7a, Ma, etc.).
In the previous diagram:

A Scheme is connected to each of its source groups by a simple

line

A Scheme is connected to each of its destination groups by an

arrowed line

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 02| Fundamentals of Academic Management

At the top level, the Scheme Bands in Year 7 derives from the source group
Year 7 and has destination groups Band 7a, Band 7b and Band 7c. All of
these groups are in turn source groups for the Scheme Block 7a, but only
Band 7a is a source group for the Scheme 7 – a Teaching Groups.
In this example, there are four Pe sets; two from source group 7 – 1 and two
from source group 7 – 2.
Some Schemes have only one destination and these are called Singleton
Schemes, usually referred to as Singletons. A common instance of a
Singleton arises when a year contains only one band.
This hierarchical curriculum structure, used in Academic Management, is
flexible. It can contain either few or many levels, depending on the complexity
of the timetable and the nature of the timetable program in use.
The following diagram, which is a modification of the previous diagram,
illustrates a structure that is not supported by Nova-T4 but is supported by
Academic Management.

In this diagram, the Scheme Pe is derived from two teaching groups, 7–1 and
7–2, and is subdivided into two full size classes, PeB and PeG. A Scheme
derived from one or more teaching groups is called a cluster.

Preparing to Use Academic Management

When SIMS has been successfully set up by:
installing and setting up the SIMS Document Management Server (this is
required because timetable exports from Nova-T are accompanied by
backups, which are stored in the Document Server).
converting your Nova-T4 active timetable directory from STAR mode to
SQL mode, there are still a number of procedures that must be performed
in SIMS and Nova-T, before starting to assign students to the
curriculum.

Final Preparation in SIMS

Ensure that the academic year that you want to work with, e.g. 2010-11, has
been set up in SIMS. If it does not exist, create it by selecting Focus | School
| Pastoral Structure | Next Academic Year Structure before exporting
the curriculum plan (timetable) from Nova-T.

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02| Fundamentals of Academic Management

Select the required academic year by selecting Tools | Academic

Management | Set Academic Year.
Ensure that the students are assigned to their appropriate National Curriculum
Year.
Set up display colour preferences. This is not essential, but is an option
available for customising the SIMS screen displays (including Academic
Management).
For further information about setting up and using SIMS, please refer to the
Getting Started with SIMS handbook. All handbooks can be accessed from the
Documentation Centre which is launched by clicking the Documentation
button on the Home Page in SIMS. Once open, click the Handbooks button,
select the required category, then click the required handbook from the
Handbooks page.

Timetable Cycle Definition

The timetable cycle definition does not consist of calendar days, e.g. Tuesday
28/09/2004, but what are known as cycle days, e.g. Monday Week 2, Day 7
etc., together with the number of periods per day and the start and end times
of each period. The SIMS SQL database is able to associate cycle days with
calendar days so that in the case of a two week timetable, for example, it can
record which Tuesdays in the year are Tuesday Week 1 and Tuesday Week 2.

Applying the Timetable Cycle Definition

The process of associating cycle days with calendar days is called Applying
the Timetable Cycle Definition, and is performed in SIMS by selecting
Tools | Academic Management | Apply Timetable.
It is not necessary to run this process in order for student curriculum
assignments to be made, but it is necessary in order to display correct student
and teacher timetables for a calendar week, and to use Lesson Monitor and
certain routines in Attendance.

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 03| Assigning Multiple Students to a Single Scheme using the Curriculum Assignment by Scheme Page

03|Assigning Multiple Students to a

Single Scheme using the Curriculum
Assignment by Scheme Page

Introduction .................................................................................. 15
Selecting a Curriculum Scheme...................................................... 16
Selecting an Effective Date Range ................................................. 17
Configuring the Tick Grid ............................................................... 18
Understanding the Information in a Tick Grid ................................ 25
Adding/Editing Student Group Memberships ................................. 29
Filtering the Student List ............................................................... 30
Adding Student Group Memberships .............................................. 31
Adding a Group Membership for an Ineligible Student ................... 33
Randomly Allocating Students to Classes ...................................... 35
Rotating Students Between Groups/Classes .................................. 36
Using the Student Carousel Rotation Wizard ................................. 36
Changing the Effective Date Range ................................................ 41
Understanding Membership and Eligibility Flags ............................ 41
Switching Between Open Pages ..................................................... 42
Viewing a Student’s Group Membership Timelines......................... 43
Using the Action Button to Perform Tasks in the Tick Grid ............. 44

Introduction
To assign students to groups belonging to a Scheme, select the appropriate
Scheme and select a date range for the memberships of the Scheme’s
associated groups.
A grid is displayed, consisting of a list of students and a list of the source
groups associated with the selected Scheme. This grid is known as a Tick
Grid, and can be used to either add new assignments or edit existing ones.
This list of students includes those eligible for the Scheme because they are
members of one of the Scheme’s source groups, as well as other students
who, although ineligible (they are not a member of one of the Scheme’s source
groups, e.g. out of year allocations), have already been manually added to the
Scheme. While using the Tick Grid, more ineligible students can be added to
the list, if required. Eligible students are automatically included in the student
list.
It is possible to filter the list of students displayed in the Tick Grid so that, for
example, only those belonging to a particular registration group or house, or
those who have already been assigned to one of the groups within the Scheme
are displayed in the Tick Grid.

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Whether or not the students in the list are eligible for the Scheme, they can
then be assigned to the various groups or classes within the Scheme, one or
more at a time.

Selecting a Curriculum Scheme

1. Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment
by Scheme to display the Find Curriculum Scheme browser.

2. Enter search parameters and click the Search button or click Enter without
specifying any search parameters to display all of the Schemes in the
curriculum plan.
Alternatively, it might be easier to locate the required Scheme by filtering the
list to display a shorter list of Schemes. Limit the list by selecting search
criteria such as Year Taught In and Type from the drop-down list, or by
entering the first few letters of a specific Scheme Name. Click the Search
button or press Enter to display the filtered list.
3. Highlight the required Scheme and click the Open button or double-click the
required Scheme to display the Select Effective Date Range dialog.
More Information:
Academic Structures in Academic Management on page 11

Selecting the Schemes to be Displayed in the Browser

Another way of selecting the Schemes to be displayed in the browser is to click
the Down Level button. When a Scheme is highlighted (e.g. Base bands in
Year 9 in the previous graphic) and the Down Level button clicked, the list
displays Schemes whose source groups include one or more of the previous
Scheme’s destination groups. In this example, all Schemes that include a Year
9 base band as a source group are displayed.

NOTE: These might have sub-bands and blocks.

If you highlight a block and click the Down Level button again, a list of
clusters might be displayed. If a highlighted Scheme has no descendants,
clicking the Down Level button displays a message to this effect.
If you highlight a Scheme in the browser and click the Up Level button, the
browser displays the Scheme whose destination groups include the source
group(s) of the Scheme previously displayed. Repeatedly clicking the Up
Level button moves up the tree until the top is reached, and one more click
displays all the Schemes at the top level (i.e. Base bands in all years).

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Selecting an Effective Date Range

An Effective Date Range (EDR) is the date range over which the group
membership assignments made in this session are valid. It is important to
select the correct Effective Date Range, as it determines the precise duration
of a student’s group membership. If an inaccurate date range is selected, a
student might end up in the wrong group.
Setting the Effective Date Range is an important process in Academic
Management and it must be selected before working in any of its functional
areas.
Once a Scheme has been selected from the Find Curriculum Scheme
browser, the Select Effective Date Range dialog is displayed.
Two radio buttons are provided, which allow the selection of the date range
you want to apply to the changes to be made to the selected Scheme.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please take extreme care when selecting the date
range, to ensure that the data you are editing relates to the required period
of time. Editing class membership details for an incorrect period of time can
lead to the corruption of the curriculum data.

Select the Named Date Range radio button to select a pre-defined date
range. This might be a complete academic year (e.g. 01/09/200n to
31/08/200n), a working academic year (e.g. 01/09/200n to 22/07/200n,
the time that students actually spend at school) or specific terms (e.g.
Spring term 200n-200n).

NOTE: It is possible to add more Named Date Ranges to those displayed

in this dialog, by selecting Tools | Setups | Curriculum Setup |
Curriculum.

Select the Custom Date Range radio button and enter the required start
and end date. Select this radio button if a change that you want to record
does not start until next week, for example. Select the From and To dates
by clicking the appropriate Calendar button and selecting a date from the
Calendar.
Two check boxes are provided at the bottom of the dialog, which enable
further refinement of the Effective Date Range.
Select the Restrict date range from today to end check box if you
want to restrict the Effective Date Range to run from today’s date to the
end of a Named Date Range. This option is available only if a Named
Date Range is selected and if today’s date lies within the date range you
choose.
Select the Don’t ask me again (this session or until manually
changed) check box if you do not need to select the date range each time
a Scheme is selected from the browser in this session.
If this check box is selected, the Select Effective Date Range dialog can still
be displayed when required, by clicking the Effective Date Range Calendar
button on the Tick Grid on the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page
or the Student Curriculum Summary page. It will start to be displayed
again anyway, if you change the Effective Date Range.

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NOTE: The option selected is valid for this session only. The next time you log
into SIMS and select a Scheme from the browser, the Select Effective Date
Range dialog is displayed again.

Once the required date range and check boxes have been selected, click the
OK button to display the selected Scheme on the Memberships of Groups
of a Scheme page.
Once this page is displayed, the browser will be hidden automatically. It can be
displayed again if required, by clicking the Browse button on the Application
Bar.

Configuring the Tick Grid

The view of the Tick Grid can be modified in order to provide a more
appropriate display of information. For example, additional columns can be
displayed in the Tick Grid, the display order of the columns can be changed,
etc.

Choosing a Selectable Field for Display

By default, four standard column headings are displayed on the left-hand side
of the Tick Grid (not including the group column headings). However, the
columns displayed can be added to or hidden, to provide appropriate student
information.
The default set of headings displayed are Student Name, Registration
Group, Assigned and Flag. Other headings that can be displayed include
Registration Group at <Beginning of Academic Year>, Year Group,
House, SEN Status and Date of Birth.
To change the display of column headings in the Tick Grid:

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1. Right-click any of the column headings on the left-hand side of the Tick Grid, or
click the Action button, and select Display from the pop-up menu to display
the Select Columns to Display dialog.

2. Select or deselect the check box(es) relating to the column(s) you want to
show or hide in the Tick Grid.

NOTES: The Next year registration group and Next year house options
are displayed only if the next Academic Year has been defined. The SEN
Status option is displayed only if you have the appropriate Permissions to
view the SEN Status. Column headings that are already displayed in the Tick
Grid are indicated by a ‘selected’ check box.

3. Change the order in which the additional columns are displayed on the Tick
Grid by highlighting the column you wish to move and clicking either the Up or
Down button, if required.
4. Some of the columns in the dialog display the information as of a particular
date (this is known as the Effective Date). This date can be edited by
highlighting the required column and clicking the Edit button to display the
Select Effective Date dialog. Enter an Effective Date or click the Calendar
button and select the required date, then click the OK button to return to the
Select Columns to Display dialog.
5. Click the OK button to return to the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme
page.
The selected columns are displayed in read-only format on the left-hand side
of the page.

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03| Assigning Multiple Students to a Single Scheme using the Curriculum Assignment by Scheme Page

Displaying Membership within Groups of another Scheme

Students’ membership within groups of another Scheme can be displayed in a
new column on the Tick Grid, alongside the standard columns.
For example, when assigning Year 8 students membership of this year’s
Science groups, you might wish to group them according to their Maths
groups. This can be achieved by opening the Year 8 Science Tick Grid and
adding their Maths groups as a read-only column. Sorting the Tick Grid on the
Maths groups column would facilitate the assignment of students to the
appropriate Science group.
1. Right-click any of the column headings on the left-hand side of the Tick Grid, or
click the Action button, and select Display from the pop-up menu to display
the Select Columns to Display dialog.

2. Click the Add Scheme button to display the Select Scheme and Effective
Date dialog.

3. Select the Academic Year for which memberships will be assigned from the
drop-down list.

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4. Enter the date on which you wish to base the displayed data. For example,
selecting 22/02/2007 displays the student group memberships of the
Scheme to be selected on that date. Alternatively, click the Calendar button
and select the required date.
5. Click the Field Browser button adjacent to the Scheme field to display the
Select Curriculum Scheme dialog (please see Selecting a Curriculum
Scheme on page 16).
6. Click the OK button to return to the Select Scheme and Effective Date
dialog.

Check that the information in the dialog is correct then click the OK button to
return to the Select Columns to Display dialog.

The selected Scheme is displayed at the bottom of the dialog in the row named
Group within scheme <Scheme Name> on <Effective Date>. The check
box is selected to indicate that this column is displayed on the Tick Grid.

NOTE: Any Scheme column added in error can be deleted by highlighting it in

the Select Columns to Display dialog and clicking the Delete button.

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7. Some of the columns in the dialog display the information as of a particular

date (this is known as the Effective Date). This date can be edited by
highlighting the required column and clicking the Edit button to display the
Select Scheme and Effective Date dialog. Select a different Academic
Year, Effective Date and Scheme, if required, then click the OK button.
8. Click the OK button to return to the Tick Grid, where the selected Scheme is
displayed as a read-only column on the left-hand side of the Tick Grid.
9. Repeat this process to add other required Schemes as column headers on the
Tick Grid.

Displaying Assessment Result Data as a Column Header

As well as the standard column headers on a Tick Grid, assessment results can
be displayed as read-only columns on the Tick Grid. One or more Aspects can
be selected for display and it is possible to select how the results are filtered.
For example, if an Aspect relating to a Year 8 Maths test is displayed as a
read-only column, you could sort the Tick Grid by this column to display
students achieving the highest results at the top of the Tick Grid, and students
achieving the lowest results at the bottom. Students can then be assigned
membership of one of the groups within the selected Scheme, based on their
achievements in a previous assessment.
1. Right-click any of the column headings on the left-hand side of the Tick Grid, or
click the Action button, and select Display from the pop-up menu to display
the Select Columns to Display dialog.

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2. Click the Add Aspect button to display the Aspect browser.

3. It is possible to view a single chosen type of Aspect only (e.g. view only Age
Aspects) by selecting from the Type drop-down list. It is also possible to filter
the view of Aspects by selecting a Category or Categories from the browser on
the left. For example, selecting the Year 9 Category displays only those
Aspects that have been associated with the Year 9 Category.
4. To select the Aspect you wish to include as a read-only column on the Tick
Grid, highlight the required Aspect and click the Select button to display the
Select Aspect and Result Filter dialog.

5. The selected Aspect is displayed, but this choice can be changed if required by
clicking the Field Browser button and selecting a different Aspect from the
Aspect browser.
6. To filter results by Results Set, select the Result Set radio button in the
Result Filter panel then click the Field Browser button to display the Select
Result Set dialog. Highlight the required Result Set then click the Select
button. The Result Set name is displayed in the Result Set field.

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03| Assigning Multiple Students to a Single Scheme using the Curriculum Assignment by Scheme Page

To filter results to a specific date range, select the radio button adjacent to the
From and To date fields. Select the required dates by clicking the appropriate
Calendar button and selecting the required date from the Calendar. Choose
whether to display the Highest, Lowest, Mean or most Recent result within
the selected data range by selecting from the Result Display drop-down list.
If you want to display the latest result, select the No Filter. Show most
recent result radio button.
7. Once the required filter selections have been made, click the OK button to
return to the Select Columns to Display dialog.

NOTE: Any Aspect column added in error can be deleted by highlighting it in

the Select Columns to Display dialog and clicking the Delete button.

8. Some of the columns in the dialog display the information as of a particular

date (this is known as the Effective Date). This date can be edited by
highlighting the required column and clicking the Edit button to display the
Select Aspect and Result Filter dialog. Select a different Aspect and edit
the result filters, if required, then click the OK button.
9. Click the OK button to return to the Tick Grid, where the selected Aspect will
be displayed as a read-only column on the left-hand side of the Tick Grid.
10. Repeat this process to add other required Aspects as columns on the Tick Grid.

Sorting the Student List

The student list can be sorted by the contents of any column, most
conveniently by holding down the Shift key and clicking on a column heading.
The student list can also be sorted by right-clicking the appropriate column
heading and selecting Sort by from the pop-up menu. Select the appropriate
method of sorting from the resulting list:

<Column Name> Name of column you right-clicked

Changed those records that have been edited but not yet saved.

Selected those records that have been selected.

Tagged those records that have been tagged.

Clicking the Action button offers a similar set of options. However, using this
method, all the columns on the left-hand side of the Tick Grid (the selectable
fields) are available for selection.

Changing the Width of the Group Columns

It is possible to change the width of the group columns in a Tick Grid. This is
particularly useful where a Scheme consists of a large number of destination
groups, and not all of them can be displayed on-screen at the same time.
Instead of using the scroll bar to view all of these groups, it is possible to
reduce the width of the group columns.
Clicking the Narrow button changes the orientation of the group column
headings, so that the group names are displayed vertically, allowing the width
of the columns to be reduced. Clicking the Narrow button again restores the
column width to its original format.

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NOTE: This process changes the width of the group columns only. It does not
affect the width of the columns on the left-hand side of the Tick Grid (the
selectable fields).

Changing the Display Order of the Group Columns

It is possible to change the order of the group columns displayed on the Tick
Grid, perhaps to match the order in which they are listed on paper. For
example, you can move a data entry column to the left, so that it is displayed
next to the selectable fields, for ease of data entry. This is achieved by clicking
the required column, holding down the mouse button and dragging the column
to the required location.
Any column order change is only temporary and the original order is restored
the next time the Tick Grid is opened.

Understanding the Information in a Tick Grid

The following graphic shows some of the common situations that might be
encountered when using the Tick Grid to manage student group assignments.

Viewing the Academic Year

SIMS can store data relating to multiple Academic Years. You can switch
between Academic Years by selecting Tools | Academic Management | Set
Academic Year. This choice is remembered by the system on a per-user
basis, so other users can work in different Academic Years if required.
The Academic Year field displays the Academic Year in which you are
currently working. This is particularly useful if you regularly switch between
Academic Years because it serves as a reminder of the current setting.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When working in Academic Management, it is

imperative that you work in the correct Academic Year.

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Interpreting Group Sizes

A summary is displayed at the bottom of the Tick Grid, which provides
information relating to group population, including the number of students
associated with the selected Scheme and the number of students currently
assigned to the groups within the Scheme.
By default, a single row labelled Total is displayed. However, if you
double-click this row, it expands to display three summary rows. The original
Total row remains, but separate rows for Male and Female are also
displayed. This additional information can also be viewed by right-clicking the
Total row and selecting View Split Totals from the pop-up menu.
Return to the original view by either double-clicking the summary rows or
right-clicking the summary rows and selecting View Single Total from the
pop-up menu.
The figures in the summary rows relate to students displayed in the Tick Grid.
In this example, 78 students are listed in the Tick Grid and of these, 74 have
been assigned to groups: 26 to class 9x/Sc1, 25 to class 9x/Sc2 and 23 to
class 9x/Sc3.

NOTE: These group totals refer to the group membership at the start of the
Effective Date Range.

If the list has been filtered using the Filters panel at the top of the page, the
summary rows normally displays two figures in the same cell – one of them in
brackets. The figure in brackets relates to the total number of students
associated with the Scheme, disregarding any filters set. They offer helpful
guidance as to whether a group can accommodate additional students
(although you should bear in mind that the group membership might have
grown during the Effective Date Range).
The figure without brackets relates to the number of students displayed as a
result of any filtering.

NOTE: If you click the Narrow button to display more columns, only the
bracketed figure is displayed at the foot of each column.

Viewing the Maximum Size of a Group over the Effective Date Range
In Interpreting Group Sizes, you can find information on how to view current
group sizes (i.e. as of today’s date).

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It is also possible to view the maximum number of students assigned to a

group across the selected Effective Date Range. For example, the total
number of students assigned to class 9x/Ma1 today is 26. However, later in
the term (but during the same Effective Date Range), two new students are
scheduled to join the class, which means that at some point during the
Effective Date Range, 28 students will be assigned to class 9x/Ma1. This new
figure is displayed (in brackets) in each of the column headers of the selected
Tick Grid.

NOTE: The group totals at the bottom of the Tick Grid continues to show
group sizes as of today’s date.

This functionality is particularly useful in determining a group’s spare capacity

over the course of an Effective Date Range, and it also informs the student
allocation process in your school of whether or not it is viable to add more
students to a specific group over the Effective Date Range.
Click the Max Sizes button to display the maximum group size over the
selected Effective Date Range in each of the column headers of the selected
Tick Grid.

NOTE: Clicking the Max Sizes button on the Tick Grid also displays the
maximum group size over the selected Effective Date Range in the row
headers of the Historical Curriculum Membership Details dialog, and in
the right-click menu on the Student Curriculum Summary page and the
Whole Curriculum Membership page, for the current SIMS session only.

Students with Incomplete Assignments

If a student has not been assigned to a group for the whole of the period
during which they are eligible for group membership, the o symbol is
displayed in the ‘flag’ column of the Tick Grid. For a complete list of the
symbols that might be displayed in the ‘flag’ column, together with a brief
explanation of each one, click the Key to Flags hyperlink in the Selected
Student panel at the top of the page.
More Information:
Understanding Membership and Eligibility Flags on page 41

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Read-Only Cells
The Tick Grid does not display all of the details of a student’s eligibility and
group membership during the Effective Date Range. To view this information,
double-click a student’s name in the Tick Grid or highlight them and click the
Details button, to display the Historical Curriculum Membership Details
dialog. Important information is also displayed in the Selected Students
panel. A student’s row in a Tick Grid might also be read-only because:
they are not eligible for membership of the groups at any time during the
Effective Date Range (i.e. the student has been manually added to the
group).
they have been assigned to a group for a period of time during which they
were not eligible.
The read-only status of cells in a Tick Grid can sometimes be switched off by
clicking the Relax button, so that editing is allowed. However the Relax
button can always be used to enable editing in the Historical Curriculum
Membership Details dialog.
More Information:
Membership and Eligibility Details for a Selected Student on page 28
Adding a Group Membership for an Ineligible Student on page 33

Membership and Eligibility Details for a Selected Student

The Selected Students panel displays information regarding a student’s
group membership and eligibility during the Effective Date Range. Two
operating modes, Membership and Eligibility, can be selected for this panel.

Selecting the Membership radio button displays the membership status for
the currently selected student. If a student’s group membership is changed
during the Effective Date Range, the membership for both groups is displayed.

Selecting the Eligibility radio button displays the eligibility status for the
currently selected student. If a student is eligible for a Scheme because of
membership of Band 9x at the beginning of the Effective Date Range and
moves to Band 9y (also a source group) during this time, both memberships
are displayed.
If more than one student has been selected in the Tick Grid, membership and
eligibility details are not displayed. Instead, the number of students selected is
displayed (in the top box), together with their names (in the bottom box).

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Where a student in the Tick Grid has an unusual element to their membership
or eligibility recorded during the Effective Date Range (e.g. multiple group
memberships or a gap between their memberships during the Effective Date
Range), a warning symbol is displayed in the ‘flag’ column. The warning
symbol displayed depends on whether Membership or Eligibility mode is
selected.
For a complete list of the symbols that might be displayed in the ‘flag’ column,
together with a brief explanation of each one, click the Key to Flags hyperlink
in the Selected Student panel at the top of the page.
More Information:
Understanding Membership and Eligibility Flags on page 41

Differentiating Between Tagged and Selected Students

In Academic Management, there are two methods of selecting a group of
students in a Tick Grid.
The term tagged student relates to a student in the Tick Grid whose check box
(on the left-hand side of the screen) has been selected.
The term selected student relates to a student who has been highlighted in the
Tick Grid, e.g. their name has been clicked using the mouse.
Multiple students can be tagged or selected as required, enabling you to ‘group
together’ a number of students for a common purpose. This might be to assign
group membership of one of the groups in the selected Scheme, or to remove
their group memberships en masse.
If you select a group of students, clicking anywhere else in the Tick Grid
causes the selection to be lost. Tagging a group of students is a safer method
of selection, as it is not so easy to lose the selection of students in this way.

Adding/Editing Student Group Memberships

The Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page displays a list of students
who are members of the groups from which the Scheme is derived, together
with any others who have been assigned to one of the Scheme’s destination
groups.
A filter which displays only a subset of the students in the list can be set,
making the list more manageable. It might be useful to work on a filtered list
of students if:
you want to display only those students who belong to a particular
registration group, house, etc.
you want to allocate all of a particular selection of students en bloc to the
same group.
A panel which displays a report on the currently selected student(s) and a
number of buttons that allow you to perform actions specific to this page are
also displayed.

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Filtering the Student List

The Filters panel at the top of the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme
page provides a number of ways of restricting the student list that is displayed
in the Tick Grid. Use one or more of these filters to achieve the appropriate
display of students.

Selecting True from the Tagged drop-down list and then clicking the Filter
button displays the tagged students in the Tick Grid. Selecting False displays
only students who have not been tagged. Selecting Any displays all students.
Selecting a group in the Scheme from the Assigned drop-down list displays
those students belonging to that group only. Selecting None lists those
students not yet assigned to a group during the Effective Date Range and
Multiple lists those who are a member of more than one group.
Selecting a Year Group associated with the selected Scheme from the
drop-down list displays those students belonging to that year group only.
Selecting None lists those not yet assigned to a year group during the
Effective Date Range.
If there are students who have left the school, but at some point during the
academic year did belong to a year group, the year names in the drop-down
list are placed in brackets.
Selecting a Reg Group associated with the selected Scheme from the
drop-down list displays those students belonging to that registration group
only. Selecting None lists those not yet assigned to a registration group during
the Effective Date Range.
The drop-down list includes all the registration groups containing students
eligible for groups in the Scheme, together with those who although not
eligible, have been assigned to one of the groups in the Scheme. Students who
have been added to the student list since the page was last opened are also
included in the drop-down list.
The names of some registration groups might be placed in brackets, e.g.
(10.B), as well as 10.B. This occurs if the registration group contains some
students who, at some point during the academic year, did belong to the
group, but whose current status is Leaver.
Selecting a House from the drop-down list displays those students
belonging to that house only. Selecting None lists those not yet assigned
to a house during the Effective Date Range.
Selecting a Gender from the drop-down list displays those students of
that gender only.
Once the appropriate filters have been set, click the Filter button or press
Enter to display the revised student list. Alternatively, click the Reset button
to restore the filters to their default settings (Any for the drop-down lists and
no characters in the Surname field).

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Adding Student Group Memberships

Once the required Scheme has been selected and any necessary filters have
been applied to the student list, students can be allocated to the groups within
the Scheme. Any previous allocations can be edited if required (please see
Adding/Editing Student Group Memberships on page 29).
The method of allocating students to groups is similar to the method used in
Nova-T4.
Academic Management enables the allocation of students to groups via a Tick
Grid.

The previous graphic displays an example of how the Memberships of

Groups of a Scheme page might look after students have been assigned
group membership, students from Year 9 Band y have been allocated to
three English groups in the 9y English block. The name of the Scheme and
the names of its source groups (in this example there is one source group only,
Band 9y) are displayed in the Title Bar.
Some of the students in the list have already been allocated to their groups.
The most recent student to be allocated to a group is Christopher Aguilera.
As his row is highlighted in the Tick Grid, additional summary information
relating to Christopher is displayed in the Selected Student panel at the top
right-hand side of the screen.
There are four methods of assigning students to a group from the
Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page:
Manually adding a group membership for a single student
Manually adding a group membership for several students
Randomly allocating students to classes
Rotating students between group/classes.

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This can be achieved manually by placing a ‘tick’ in the cell of an individual

student or a selection of students, which is ideal for ad hoc assignments to
groups. It can also be achieved automatically using either the Automatic
Random Allocation routine or by using the Student Carousel Rotation
wizard.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Once you have assigned a student to a group using the
Tick Grid, destination groups of singleton Schemes are populated
automatically under a number of circumstances (please see Understanding
Curriculum Cascading on page 159).

More Information:
Randomly Allocating Students to Classes on page 35
Rotating Students Between Groups/Classes on page 36

Manually Adding a Group Membership for a Single Student

A student can be assigned to a group for the duration of the Effective Date
Range, by clicking in the appropriate cell of the Tick Grid. A ‘tick’ is displayed
in this cell once the allocation has been made. Alternatively, use the arrow
keys to move around the Tick Grid and press the Spacebar to place a tick in
the required cell.

Manually Adding a Group Membership for Several Students

If there are a number of students to be assigned to the same group manually,
this can be achieved in a number of ways. Whichever method is used, the
selection of students you want to assign must first be highlighted.

Selecting the Students to be Assigned

There are three ways of making a selection of students in the Tick Grid:
Hold down Ctrl+A to select all of the students in the list. This is
particularly useful if the student list was filtered by registration group,
where you want to assign all of them to the same group. This method of
selection can also be achieved by clicking the Action button and selecting
Select All Students from the pop-up menu.
Sequentially listed students can be selected by clicking the first name in
the list, holding down the Shift key and clicking the last name in the list.
This selects the two students that were clicked, together with any others
in between.
While holding down the Ctrl key, click the students you want to select.
This has the effect of selecting only those students that were clicked. If
you click a student that has already been selected, the student is removed
from the selection. This feature can be used in combination with either of
the two previous selection methods.

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Assigning the Selected Students to a Group

There are four ways of assigning the selected students to a group:

NOTE: Please take care when using any of these selection techniques. If you
press the Up or Down arrow key or almost any other key on the keyboard by
mistake, the selection of students that you have made is lost.

Click the heading of the required group and press the Spacebar.
Hold down the Ctrl key and double-click the heading of the required
group.
Right-click anywhere in the required group column, for any of the selected
students, and select Tick Selected Cell(s) from the pop-up menu.
Use the Left and Right arrow keys to highlight the column of the required
group and press the Spacebar.

Adding a Group Membership for an Ineligible Student

An ineligible student is one who is not a member of one of the source groups
of a Scheme. However, it is sometimes necessary to assign students to classes
in a year other than their own. This method can be used to add those students
who would not ordinarily be eligible for membership of the selected Scheme,
e.g. a particularly gifted Year 8 Maths student being associated with a Year 9
Maths Scheme.
The process involves adding the required student to the list in the Tick Grid
and then assigning them to one of the destination groups of the selected
Scheme.

Adding an Ineligible Student to the List in the Tick Grid

1. Select the required curriculum scheme (please see Selecting a Curriculum
Scheme on page 16) to display the scheme to which you want to add an
ineligible student.
2. Click the Add button to display the Find Student for Curriculum
Assignment browser.

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3. Enter the first few letters of the student’s Surname and/or Forename to filter
the list and make it easier to locate them. Additional filters are also available.
4. Click the Search button or press Enter to search for the required student,
based on the filters selected.
5. Double-click the ineligible student or highlight their name and click the OK
button.
Their name is displayed at the bottom of the student list. As they are ineligible,
any student added in this way has a yellow background to the cells in the Tick
Grid, to indicate that this student is read-only. Therefore, if you subsequently
click in one of their cells, a tick is not added and membership is not assigned.
To make these students eligible for membership, click the Relax button
(please see Relaxing the Eligibility Rules of a Group on page 79).

NOTE: An ineligible student is not displayed in the student list on the Tick
Grid after closing and re-opening the page, unless they have been assigned
to a group.

Assigning an Ineligible Student to a Group

There are a number of methods of assigning an ineligible student to a group.
The easiest method is described in this section.
1. Click the Relax button to relax the eligibility rules for the current Scheme. This
removes the read-only status of the ineligible students who form part of the
Tick Grid and allows them to be allocated to the groups associated with the
Scheme, in the same way as eligible students.
2. Assign a student to a group (please see Assigning the Selected Students to a
Group on page 33).
The student is assigned to the selected group for the duration of the Effective
Date Range and an x is displayed in the ‘flag’ column (in this case) to denote
that, although ineligible, they have been assigned to a group.
For a complete list of the symbols that might be displayed in the ‘flag’ column
of the Tick Grid, together with a brief description, click the Key to Flags
hyperlink in the Selected Student panel at the top of the page.
3. Click the Relax button again to restore the read-only status of those ineligible
students who have been added to the Tick Grid.

Removing an Ineligible Student from the List in the Tick Grid

If an ineligible student has been added to the student list in a Tick Grid in
error, it is possible to remove them from the list. This might be appropriate if
they were added to the student list in error, or a change in circumstances now
means that they should not attend any of the classes in the selected Scheme.
1. Select a curriculum scheme (please see Selecting a Curriculum Scheme on
page 16) to display the Scheme from which you want to remove an ineligible
student.
2. Highlight the ineligible student.
3. Their name is displayed in the student list and the symbol x is displayed in
their flag column, to denote that they are ineligible for the selected group.

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4. Click the Relax button to relax the eligibility rules for the current Scheme. This
removes the read-only status of the ineligible students who form part of the
Tick Grid and allows them to be removed them from the groups associated
with the Scheme, in the same way as eligible students.
5. Right-click the required student and select Remove All Memberships from
the pop-up menu to display the Remove All Memberships Confirmation
dialog.

6. Select the Remove ALL Memberships radio button and click the Yes button
to remove their memberships.
7. Click the Save button to save the changes.
8. Close the Tick Grid and re-open it, so that the student is no longer displayed in
the Tick Grid.

NOTE: An ineligible student is not displayed in the student list on the Tick
Grid after closing and re-opening the page.

Checking for Timetable Clashes

A likely consequence of assigning membership of a group to a student, who is
not eligible, is a clash on their timetable. Unless students are being allocated
to classes before a complete timetable has been imported from Nova-T, you
should check whether or not clashes exist, and decide how or whether they
should be resolved.
Student timetables can be viewed on the Student Curriculum Summary
page, which can most easily be opened by selecting Focus | Student |
Curriculum Assignment by Student. After selecting the required student,
click the Timetable hyperlink to display that student’s timetable (please see
Reviewing a Student’s Timetable on page 57).
Another method of opening the Student Curriculum Summary page is from
the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page. Highlight the student
whose timetable you want to view and click the Student button. After
selecting the Effective Date Range, click the Timetable hyperlink to view their
timetable.

Randomly Allocating Students to Classes

This method assigns to groups those students associated with the selected
Scheme but who have not yet been assigned. Any assignments previously
made and saved to the database are not affected or changed as a result of this
process being run.

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Where possible, this method attempts to allocate equal numbers of students,

and an equal number of boys and girls, to each of the groups in the Scheme.
Automatic Random Allocation can be used on either a filtered list or the
complete student list.
The routine to randomly allocate students to groups operates without any
consideration to any information about the students concerned. For this
reason, if you wanted to allocate 100 students to five groups, each group
would be assigned 20 students.
However, if the 100 students consisted of 60 girls and 40 boys, there would be
no guarantee using this method that each group would consist of 12 girls and
eight boys. To achieve this, a filter should be added to the list to display girls
only and then automatically allocate them as described. The list should then
be filtered to display boys only and then automatically allocate them as well.

IMPORTANT NOTE: As prior group allocations are not overwritten using

this method, it is not necessary to filter the list to display only the boys in the
previous example. Instead, you could display the whole list and run the
routine again, as the allocations for the girls are not affected.

To automatically allocate students to groups in this way, click the Allocate

button and select Automatic Random Allocation from the pop-up menu.

Rotating Students Between Groups/Classes

There might be occasions during the planning of the student curriculum, when
groups of students need to be transferred from one class to another during the
course of the academic year.
This is particularly useful if, for example, there are three groups of students
attending Expressive Arts classes. At any one time during the academic year,
resource availability dictates that one class can study Art, one class can study
Music and one class can study Drama. One method of ensuring that during the
course of the academic year, each student studies each subject for equal
amounts of time, is to periodically swap their classes. This means that the
class studying Art in term 1 would study Music in term 2 and Drama in term 3.
The other two classes would also swap between the three disciplines. This is
referred to as student rotation in Academic Management.
This process can be performed manually using the Tick Grid on the
Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page. However, this could prove to
be a time consuming process. A more efficient method of achieving the same
result is to use the Student Carousel Rotation wizard. The wizard enables
the automatic rotation of students between different groups of a curriculum
Scheme.

Using the Student Carousel Rotation Wizard

NOTE: These instructions continue to follow the example of the Expressive
Arts classes as discussed at the beginning of this section.

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1. Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment

by Scheme to display the Find Curriculum Scheme browser.

2. If the Name, Year Taught In or Type of the curriculum Scheme you want to
rotate is known, either enter the information or select the appropriate option
from the drop-down lists and click the Search button. Alternatively, click the
Search button without entering any parameters to display all available
curriculum Schemes.
3. Double-click the required curriculum Scheme to display the Select Effective
Date Range dialog.

4. Select either the Named Date Range radio button or the Custom Date
Range radio button to select an Effective Date Range. Click the OK button to
display the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page.
For the purposes of student rotation, ensure that the Effective Date Range of
the first phase of the rotation is selected, e.g. Autumn Term – Academic
Year 2004/2005 + Christmas Holiday.
Any ineligible students that cannot be moved, because they are either not a
member of the Scheme’s source groups or appear outside of the Effective Date
Range, are displayed but are shaded and have an x symbol in the flag column,
as can be seen in the previous graphic for Clarissa Abbot (please see Relaxing
the Eligibility Rules of a Group on page 79).
5. Ensure that any students who you want to include as part of the rotation are
displayed on-screen and are editable.

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Any students that have been filtered out of view are not included, as the
process works for visible students only. For example, selecting Female from
the Gender drop-down list ensures that only females are included in the
rotation process.
6. Ensure that the current student group memberships are correct for the first
phase. If there are any incorrect, current assignments, these must be edited
before rotating the classes.
7. Change the Effective Date Range so that it refers to the second phase of the
rotation, e.g. Spring Term + Easter Holiday, by clicking the Calendar button
to the right of the Effective Date Range field to display the Select Effective
Date Range dialog.
The functionality available in the Select Effective Date Range dialog (please
see Selecting an Effective Date Range on page 68).
8. Click the Allocate button at the top of the Students panel and select Student
Carousel Rotation Wizard from the pop-up menu to display the Welcome
page of the wizard.
9. Click the Next button to continue.

The Effective Date Range displayed is the range selected in Step 4.

10. Check that the Effective Date Range is correct and then set the date from
which you want the rotation to take effect in the Reference Date field, by
either entering the date or selecting a date by clicking the Calendar button to
display the Calendar (please see Selecting Dates from the Calendar on page
153).

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11. Click the Next button.

12. Remove any groups that should not be moved in rotation by deselecting the
appropriate check boxes.
13. Set the order of the rotation by highlighting each group and clicking the Move
Up or Move Down buttons.
14. Click the Next button.

NOTE: A message informing you that some of the students in a group cannot
be rotated because their status is read-only might be displayed. This could
be because they are not members of one of the Scheme’s source groups, or
appear outside of the Effective Date Range and therefore cannot be rotated.
Click the Yes button to continue with the rotations as it is.

15. To indicate whether you want the students to be rotated forwards or

backwards through the selected groups, select the appropriate radio button.

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16. Click the Next button to display the Current Settings page.

This page displays all the information that has been specified in the wizard,
including the Effective Date Range, Reference Date, the class mappings (e.g.
8x/Ar1  8x/Dr1) and, if applicable, a list of the students who were not
rotated due to being read-only.

NOTE: If you want to change any of these settings, click the Back button to
navigate to the required page.

17. Click the Next button to rotate the students according to the settings selected.
The final page of the wizard is displayed when the rotation is complete. If the
rotation process encountered any problems whilst changing class
memberships, a message detailing the affected students is displayed.
18. Click the Finish button to close the Student Carousel Rotation wizard.
The ticks on the Tick Grid for each student are now moved onto the next class
in the rotation phase. The students who have been rotated are highlighted
with an asterisk next to them, meaning the changes have not been saved.
19. Click the Save button to save the rotation changes.

NOTE: If you want to undo the process and cancel any changes that have
been made, click the Undo button. ALL changes made by the rotation
process are undone.

20. This process can be repeated for all remaining phases of the rotation by
selecting the next Effective Date Range in turn and repeating the instructions
from Step 8.
More Information:
Selecting an Effective Date Range on page 68
Relaxing the Eligibility Rules of a Group on page 79
Selecting Dates from the Calendar on page 153

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Deleting Student Group Memberships

A student can be removed from a group without making a new assignment, by
highlighting the required cell in the Tick Grid and pressing the Delete key. The
‘tick’ is removed from the cell. Alternatively, right-click the required cell and
select Delete Selected Cell(s) from the pop-up menu.

NOTE: Click the Undo button to cancel the last change made. Multiple
changes can be undone in this way by repeatedly clicking the Undo button.
Changes can only be undone up until the last time the data was saved.

Changing the Effective Date Range

Changing the Effective Date Range whilst unsaved data exists in the Tick Grid
has no effect on the unsaved data, either prior to or after saving the data. If
the Effective Date Range is changed whilst unsaved data exists, the changed
data is based on the Effective Date Range in use at the time the changes were
made, i.e. the original Effective Date Range.
Any changes made to the data after the Effective Date Range has been
changed, and after this data has been saved, is based on the new Effective
Date Range.
Once a student has been assigned to a group (i.e. a ‘tick’ is placed in a cell), a
record of the student’s group assignment is created in the system’s memory
(not in the SIMS SQL database at this point). This record consists of a
membership start and end date, which is normally defined by the Effective
Date Range currently selected for the Tick Grid. The start or end date might be
modified if the student was not on roll for the whole of the Effective Date
Range, or if the group itself does not exist for the whole date range, but not
just because the student was not a member of one of the Scheme’s source
groups.
When the Save button is clicked, all the changes that have been are saved to
the SIMS SQL database, each with the defined start and end dates.

Understanding Membership and Eligibility Flags

The following tables contain a list of symbols that might be displayed in the
‘flag’ column in the Tick Grid. These symbols generally denote something
unusual or important about a student’s membership or eligibility.

Membership Flags
Flag Warning Reason

! Conflicting Simultaneous membership of more than one group in the

Scheme has been recorded for some or all of the Effective
Date Range.

x Overruled This flag will be displayed only when Relaxed Mode is

switched off, and is used to identify those students that have
been assigned membership of a group while ineligible.

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Flag Warning Reason

o Missing The selected student has no membership entered in the

Scheme for some or all of the Effective Date Range.

More than one of these Membership flags might be applicable to a student at

the same time. However, one flag only can be displayed at a time. The order of
priority for displaying these flags is !, x and then o.
More than one of these Membership flags might be applicable to a student at
the same time. However, one flag only can be displayed at a time. The order of
priority for displaying these flags is !, x and then o.

Eligibility Flags
Flag Warning Reason

% Partial The student is ineligible for part, but not all of the Effective Date Range.

~ None Indicates a student who is ineligible for the Scheme for the whole of the
Effective Date Range.

+ Never Indicates a student who, although ineligible for the whole of the Effective
Date Range, has been added to the list. This flag will be displayed
regardless of whether or not the student has been allocated to one or
more groups within the current Scheme.

Switching Between Open Pages

Please note that when the Student button is clicked, you are not asked if you
want to save any changes made to the Tick Grid. This is because the Tick Grid
remains open whilst the Membership of Groups of a Scheme page is
opened. The Tick Grid can be viewed again either by selecting Window |
Memberships of Groups of a Scheme, or when the Student Curriculum
Summary page is closed. Once you have finished working with the Tick Grid,
click the Save button.
There are two important points to consider when switching between the
Membership of Groups of a Scheme (Tick Grid) page and the Student
Curriculum Summary page:
It is possible to display more than one Student Curriculum Summary
page, by selecting Window | Memberships of Groups of a Scheme to
return to the Tick Grid, highlighting another student and clicking the
Student button.
It is not possible however, to display a number of Student Curriculum
Summary pages in one go. Selecting a number of students automatically
disables the Student button.
It is inadvisable to return to the Tick Grid by clicking the Back button,
because any changes previously made to the Tick Grid are not visible.
However, clicking the Save button saves any changes made – even
though they are not visible in the Tick Grid.

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Undoing and Redoing Recent Actions

Click the Undo button to undo any of the actions performed, one at a time,
since the data was last saved.
Click the Redo button to redo any of the actions that have been undone, one
at a time, since the data was last saved.

Viewing a Student’s Group Membership Timelines

As well as viewing a student’s group membership in the Tick Grid, it is possible
to view their group membership timeline, which allows specific dates for their
membership of a group in the selected Scheme to be viewed.
Highlight a student in the Tick Grid and click the Details button to display the
Historical Curriculum Membership Details dialog.

This dialog displays a historical view of the selected student’s group

membership for the selected Scheme. As well as displaying the group to which
they are currently a member, it also displays membership details for any
groups they were a member of for the duration of the Scheme.
This dialog can also be opened by double-clicking a student in the Tick Grid on
the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page.

Student Button
As well as viewing a student’s group membership for the selected Scheme in
the Tick Grid, it is possible to view all of their group memberships across all of
the Schemes with which they are associated. This is particularly useful if you
want to see a top level view of a student’s group memberships, perhaps to
check whether they have been assigned to all of the appropriate groups for
which they are eligible.
Highlight a student in the Tick Grid and click the Student button to display the
Student Curriculum Summary page.

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To return to the Tick Grid from where you came, ensure that the original
Scheme is highlighted and then click the Scheme button. Clicking the
Scheme button while any other Scheme is highlighted will open the incorrect
Scheme on the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page. You are
strongly advised to avoid using the Back button to navigate from the Student
Curriculum Summary page and the Memberships of Groups of a
Scheme page, and vice versa.

Using the Action Button to Perform Tasks in the Tick Grid

Clicking the Action button allows the user to perform one of a number of
actions relating to the currently selected/tagged student(s). Many of the
functions available here can also be performed in other ways in Academic
Management. The Action button provides access to many commonly used
functions from a single place. The following list details the options available
from the pop-up menu when the Action button is clicked:

Tick Selected Cell(s)

Selecting this option places a tick in the highlighted cell, denoting that the
associated student is a member of the specified group during the specified
Effective Date Range.
Navigate to the required cell using the cursor keys, click the Action button
and select Tick Selected Cell from the pop-up menu.

Delete Selected Cell(s)

Selecting this option removes the tick from the highlighted cell, denoting that
the associated student’s group membership has been removed for the
specified Effective Date Range.
Navigate to the required cell using the cursor keys, click the Action button
and select Delete Selected Cell from the pop-up menu.

Remove All Memberships

Selecting this option removes the ticks from all of the cells for the currently
selected student(s), denoting that all of their memberships have been
removed for the selected Scheme during the specified Effective Date Range.
Select the required student(s) by highlighting their row(s) in the Tick Grid,
click the Action button and select Remove All Memberships from the
pop-up menu to display the Remove All Memberships Confirmation
dialog.

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Select a radio button to determine the type of memberships in the Tick Grid
that you want to remove for the selected student:

Remove ALL Memberships

Select this radio button and click the Yes button to remove all memberships
for the selected student(s), regardless of the membership type (i.e. normal,
ineligible or unavailable).

Remove ineligible and unavailable memberships

Select this radio button and click the Yes button to remove ineligible and
unavailable memberships only for the selected student(s). Normal
memberships are not affected by selecting this radio button.

Remove unavailable memberships

Select this radio button and click the Yes button to remove unavailable
memberships only for the selected student(s). Normal and ineligible
memberships are not affected by selecting this radio button.

Select All Students

Selecting this option highlights all of the students in the Tick Grid, therefore
allowing a function to be performed for all of the students at once.

Tag/Select
Selecting this option allows the rows in the Tick Grid to be tagged or selected,
according to your requirements. For example, you might tag or untag all
students, select or deselect those students in the Tick Grid whose details have
changed, or select or deselect tagged students.

Sort by
Selecting this option sorts the information in the Tick Grid according to the
selected option. Any of the displayed fields in the Tick Grid can be used for the
sort, together with those students whose details have changed, and those
students that are either selected or tagged.

Display
This option allows you to select the information to be displayed in the Tick
Grid. The Student List is mandatory, but a number of other pieces of
information can be displayed if required, including Year Group, Registration
Group and Assigned (the group to which they have been assigned in the Tick
Grid).
Click the Action button, select Display from the pop-up menu and select each
of the additional pieces of information you want to be displayed adjacent to the
Student List.

Viewing Single and Split Totals

A summary is displayed at the bottom of the Tick Grid, which provides
information relating to group population, including the number of students
associated with the selected Scheme and the number of students currently
assigned to the groups within the Scheme.

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By default, a single row labelled Total is displayed. However, clicking the

Action button and selecting View Split Totals from the pop-up menu
expands the row to display three summary rows. The original Total row
remains, but separate rows for Male and Female are also displayed. Click the
Action button again and select View Single Totals from the pop-up menu to
revert to the original view.
The currently selected view is denoted by a tick in the pop-up menu.
More Information:
Interpreting Group Sizes on page 26

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04|Assigning a Curriculum to a Single

Student using the Curriculum
Assignment by Student Page

Introduction .................................................................................. 47
Selecting a Student from a Browser............................................... 49
Important Information Regarding the Historical Curriculum
Membership Details Dialog ............................................................ 49
Recording a Student’s Group Memberships .................................... 49
Working With Singleton Schemes .................................................. 52
Adding a Scheme for an Individual Student ................................... 56
Reviewing a Student’s Timetable ................................................... 57
Using an Existing Student’s Curriculum to Create a Curriculum
for a New Student .......................................................................... 61

Introduction
This chapter describes how a student’s membership of the groups belonging to
the available Schemes can be viewed and edited, whether or not they are
eligible for membership of the Scheme.
This is achieved by selecting a student from a browser to display all of the
Schemes of which they are eligible for membership. Additional Schemes can
be added to this list, if the student is not initially eligible for membership.
Using the method described in this chapter, you must select a student from a
browser and, using the Student Curriculum Summary page, assign that
student to one of the groups within the Scheme.
The methods described in the previous chapter are particularly useful if you
want to assign a large number of students to the selected Scheme. The
methods described in this chapter are particularly useful if you want to make
changes which would affect a small number of students. Whichever method is
used to assign students to classes, the end result is the same. The only
difference is the method used to achieve this.
Any changes made to a student’s curriculum can be viewed on their timetable
by clicking the Timetable hyperlink at the top of the page. This can be used to
inform a user of any timetable clashes as they occur, or as a guide when
making ad hoc changes to an individual’s curriculum. The Schemes can be
displayed again by clicking the Schemes hyperlink, or by scrolling to the top
of the Student Curriculum Summary page.
The Student Curriculum Summary page and the Tick Grid on the
Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page provide different ways of
achieving the same result. Therefore, any changes to student group
assignments saved to the database on one page are available for viewing and
editing in the other.

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NOTE: It is possible to access the Student Curriculum Summary page

from the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page, by highlighting the
required student in the Tick Grid and clicking the Student button. To display
the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page from the Student
Curriculum Summary page, highlight the required Scheme and click the
Scheme button. The appropriate page opens and displays the details of the
item selected in the previous page. If you access either of these pages by
clicking the Student or Scheme button, the browser is disabled.

As it is possible to achieve the same result from either the Memberships of

Groups of a Scheme page or the Student Curriculum Summary page,
comparisons can be made between the functionality in these pages. The
following section demonstrates some of these similarities.

Comparisons of the Tick Grid on the Memberships of Groups of a

Scheme Page and the Student Curriculum Summary Page
The Tick Grid allows you to select a Scheme to display a list of its associated
students. It is then possible to assign them to the groups within the Scheme.
The Student Curriculum Summary page enables you to select a student
and to display a list of Schemes for which they are eligible. It is then possible
to assign that student to any of the groups within the Schemes.
The Tick Grid displays students that are eligible. However, students can be
added to the list even though they are not eligible for groups of the selected
Scheme.
On the Student Curriculum Summary page, Schemes can be added to the
list even though the selected student does not belong to one of the source
groups of the Scheme.
It is possible to select a student in the Tick Grid in the Groups of
Memberships of a Scheme page and then open the Student Curriculum
Summary page by clicking the Student button.
It is possible to select a Scheme on the Student Curriculum Summary page
and then open the Tick Grid in the Groups of Memberships of a Scheme
page by clicking the Scheme button.
It is possible to view and edit an individual student’s group membership of a
single Scheme in full historical detail in both the Tick Grid on the
Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page and the Student Curriculum
Summary page. Highlight either a student or a Scheme, depending on the
current page, and click the Details button to display the Historical
Curriculum Membership Details dialog.

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The Student Curriculum Summary page can be opened in a number of

different ways:
Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum
Assignment by Student to display the Find Student for Curriculum
Assignment browser. Select the required student to display the Student
Curriculum Summary page.
Select Focus | Student | Curriculum Assignment by Student to
display the Find Student for Curriculum Assignment browser. Select
the required student to display the Student Curriculum Summary
page.
Select a student in the Tick Grid on the Memberships of Groups of a
Scheme page and click the Student button. This opens the Student
Curriculum Summary page for the selected student. Opening the page
in this way allows a user to view details for the selected student only. The
browser becomes disabled and it is not possible to select another student
from this page.

Selecting a Student from a Browser

Once a student has been selected, you will be asked to select an Effective Date
Range to work with. Information will then be displayed in the form of timelines
for each Scheme for which the student is eligible, or to which the student has
been allocated (please see Selecting an Effective Date Range on page 68).

Important Information Regarding the Historical

Curriculum Membership Details Dialog
Simple, uniform allocations can be made directly to a timeline. However, it is
possible to make any required changes from the Historical Curriculum
Membership Details dialog, which can be opened by double-clicking a
Scheme or by highlighting the required Scheme and clicking the Details
button.

Recording a Student’s Group Memberships

The Student Curriculum Summary page is of particular use when a student
joins the school part-way through the year and needs to be assigned a
complete curriculum.
The screen consists of a separate row (known as a Timeline) for each Scheme.
At the top of the list of Schemes is a Calendar relating to the dates of the
current academic year. Displayed vertically down the page are two lines, one
green and one red. These lines mark the beginning and the end of the Effective
Date Range.
As the mouse pointer moves across a timeline, the Cursor Day (e.g. Monday)
and Cursor Date (e.g. 12/03/2007) are displayed. These fields will display
<None> if the mouse pointer is moved outside of the timeline area.

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Click the Zoom button to magnify the calendar and timeline areas of the page.
Click the Zoom button again to revert to the original magnification setting.

In the example presented by the previous graphic, a membership assignment

is being made for Ben Abbot, who joined the school on 15th March. The light
grey background on the left-hand side indicates that he was not eligible for
any groups prior to that date. The dark grey background after 20th July
indicates that the groups themselves do not exist beyond that date.
Ben was placed in Year 9 and initially the screen displayed only one row, Base
bands in Year 9. However, when he was assigned to Band 9x, he became
eligible for a number of other groups and these groups were also displayed.
The graphic illustrates that Ben has been assigned to group 9x/Ma2 in the
Scheme 9x Maths, together with groups in 5 other Schemes.
As part of the curriculum assignment process for Ben, he must now be
assigned to a Science class. The following section details the process by which
this can be achieved.
1. Right-click in the row of the 9x Science Scheme. Alternatively, highlight this
row and click the Action button.
2. Select the group to which you want to assign the student (9x/Sc2) from the
pop-up menu.
The pop-up menu displays all of the groups in the highlighted Scheme. If a
student has already been assigned to one of these groups, the menu provides
the option to remove them from that group, without being assigned to another
one. Any group to which a student has already been assigned is greyed out on
the pop-up menu.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Once you have assigned a student to a group using the
Student Curriculum Summary page, destination groups of singleton
Schemes are populated automatically under a number of circumstances
(please see Understanding Curriculum Cascading on page 159).

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3. If the student has left the course because they have left the school or because
they are concentrating their time on other course subjects, select Withdrawn
from the Status drop-down list.

4. Select the Withdrawal Reason from the drop-down list to record why the
student has left the course before the expected end date.
The options are:

Learning Aim Withdrawal Option Learning Aim Withdrawal Reason

Other provider (gov) Learner has transferred to another

provider to undertake learning which
meets a specific government strategy

Other provider Learner has transferred to another

provider

Injury/illness Learner injury/illness

Financial Financial reasons

Personal Other personal reasons

Exclusion Learner has been excluded

Other Other

Not known Reason not known

If the student stops studying this course or learning aim to begin to study
another, select Transferred from the Status drop-down list instead of
Withdrawn.

Viewing the Academic Year

SIMS can store data relating to multiple Academic Years. You can switch
between Academic Years by selecting Tools | Academic Management | Set
Academic Year. This choice is remembered by the system on a per-user
basis, so other users can work in different Academic Years, if required.
The Academic Year field displays the Academic Year in which you are
currently working. This is particularly useful if you regularly switch between
Academic Years as it serves as a reminder of the current setting.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When working in Academic Management, it is

imperative that you work in the correct Academic Year.

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Working With Singleton Schemes

A Singleton is a Scheme which consists of one destination only. When a
student is assigned to a source group of a Singleton Scheme, Academic
Management automatically assigns the student membership of the destination
group belonging to this Scheme.
This can potentially save a lot of time. For example, it means that when a
student is assigned membership of teaching group 7.B, there is no need then
to assign them to classes 7.B/En, 7.B/Ma, 7.B/Sc, 7.B/Hu, etc. If the
student is subsequently transferred from teaching group 7.B to 7.A, all the
previous assignments to these Singleton classes are terminated and new
assignments to 7.A/En, 7.A/Ma, etc., will be made.
However, this behaviour might not be appropriate in every instance. One
student might be excused attendance at one of the Singleton classes and
instead, work in the library. The Student Curriculum Summary page can be
used to delete the unwanted membership record.
When this page is opened, Singleton groups are hidden from view. To display
these groups, click the Singletons button.
Clicking this button displays additional rows at the bottom of the list of
Schemes. These Schemes display student memberships to Singleton groups.
To view or edit a student’s membership of a Singleton group, either
double-click the group in the timeline or highlight it and click the Details
button, to display the Historical Curriculum Membership Details dialog.

Deleting a Student’s Group Membership

There are a number of ways of removing student group memberships from the
Student Curriculum Summary page. Regardless of the method of deleting a
student’s group membership, it is important to select the correct Effective
Date Range. For example, if the Restrict date range from today to end
check box was selected when setting the Effective Date Range, deleting a
group membership removes the membership from today until the end of the
Effective Date Range, but any part of the group membership that existed
before today’s date remains.

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To delete a student’s group membership, perform one of the following

functions from the Student Curriculum Summary page with a student
selected, with the correct Effective Date Range selected:
Right-click a timeline and select Remove from <group name> from the
pop-up menu.
Right-click a timeline and select Remove All Memberships from the
pop-up menu to display the Remove All Memberships Confirmation
dialog (please see Remove All Memberships on page 44).
Double-click a timeline to display the Historical Curriculum
Membership Details dialog. Highlight the timeline and press the Delete
key.

Changing a Student’s Group Membership

Throughout the course of the academic year, it might be necessary to move
students between classes. This movement can be registered using either the
Tick Grid on the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page or the Student
Curriculum Summary page.
Whichever method is used, please exercise extreme caution when selecting
the Effective Date Range. As the student has been attending their current
class for a period of time, the beginning of the Effective Date Range for their
new class should be set to the date on which they will actually leave their
current class to join the new one (please see Changing the Effective Date
Range on page 54).

Using the Student Curriculum Summary Page

To allocate a student to a different group within the same Scheme using the
selected Effective Date Range on the Student Curriculum Summary page:
1. Either right-click anywhere on the required Scheme, or highlight the required
Scheme and click the Action button to display the pop-up menu.

2. Select the group to which you want to assign the selected student.

NOTE: A group membership can be removed for a student without being

replaced by another, as long as that student is a member of the group for the
whole of the selected Effective Date Range.

The following graphic displays the group memberships recorded in the

timeline. The selected student has been moved from one English class to
another part way through the year, but remains in the same Maths class for
the duration of the academic year.

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Another method of recording a change in group membership that does not

require the Effective Date Range to be changed here, is to double-click the
required Scheme’s timeline to display the Historical Curriculum
Membership Details dialog. Alternatively, right-click the required Scheme’s
timeline and select Open Details from the pop-up menu, or highlight the
required Scheme’s timeline and click the Details button.

Changing the Effective Date Range

There are several methods of changing the Effective Date Range when
working on the Student Curriculum Summary page. The standard method
uses the Select Effective Date Range dialog.

To change the Effective Date Range, click the Field Browser button to the
right of the Effective Date Range field to display the Select Effective Date
Range dialog (please see Selecting an Effective Date Range on page 68).
Other methods of changing the Effective Date Range are:
Hover across the timeline, which is situated above the list of Schemes,
until the required start date or end date is displayed in the Cursor Date
field, right-click the timeline and select either Set Effective Start Date
or Set Effective End Date from the pop-up menu.
The point at which the timeline is clicked is used as either the start date or
the end date of the Effective Date Range. Either the green (start date) or
red (end date) horizontal line moves to the date on which the timeline was
clicked.

Right-click a Scheme timeline and select one of the following from the
pop-up menu:
Set Effective Start Date – Changes the start date of the Effective
Date Range to the start date of the selected Scheme. The end date of
the Effective Date Range is not affected.
Set Effective End Date – Changes the end date of the Effective Date
Range to the end date of the selected Scheme. The start date of the
Effective Date Range is not affected.
Set Effective Date Range – Changes both the start date and the
end date of the Effective Date Range to the start and end date of the
selected Scheme.

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In the following graphic, the selected student was temporarily moved from
class 9x/En2 to 9x/En3, so there are three bars on the 9x English
timeline.

As class 9x/En3 has been selected, by selecting Set Effective Date Range
from the pop-up menu, the Effective Date Range is set to the start and end
dates of this class membership record.

Viewing the Maximum Size of a Group over the Effective Date Range
In Interpreting Group Sizes on page 30, you can find information on how to
view current group sizes (i.e. as of today’s date).
It is also possible to view the maximum number of students assigned to a
group across the selected Effective Date Range. For example, the total
number of students assigned to class 9x/Ma2 today is 25. However, later in
the term (but during the same Effective Date Range), two new students are
scheduled to join the class, which means that at some point during the
Effective Date Range, 27 students are assigned to class 9x/Ma2. This new
figure is displayed (in brackets) when you right-click a group assignment on
the Student Curriculum Summary page. Group sizes for other groups in the
same Scheme are also displayed in the right-click menu.

Right-click a group assignment and select Show Group Sizes from the
pop-up menu to display the maximum group size over the selected Effective
Date Range in the right-click menu.

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This functionality is particularly useful in determining a group’s spare capacity

over the course of an Effective Date Range, and it also informs the student
allocation process in your school of whether or not it is viable to add more
students to a specific group over the Effective Date Range.

NOTE: Selecting Show Group Sizes from the right-click menu also displays
the maximum group size over the selected Effective Date Range in each of
the column headers of a Tick Grid, in the row headers of the Historical
Curriculum Membership Details dialog, and in the right-click menu on the
Whole Curriculum Membership page, for the current SIMS session only.

Adding a Scheme for an Individual Student

Even though a student is not eligible for a Scheme, it is possible to add a
Scheme timeline for them on the Student Curriculum Summary page. This
serves the same purpose as adding a student to the list in the Tick Grid on the
Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page; the student can then be
assigned to a group for which they are not eligible. This is particularly useful if
they have demonstrated exceptional performance in a particular subject, for
example.
Click the Add button to display the Select Curriculum Scheme dialog
(please see Selecting a Curriculum Scheme on page 16).

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Once the required Scheme has been selected from the Select Curriculum
Scheme dialog, the Student Curriculum Summary page is displayed again
and the new Scheme is added to the bottom of the list of Schemes.

The Scheme that has been added to the timeline in the previous graphic is
10xy Option A. As the student is not eligible for this Scheme (they are not a
member of one of the source groups of the selected Scheme), the background
colour of the timeline Scheme is light grey.
There are two methods of assigning the student membership of the selected
Scheme.

From the Student Curriculum Summary Page

1. Ensure that the Effective Date Range selected is appropriate for this group
membership. It can be edited if required, by clicking the Calendar button and
selecting a date range from the Select Effective Date Range dialog.
2. Click the Relax button to allow the ineligible student to be assigned a group
membership.
3. Right-click anywhere on the Scheme’s timeline and select the appropriate
assignment from the pop-up menu.
The membership dates are set to those indicated in the Effective Date
Range field at the top of the page.

From the Historical Curriculum Membership Details Dialog

1. Ensure that the Effective Date Range selected is appropriate for this group
membership. It can be edited if required, by clicking the Calendar button and
selecting a date range from the Select Effective Date Range dialog.
2. Double-click anywhere on the Scheme’s timeline to display the Historical
Curriculum Membership Details dialog.
3. Click the Relax button to allow the ineligible student to be assigned a group
membership.

Reviewing a Student’s Timetable

As well as viewing student group assignments on the Student Curriculum
Summary page, it is also possible to view their timetable by clicking the
Timetable hyperlink or by scrolling to the bottom of the page. This is
particularly useful when you want to resolve any clashes that have arisen due
to membership assignments that break the eligibility rules.

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Although it does not necessarily follow that, having assigned an ineligible

student to a group, there are timetable clashes, it is very likely that clashes
have been caused. A clash in this case is caused by the requirement for a
student to be in two places at a time.
Another reason for a timetable clash is if a student has to be removed from
one lesson, but continues to attend the other lessons of the class.

Viewing a Student’s Timetable

The Display Date Ruler

During the course of the academic year a student’s timetable might change,
either because they have changed class memberships or the timetable itself
has changed. At the top of the timetable display is a ruler with a movable
pointer. This pointer can be dragged sideways using the mouse, to set the
display date to which the timetable refers. The selected Display date is
displayed above the ruler, together with the date range within which the
display date can be selected (Start date and End date). As the pointer
moves and crosses a date from which the timetable was modified, changes in
the timetable can be viewed.

Timetable Cycles
To the left of the ruler is the Timetable Cycles section. This displays the
timetable cycle definitions which are in operation during the academic year.

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Generally, there is just one timetable cycle definition displayed in this box, and
the Start date and End date above the ruler are the start and end of the
academic year.

Timetable Orientation
Click the Invert Timetable button in the Timetable panel to change the
display of the timetable from days displayed in rows and periods displayed in
columns, to periods displayed in rows and days displayed in columns, and vice
versa.

Reviewing and Resolving Timetable Clashes

Some of the cells on the timetable display might have a red or an orange
background. A red background indicates that there is an unresolved timetable
clash in this period. When a clash has been resolved, the cell background turns
orange.
It might not be immediately evident over what date range the clash occurs,
since the background colour does not change with the display date. However
when the pointer is dragged along the Display date ruler, the information
displayed in the timetable cells responds to the movement of the pointer.
Therefore, when the date is reached where the clash first occurs, two classes
are listed in the appropriate cells instead of one.
The following graphic displays the timetable for Matthew Able. As some of the
cell backgrounds are red and some are orange, it is possible to see that not all
of his timetable clashes have been resolved. These clashes occur because
Matthew has demonstrated excellent ability at French in Year 10 and has been
assigned to a Year 11 French class as from the middle of December. Clashes
occur at periods Mon 5, Tue 6, Thu 3 and Fri 8. The clashes at Tue 6 and Fri
8 have been resolved in favour of class 10y/En1 and 10y/Ma3 respectively,
because Matthew’s participation in both English and Maths must not be
affected by these changes. The other two clashes, with 10B/He1 and
10A/Ar1, still remain.

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The cell for period Mon 5 has been highlighted and therefore, has a black
border. Information relating to this period is displayed beneath the timetable,
in the Timetable clashes and Clash details panels.

It is not essential to resolve all of the clashes on a student’s timetable. It might

have been previously decided that each week, the student should consult with
their teachers and agree on which lesson they should attend. Often though,
the desired arrangement for a particular period is that the student should
always attend one class rather than another. This is the arrangement that has
been made for periods Tue 6 and Fri 8, and the timetable cell after the middle
of December displays 10y/En1 and (11y/Fr2), and 10y/Ma3 and
(11y/Fr2) respectively. The brackets around the French classes indicate that
the student does not attend French in this period.
The timetable clash information displayed at the bottom of the page relates to
the highlighted timetable cell, period Mon 5. This section displays class
information for four date ranges.
The information consists of:

Status Clash Information

Total The number of scheduled classes to which the student has been
assigned.

Resolved Yes or No – indicates whether one or more class is active on the

student’s timetable.

Start The start date for this clash record.

End The end date for this clash record.

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To resolve the clash in favour of one class over another:

1. Highlight a row in the Timetable clashes panel where Resolved = No.
The Clash details panel displays as Active those classes that are in conflict.
2. Highlight the class that you do not want the student to attend and click the
Change Status button. The status of the class at this period changes from
Active to Withdrawn.
The cell containing the clash changes from red (unresolved) to orange
(resolved). The lesson from which the student has been withdrawn is now
displayed on the timetable in brackets.

Using an Existing Student’s Curriculum to Create a

Curriculum for a New Student
It is possible to assign a student (the target student) to Bands, Teaching
Groups and Classes by copying the memberships of another student (the
source student) over a range of dates. Any timetable exceptions of the source
student during the copy date range are also copied to the target student.
Any existing Band, Teaching Group and Class memberships of the target
student during the copy date range are removed, along with any curriculum
group exceptions (clash resolutions).
This functionality is available from the Student Curriculum Summary page.
This functionality provides a convenient way of assigning a whole curriculum
to a student (e.g. a new starter).
1. Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment
by Student to display the Find Student for Curriculum Assignment
browser.
2. Highlight the student whose curriculum you wish to copy (the source student)
and click the Open button to display the Select Effective Date Range
dialog, from where you should set up the date range over which you want to
copy the curriculum (please see Selecting an Effective Date Range on page
68).
3. Click the OK button to display the Student Curriculum Summary page.

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4. The student’s curriculum to be copied, the source student, is displayed in the

Student Curriculum Summary page. Click the Clone button to display the
Select Student dialog.

5. Enter the first few letters of the target student’s Surname and/or Forename
to filter the list and make them easier to locate. Additional filters are also
available.
6. Click the Search button or press Enter to search for the required student,
based on the filters selected.
7. Double-click the student you wish to assign a curriculum or highlight their
name and click the OK button.

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8. Click the Yes button to copy the curriculum from the source student to the
target student.

The Student Curriculum Summary page displays the newly created

curriculum for the target student.
9. Click the Save button to save the changes to the student’s curriculum.

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64 Academic Management
 05| Assigning a Whole Curriculum to One or More Students using the Whole Curriculum Editing Page

05|Assigning a Whole Curriculum to

One or More Students using the
Whole Curriculum Editing Page

Introduction .................................................................................. 65
Viewing and Editing a Student’s Whole Curriculum........................ 67
Understanding the Information in the Whole Curriculum
Membership Grid............................................................................ 72

Introduction
This section describes the functionality that allows a user to view and edit class
and curriculum group memberships for a set of students and for a set of
Schemes. This functionality is provided in a grid layout similar to the Whole
Curriculum Editing page in Nova-T4.
Before continuing, it is useful to reflect on the multi-dimensional nature of
group membership in Academic Management. Any membership record is
defined by a student, a group (which belongs to a Scheme) and a date range.
The other areas of SIMS that make up the Academic Management functionality
deal with slices of this data, where in each case one or more attributes are
factored out.
The Student Curriculum Summary page deals with all memberships
pertaining to a single student. The time dimension is permanently
displayed on-screen, but the groups of each Scheme are ‘hidden’.
The Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page (the Tick Grid) deals
with a single Scheme (with the proviso that cascading membership is also
taken into account). The groups of the Scheme are permanently displayed
on-screen, but the time dimension is ‘hidden’.
The Historical Curriculum Membership Details dialog displays the
memberships for a single student and a single Scheme. Both the time
dimension and the groups of the Scheme are permanently displayed
on-screen.
The Whole Curriculum Membership page displays the details for a range of
Schemes (as the Student Curriculum Summary page does) and for a range
of students (as the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page does).
Consequently, both the time dimension and the groups of the Schemes are
‘hidden’.
In the same way that each row of the Student Curriculum Summary page
and each row of the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page can be
edited in more detail using the Historical Curriculum Membership Details
dialog, each cell of the Whole Curriculum Membership page is editable.

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The following graphic shows the Whole Curriculum Membership page for
those students in Band 8x.

The name of each of the Schemes associated with the selected band is
displayed in the column headings across the top of the grid, and the names of
the associated students are displayed as rows in the grid.
If a student belongs to one of the groups associated with the Scheme at the
start of the Effective Date Range, the name of the group is displayed at the
intersection of the student’s name and the Scheme name. For example in the
previous graphic, Victor Ahlman (Reg. Group 8C) was a member of group
8x/Ma2 (in Scheme 8x Maths) as of 24/05/2006 (the Effective Date
Range start date).
The background colour of the cell indicates whether or not the group
membership is valid for the whole of the Effective Date Range. If a student is
a member of one group only for the whole of the Effective Date Range, the cell
background colour is white. If a student has more than one group
membership of a group of a Scheme over the Effective Date Range (e.g. at the
beginning of the year Claire Jones was assigned membership of 8x/Ma1, but
was later changed to 8x/Ma2), or if part way through the Effective Date
Range they either stopped attending a class or left the school, the cell
background colour is yellow.

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If the membership is uniform, then the user can change it by maintaining this
uniformity over the EDR. The user can always launch the Historical
Curriculum Membership Details dialog, by double-clicking on the cell, for
the selected Scheme/student combination.
The functionality provided in this area of SIMS is of particular use during the
Summer term, as this is when most schools start the process of putting
students into classes for the following Academic Year. Use of the Whole
Curriculum Membership page shortens the time taken for this process as it
enables large groups of students to be assigned to a curriculum.
More Information:
Viewing and Editing a Student’s Whole Curriculum on page 67

Viewing and Editing a Student’s Whole Curriculum

The Schemes and students displayed in the Whole Curriculum Membership
grid are determined by the selection of a key group of students, usually those
in a particular band or sub-band, but it is also possible to select students in a
particular year or group.
Those students who had a membership of the selected band, year or group for
at least part of the current Academic Year are displayed in the rows of the grid.
The Schemes for which the band, year or group acts as a source group at some
point during the current Academic Year are displayed in the columns of the
grid. For example, if you select Band 9a as the group, the grid displays a list of
all students in Year 9a and displays a column for each block that served Band
9a.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Any changes made on the Whole Curriculum

Membership page are dynamically propagated. This means that any
changes are immediately visible in other areas of Academic Management,
regardless of whether or not the data has been saved.

Selecting a Key Group of Students

1. Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Whole Curriculum
Assignment to display the Find Curriculum Group browser.

2. Enter search parameters and click the Search button or press Enter without
entering any search parameters to display all of the key groups in the
curriculum plan.

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NOTE: The Type defaults to display Band in the browser. If you wish to
select another type of group, select it from the drop-down list.

Alternatively, it might be easier to locate the required key group by filtering

the list to display a shorter list of results. Limit the list by selecting search
criteria such as Year Taught In and Type from the drop-down list, or by
entering the first few letters of a specific key group Name. Click the Search
button or press Enter to display the filtered list.
In the previous graphic, the Type filter has been used to display only Bands.
The Scheme used to populate the columns of the Whole Curriculum
Membership grid and the number of Descendant Schemes (the number of
columns in the grid) are also displayed.
3. Highlight the required key group and click the Open button or double-click the
required key group to display the Select Effective Date Range dialog.
More Information:
Academic Structures in Academic Management on page 11

Selecting an Effective Date Range

An Effective Date Range (EDR) is the date range over which the group
membership assignments made in this session are valid. It is important to
select the correct Effective Date Range, as it determines the precise duration
of a student’s group membership. If an inaccurate date range is selected, a
student might end up in the wrong group.
Setting the Effective Date Range is an important process in Academic
Management and it must be selected before working in any of its functional
areas.
Once a group has been selected from the Find Curriculum Group browser,
the Select Effective Date Range dialog is displayed.

Two radio buttons are available, these enable the selection of the date range
you want to apply to the changes to be made to the selected group.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: Please take extreme care when selecting the date
range, to ensure that the data you are editing relates to the required period
of time. Editing class membership details for an incorrect period of time can
lead to the corruption of your curriculum data.

Select the Named Date Range radio button to select a pre-defined date
range. This might be a complete academic year (e.g. 01/09/2004 to
31/08/2005), a working academic year (e.g. 01/09/2004 to 22/07/2005,
the time that students actually spend at school) or specific terms (e.g.
Spring term 2004-2005).

NOTE: It is possible to add more Named Date Ranges to those displayed

in this dialog, by selecting Tools | Setups | Curriculum Setup |
Curriculum.

Select the Custom Date Range radio button and enter the required start
and end date. Select this radio button if a change that you want to record
does not start until next week, for example. Select the From and To dates
by clicking the appropriate Calendar button and selecting a date from the
Calendar.
Two check boxes are provided at the bottom of the dialog, which allow the
further refinement of the Effective Date Range.
Select the Restrict date range from today to end check box if you
want to restrict the Effective Date Range to run from today’s date to the
end of a Named Date Range. This option is available only if a Named
Date Range is selected and if today’s date lies within the date range
selected.
Select the Don’t ask me again (this session or until manually
changed) check box if you do not need to select the date range each time
a Scheme is selected from the browser in this session.
If this check box is selected, the Select Effective Date Range dialog can still
be displayed when required, by clicking the Effective Date Range Calendar
button on the Whole Curriculum Membership page. It will be displayed
again, if you change the Effective Date Range.

NOTE: The option selected is valid for this session only. The next time you log
into SIMS and select a Scheme from the browser, the Select Effective Date
Range dialog is displayed again.

Once the required date range and check boxes have been selected, click the
OK button to display the selected group on the Whole Curriculum
Membership page.
Once this page is displayed, the browser is hidden automatically. It can be
displayed again if required, by clicking the Browse button on the Application
Bar.

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Configuring the Whole Curriculum Membership Grid

The view of the Whole Curriculum Membership grid can be modified in
order to provide a more appropriate display of information. This page provides
similar functionality to the Tick Grid (the Memberships of Groups of a
Scheme page). For more information on the standard functions available,
please refer to the following sections.

NOTE: When reading these instructions for use with the Whole Curriculum
Membership grid, please remember to replace the phrase Tick Grid with
Whole Curriculum Membership page and ignore any references to the
Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page.

Choosing a Selectable Field for Display

Choose a selectable field for display (please see Choosing a Selectable Field for
Display on page 18).
On the Whole Curriculum Membership page, the Year Group,
Registration Group, House, Admission Number, Export ID and Date of
birth fields can be displayed on the grid.

Sorting the Student List

Sort the student list, if required (please see Sorting the Student List on page
24).

Changing the Width of the Group Columns

Change the width of the columns, if required (please see Changing the Width
of the Group Columns on page 24).

Changing the Display Order of the Group Columns

Change the display order of the group columns, if required (please see
Changing the Width of the Group Columns on page 24).

Interpreting Group Sizes

This functionality is described in Chapter 3 (please see Interpreting Group
Sizes on page 26).

Viewing the Academic Year

SIMS can store data relating to multiple Academic Years. You can switch
between Academic Years by selecting Tools | Academic Management | Set
Academic Year. This choice is remembered by the system on a per-user
basis, so other users can work in different Academic Years if required.
The Academic Year field displays the Academic Year in which you are
currently working. This is particularly useful if you regularly switch between
Academic Years as it serves as a reminder of the current setting.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When working in Academic Management, it is

imperative that you work in the correct Academic Year.

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Exporting the Whole Curriculum Membership Grid to a Spreadsheet

Application
The Whole Curriculum Membership page displays a complete view of each
student’s curriculum. You might find it useful to export this page to a
spreadsheet application and include the output as part of a report.
When viewing the output in your spreadsheet application, you can use the
standard formatting tools to change the look and feel of the file before printing
or including it as part of a report.
1. Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Whole Curriculum
Assignment to display the Find Curriculum Group browser.
2. Enter search criteria to help you locate the group of students you wish to
export to your spreadsheet application and click the Search button.
3. Highlight the required group and click the Open button.
4. Edit and save any group memberships as required.
5. Click the Action button and select Copy to Clipboard from the pop-up menu.
6. Open an empty worksheet in your spreadsheet application and paste in the
contents of the clipboard. For example in Microsoft Excel, select Edit | Paste.
When the content of the clipboard is pasted into your spreadsheet, you might
need to alter the layout so that the content is easier to read. The most useful
methods of altering the display using Microsoft Excel are outlined in the
following section.

Altering the Display of the Whole Curriculum Membership Information

in Microsoft Excel
Widening and Narrowing Columns
When you paste the content of the clipboard into your spreadsheet
application, some of the content might be hidden from view because the
columns are not wide enough. To ensure that each column is expanded
sufficiently to view all the data:
1. Click the Select All button at the top left-hand side of the worksheet.
2. In the column header, double-click between the first two cells. For example,
double-click between columns A and B to widen or narrow all columns to fit the
longest piece of data in each column.
Alternatively, columns can be widened or narrowed on an individual basis:
3. Click in any cell of the worksheet to ensure that the whole worksheet is not
selected.
4. In the column header, double-click to the right of the column you wish to
widen or narrow. For example, to widen column A, double-clicked between
columns A and B.

Formatting the Header Row

To make the header row of the spreadsheet more prominent, you can format
the text using the standard text formatting tools.
1. Click the row header for the row whose text you wish to format. For example,
if the header row is on row 1, highlight row 1.

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2. Apply any formatting to the highlighted text. For example, you might want to
embolden the text by pressing Ctrl & B, or centre the text across the column
by clicking the Center button.

NOTE: The text for the remainder of the worksheet can be modified in the
same way by highlighting the required cell(s) and pressing Ctrl & B to
embolden the text or centred across the column by clicking the Center
button.

Sorting the Contents of the Worksheet by Column

Another useful tool when altering the display of data in a spreadsheet is the
Sort functionality. For example, if you wish to use the output as part of a
report to department heads, you might want to sort the output in alphabetical
order, by registration group, etc.
1. Click the Select All button at the top left-hand side of the worksheet.
2. Select Data | Sort to display the Sort dialog.
3. Select the column by which you wish to sort the worksheet from the Sort by
drop-down list. To sort by more than one column, select one or more columns
from the Then by drop-down lists.
4. The columns can be sorted in Ascending or Descending order by selecting
the appropriate radio button.
5. Click the OK button to sort the data according to the options selected.
When you have finished editing the display of the data, select File | Save As
to display the Save As dialog. Select the location to which you wish to save the
file, enter a file name and click the Save button.

Understanding the Information in the Whole Curriculum

Membership Grid
The Whole Curriculum Membership grid displays group memberships for
all the students belonging to a chosen source group. If a band is chosen as the
source group, the grid displays:
a column for each block scheme sourced by band

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a row for every student belonging to a band.

The grid shows the groups to which the students have been assigned. In
effect, it shows each student’s curriculum, other than membership of classes
belonging to cluster schemes, and any timetable exceptions and clash
resolutions that have been set up.
The main purpose of the Whole Curriculum Membership grid is to enter or
edit student class memberships for a chosen date range. It is useful to have
knowledge of memberships of other students when making decisions about
which groups to choose for a particular student.
An obvious example concerns schools with sixth forms. During the first few
days of the autumn term, students may inquire about the availability of a
particular course. A student might ask if it would be possible to study Physics,
Maths and Geography when the only available Maths group is already fully
subscribed:

Option A Option B Option C Option D

Maths Maths Geography History

English English Art French

Physics Chemistry Chemistry Chemistry

Although the Maths group in Option B is full, the student could be accepted if
another student could be found who has already been allocated to English in
Option A and Maths in Option B. This is because these two allocations could be
reversed, which creates a space in the Option B Maths group. The Whole
Curriculum Membership grid makes it easy to spot such possibilities.

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Membership Grid Toolbar

The buttons on the Whole Curriculum Membership page enable you to
perform the required manipulations to edit class memberships.

Undoing and Redoing Recent Actions

Click the Undo button to undo any of the actions performed, one at a time,
since the data was last saved.
Click the Redo button to redo any of the actions that have been undone, one
at a time, since the data was last saved.

Details
The Details button opens the Historical Curriculum Membership Details
dialog. This dialog allows you to edit the membership dates for the selected
student for the selected group. It also allows you to re-assign a student to
another of the classes in the selected group and to assign them to a class ‘as
of’ a particular date, either historically or in the future (if you know in advance
of a requirement to change their class).

Scheme
It is possible to display the Tick Grid on the Groups of Memberships of a
Scheme page for the highlighted student by clicking the Scheme button.

Student
As well as viewing a student’s group membership in the Whole Curriculum
Membership grid, it is possible to view all of their scheme memberships
across all of the groups with which they are associated. This would be
particularly useful if you want to see a top level view of a student’s Scheme
memberships.
Highlight a student in the Whole Curriculum Membership grid, click the
Student button and select the Effective Date Range to display the Student
Curriculum Summary page.

Allocate
It is possible to assign to schemes those students associated with the selected
group. Any assignments previously made and saved to the database are not
affected or changed as a result of this process being run.
To automatically allocate students to schemes in this way, click the Allocate
button and select Automatic Random Allocation from the pop-up menu
(please see Randomly Allocating Students to Classes on page 35).

Narrow
Clicking the Narrow button changes the orientation of the group column
headings, so that the group names are displayed vertically, allowing the width
of the columns to be reduced. Clicking the Narrow button again restores the
column width to its original format.

Relax
The read-only status of cells in the Whole Curriculum Membership grid can
sometimes be switched off by clicking the Relax button, so that editing is
enabled. However, the Relax button can always be used to enable editing in
the Historical Curriculum Membership Details dialog.

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Action
Clicking the Action button allows you to perform one of a number of actions
relating to the currently selected/tagged student(s). Many of the functions
available here can also be performed in other ways in Academic Management.
The Action button provides access to many commonly used functions from a
single place (please see Using the Action Button to Perform Tasks in the Tick
Grid on page 44).

Viewing the Maximum Size of a Group over the Effective Date Range
In Interpreting Group Sizes, you can find information on how to view current
group sizes (i.e. as of today’s date).
It is also possible to view the maximum number of students assigned to a
group across the selected Effective Date Range. For example, the total
number of students assigned to class 9x/Ma2 today is 25. However, later in
the term (but during the same Effective Date Range), two new students are
scheduled to join the class, which means that at some point during the
Effective Date Range, 27 students are assigned to class 9x/Ma2. This new
figure is displayed (in brackets) when you right-click a group assignment on
the Whole Curriculum Membership page. Group sizes for other groups in
the same Scheme are also displayed in the right-click menu.

Right-click a group assignment and select Show Group Sizes from the
pop-up menu to display the maximum group size over the selected Effective
Date Range in the right-click menu.
This functionality is particularly useful in determining a group’s spare capacity
over the course of an Effective Date Range, and it also informs the student
allocation process in your school of whether or not it is viable to add more
students to a specific group over the Effective Date Range.

NOTE: Selecting Show Group Sizes from the right-click menu also displays
the maximum group size over the selected Effective Date Range in each of
the column headers of a Tick Grid, in the row headers of the Historical
Curriculum Membership Details dialog, and in the right-click menu on the
Student Curriculum Summary page, for the current SIMS session only.

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76 Academic Management
 06| Managing Detailed Historical Information

06|Managing Detailed Historical

Information

Introduction .................................................................................. 77
Using the Historical Curriculum Membership Details Dialog ........... 77
Editing Group Memberships Using the Historical Curriculum
Membership Details Dialog ............................................................ 81

Introduction
This chapter describes the use of the Historical Curriculum Membership
Details dialog, which displays the full history of a student’s group
membership for a single, selected Scheme. It also allows changes to be made
to a student’s group membership history.
The dialog can be opened by double-clicking either a student’s name in the
Tick Grid on the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page or a timeline on
the Student Curriculum Summary page.

NOTE: When the Historical Curriculum Membership Details dialog is

open, it is not possible to continue editing in the main page.

Using the Historical Curriculum Membership Details

Dialog
In a similar way to the Student Curriculum Summary page, the Historical
Curriculum Membership Details dialog displays one or more timelines
beneath a calendar for the current academic year. Each timeline refers to one
of the destination groups of a Scheme.
Click the Zoom button to magnify the display, if required. Vertical green and
red lines mark the beginning and end of the Effective Date Range respectively.

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06| Managing Detailed Historical Information

Moving the mouse cursor along the timeline displays the cursor day and date
at which the mouse is pointing.

This dialog offers a convenient way of editing a student’s group membership,

although it is often possible to perform this in one of the main pages
(Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page or the Student Curriculum
Summary page), by changing the Effective Date Range and making the
changes.
However, there are several circumstances in which a student’s data in one of
the main pages becomes read-only. If this is the case, the Historical
Curriculum Membership Details dialog must be used to edit student’s
group membership.
The Effective Date Range displayed in this dialog is that displayed in the main
page, from which the Historical Curriculum Membership Details dialog
was opened. It is displayed for information only, and does not limit the editing
that can be done in this dialog. The date range displayed can be changed by
closing the dialog and selecting the required date.
A timeline bar indicates the period during which one or more students is a
member of a group. There will generally be a single timeline bar per group,
which spans from the beginning of the Autumn term to the end of the Summer
term, as demonstrated in the previous graphic. However, under certain
circumstances, i.e. when a student is transferred from one group to another
during the academic year, two or more timeline bars might be displayed, with
each timeline bar indicating the period of membership of group.
The Relax button and the Exclusive button govern the behaviour of the
Historical Curriculum Membership Details dialog.

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Viewing the Maximum Size of a Group over the Effective Date Range
In Interpreting Group Sizes, you can find information on how to view current
group sizes (i.e. as of today’s date).
It is also possible to view the maximum number of students assigned to a
group across the selected Effective Date Range. For example, the total
number of students assigned to class 9x/Ma2 today is 25. However, later in
the term (but during the same Effective Date Range), two new students are
scheduled to join the class, which means that at some point during the
Effective Date Range, 27 students are assigned to class 9x/Ma2. This new
figure is displayed (in brackets) on each row header in the Historical
Curriculum Membership Details dialog, which can be opened by
double-clicking a group assignment in the Tick Grid, the Student Curriculum
Summary page or the Whole Curriculum Membership page. Group sizes
for other groups in the same Scheme are also displayed in the dialog.

Group sizes are displayed only if the screen from which the Historical
Curriculum Membership Details dialog was opened has requested this
information to be displayed (e.g. you have clicked the Max Sizes button on a
Tick Grid, or you have selected Show Group Sizes from the right-click menu
on the Student Curriculum Summary or the Whole Curriculum
Membership page.
This functionality is particularly useful in determining a group’s spare capacity
over the course of an Effective Date Range, and it also informs the student
allocation process in your school of whether or not it is viable to add more
students to a specific group over the Effective Date Range.

Relaxing the Eligibility Rules of a Group

Click the Relax button to relax the eligibility rules so that students can be
allocated to groups for which they are ineligible.
When the Historical Curriculum Membership Details dialog is opened,
Relaxed Mode defaults to the status set on either the Memberships of
Groups of a Scheme page or the Student Curriculum Summary page.

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Clicking the Relax button relaxes the student eligibility rules for the current
Scheme. This is achieved by removing the read-only status of the ineligible
students who form part of the Tick Grid, and allows them to be allocated to the
groups associated with the Scheme in the same way as eligible students.
This button is also available on the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme
page and the Student Curriculum Summary page. On the Memberships
of Groups of a Scheme page, clicking this button relaxes the eligibility rules,
allowing ineligible students to be assigned to a group. Clicking this button
changes the background for an affected cell from yellow (read-only) to white
(read/write).
Once you have finished working in Relaxed Mode, click the Relax button again
to restore the read-only status of the added students.

Using the Exclusive Button

Click the Exclusive button (so the button is ‘selected’) to prevent students
from being allocated to more than one group within a Scheme. Click this
button again (so the button is ‘deselected’) to allow student group assignment
to two groups simultaneously, within a single Scheme. This button is ‘selected’
by default on opening a Scheme.
Exclusive Mode is set by default on opening the Historical Curriculum
Membership Details dialog. Only in rare circumstances is Exclusive Mode
disabled. You might want to disable Exclusive Mode if for example, in the 6th
form, a student wants to study two subjects that clash on the timetable, e.g.
A Level French and A Level Spanish. This student might have a private
arrangement with the school that one week, they would attend the French
class, and the following week they would attend the Spanish class. This allows
for parallel memberships of groups. If Exclusive Mode is enabled, this type of
overlapping memberships would not be allowed.

Viewing the Academic Year

SIMS can store data relating to multiple Academic Years. You can switch
between Academic Years by selecting Tools | Academic Management | Set
Academic Year. This choice is remembered by the system on a per-user
basis, so other users can work in different Academic Years if required.
The Academic Year field displays the Academic Year in which you are
currently working. This is particularly useful if you regularly switch between
Academic Years as it serves as a reminder of the current setting.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When working in Academic Management, it is

imperative that you work in the correct Academic Year.

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Editing Group Memberships Using the Historical

Curriculum Membership Details Dialog
Using the Historical Curriculum Membership Details dialog, the period of
a student’s group membership can be either extended or shortened by clicking
the required timeline bar, dragging the bar to the required date range and
releasing the mouse button.
There are, however, limits to how far the timeline bar can be clicked and
dragged. For example, a timeline bar cannot be extended beyond the date at
which the group terminates or the date at which a student becomes a leaver.
Unless Relaxed Mode is enabled, it is not possible to extend the timeline bar
beyond the date at which a student ceases to be a member of a source group
of the Scheme.
Assuming that Exclusive Mode is active, another method of modifying a
student’s period of group membership is by clicking and dragging another
timeline bar, to grant that student membership of another of the Scheme’s
destination groups. If it does not already exist, a new timeline bar will be
created and a gap will be displayed at either end of the existing timeline bar,
or in the middle of the existing one. This process assigns membership for that
student to the new group and removes them from the old group, for the
specified amount of time as it is not possible to be a member of two groups at
once whilst Exclusive Mode is active. To facilitate this process, click the Zoom
button to achieve a greater control over the selection of dates.
Any gap in student group membership can be filled using the same method.

NOTE: If there is any period during which a student is not a member of one
of the destination groups, the warning symbol o is displayed alongside the
student’s name in the Tick Grid on the Memberships of Groups of a
Scheme page.

In each of these click and drag operations, the Zoom button can be clicked to
allow for a more precise selection of dates. This zooms into the timeline
making it easier to select the required dates. Another method of selecting
precise dates is explained in Setting a Precise Date Range for Group
Membership.

Deleting a Membership Record Without Adding a Replacement

Click an existing timeline bar to select a group membership record. Its name is
displayed in the Selected Class field and its associated date range is
displayed in the Selected Membership field.
Once selected, the timeline bar is displayed with a dark border. Click the
Delete button to delete the membership record.
This process should be performed with caution, as removing membership
records without adding a replacement could lead to incomplete and corrupt
historical data.

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Setting a Precise Date Range for Group Membership

It might not always be desirable to use the mouse to click and drag to either
create or modify bars on the destination group timelines. Instead, you can
double-click a group membership bar to edit the dates, or on an empty area of
a group timeline to display the Add/Edit Membership dialog and create a
new membership record.
Alternatively, click the required timeline bar and click the Open button to edit
an existing group membership, or click an empty area of a group timeline and
click the New button to add a new group membership date range.
Either enter the appropriate Start Date and End Date or click the appropriate
Calendar button and select the date from the calendar. Click the OK button to
confirm the dates.

Relaxed Mode
Activating Relaxed Mode relaxes the eligibility rules for group membership
and enables any student group memberships to be edited. This allows for
students to be assigned membership of a group in an ineligible period within
the Effective Date Range.
By activating Relaxed Mode, it is possible to extend a student’s membership of
a group to a period when they are not eligible. This period is indicated by a
light grey background on a timeline.

Exclusive Mode
By default, Exclusive Mode is activated. To turn this mode off, click the
Exclusive button.
Switching Exclusive Mode off enables a second membership record for a
student to be created in the same Scheme which overlaps the original record
in time, without the timeline bar for the original group membership record
being trimmed automatically.
Care should be taken however when switching off Exclusive Mode, as it almost
always introduce clashes on a student’s timetable. This might be the intended
outcome though, if you want a student to have the option of which class they
attend on a given timetable period. To re-instate Exclusive Mode after making
these changes, click the Exclusive button again.
Simultaneous membership of two destination groups in the same Scheme is
indicated on the Tick Grid on the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme
page by the ! symbol next to a student’s name. On the Student Curriculum
Summary page, this is indicated by a dark grey area in the Scheme’s timeline
bar. The clashes at particular periods are displayed on the student’s timetable.
The timetable clashes can be resolved in the usual way (please see Viewing a
Student’s Timetable on page 58).

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 07| Editing the Resources of a Lesson

07|Editing the Resources of a Lesson

Introduction .................................................................................. 83
Selecting a Lesson ......................................................................... 85
Viewing Lesson Resources ............................................................. 86
Adding a Member of Staff as a Lesson Resource
(Resource is ‘Free’) ....................................................................... 87
Adding a Room as a Lesson Resource (Resource is ‘Free’)............. 91
Removing a Resource from a Lesson ............................................. 96
Rotating Staff and Room Resources of a Lesson ............................ 97

Introduction
Simple timetable edits can be made in SIMS. Edit Lesson Staff and Rooms
should be used when a single teacher and/or room need to be changed for a
particular period. Rotate Timetabled Staff/Rooms enables some or all of the
teachers and/or rooms in a block to be rotated at all periods relevant to the
block.
Before looking in detail at the two routines, the following section clarifies the
term ‘carousel’ because two types of rotation or carousel are in operation in
many schools.
Firstly, take a Year 9 Technology block in which the classes are named
9x/Dt1, 9x/Ft1, 9x/Tx1 and 9x/Rm1. It is the intention that, throughout
the year, all students should study each of the four subjects, changing every 9
weeks or so. In this instance, the same teacher is likely to continue to teach
the same subject all year, but the students move from class to class, in order
to gain experience in each subject. In this type of carousel, it is the students
who are moving group, not the teachers. This being the case, the rotation has
nothing to do with the timetable, and no work is required in terms of timetable
editing. The rotation should be carried out (please see Rotating Students
Between Groups/Classes on page 36) using the Student Carousel Rotation
Wizard.
Secondly, take the example of a Year 9 Science block in which the classes are
called 9x/Sc1 to 9x/Sc4. The intention is that, by the end of the year, each
group of students should have been taught by all four teachers. In this case, it
is not the students who are changing group, but the teachers (along with their
rooms). Whilst it is still possible to carry out this arrangement as described in
the previous example, it means that students starting in Set 1 might move to
Set 4, and then 2 and finally Set 3. Most schools would not be in favour of a
rotation in which the students move sets. This being the case, what is needed
is an edit to the timetable. No change should be made to student assignments
but, from time to time, the timetable is edited so that the teachers are placed
on a different class. This second type of rotation has, in the past, only been
possible in either Nova-T4 or Nova-T6 and required a subsequent send of the
curriculum and timetable to SQL.

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One of the consequences of the Workforce Reform Agreement has been the
increased use of administrative staff in undertaking tasks previously carried
out by teachers and managers. It is now relatively common for administrative
staff to be asked to perform these rotations. Let us assume that, as of today,
a change has been made to the timetable in SIMS using the new rotation
functionality. Even in this simple scenario, you should be aware that:
1. In SIMS, the timetable is correct but the curriculum plan is unchanged. This
means that the main class teacher, who is displayed in brackets when viewing
the Tick Grid of a scheme, is not changed. This discrepancy between the
timetable and the ‘plan’ does not crash the system, but is likely to cause some
confusion. Using the bracketed teacher as a pointer to ‘whose set is it’ is
flawed. It is not uncommon for students to be placed in classes based on ‘who
is the teacher’, rather than ‘what is the class name’. There is currently no
mechanism within SIMS for updating the main class teacher. It has to come via
an export from (according to circumstances) Nova-T4 or Nova-T6.
2. It is possible in Nova-T4 to perform a Load Curriculum and Timetable from
SQL in order to update the schedule (timetable) in Nova-T4 with the changed
situation. Furthermore, in Nova-T4 it is possible to select Plan | Update
Teachers on Plan to correct the teacher in the plan, although this only fully
works where the class has no linearity (same teacher and subject at all
periods). Assuming that Nova-T4 is being used as the ‘maintenance engine’,
and assuming that the curriculum plan is now in line with the timetable,
subsequent use of Send the Curriculum and Timetable to SQL corrects the
bracketed teacher in SIMS.

IMPORTANT NOTES: If other timetable edits had been carried out in SIMS,
and which had a future implementation date, these edits would be lost by the
send from Nova-T4. Those using Nova-T6 as the ‘maintenance engine’ must
never carry out a send from Nova-T4 to SQL.

3. After performing a simple change in SIMS, those using Nova-T6 as the

‘maintenance engine’ will encounter a different issue. SIMS carries a different
timetable from the one held in Nova-T6. There is no automatic mechanism for
correcting this discrepancy. If Nova-T6 is subsequently used to make other
(possibly more substantial) changes, and the Curriculum and Timetable is
exported to SQL, those changes carried out in SIMS will be lost, overwritten by
the timetable in Nova-T6. There is a mechanism within Nova-T6 that can be
used to prevent SIMS from being overwritten – the use of a maintenance
dataset. In the circumstance being described, if a maintenance dataset was
created in Nova-T6, the part of the curriculum and timetable affected by the
change in SIMS carries a temporal lock because Nova-T6 and SIMS cannot
correspond at that period. Whilst it is true to say that other changes could be
made in Nova-T6, and subsequent export would not overwrite SIMS, it
remains a fact that there is no way (with temporal locks in place) to correct
Nova-T6 in order to bring it in line with SIMS. Therefore, the number of
temporal locks increases over time as further changes are made to SIMS. If
the temporal locks are released, then Nova-T6 could be amended manually to
bring it in line with SIMS.

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Selecting a Lesson
1. Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Edit Lesson Staff and
Rooms to display the Find Lesson browser.

2. Press Enter without entering any search parameters to display all of the
lessons in the curriculum plan.
Alternatively, limit the list by selecting search criteria such as the NC Year
from the drop-down list, or by entering the first few letters of a specific
lesson’s Class code, Subject, Staff Code or Room. Click the Search button
or press Enter to display the filtered list.
In the previous graphic, the NC Year filter has been used to display only
French lessons (fr in the Subject search field) taught in Curriculum Year 11.
The Class code, Period at which the lesson is taught, the main class teacher
(Staff), Rooms for the lesson and Validity Ranges are also displayed.
Validity ranges refer to the start and end dates of individual classes. These
dates are usually the same as the start and end dates of the Academic Year,
except where a class is created later, or finishes earlier than the Academic Year
dates.
3. Highlight the required lesson and click the Open button or double-click the
required lesson to display the Select Effective Date Range dialog.

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4. Select either the Named Date Range radio button or the Custom Date
Range radio button. Highlight an appropriate Named Date Range or enter
an appropriate Custom Date Range in the From and To fields.
5. Click the OK button to display the Lesson Details page.
More Information:
Selecting Dates from the Calendar on page 153
Selecting an Effective Date Range on page 17

Viewing Lesson Resources

Once an Effective Date Range has been selected, over which any changes
made to lesson resources is effective, the Lesson Details page is displayed.

This page is used to edit the resources – the member(s) of staff and the
room(s) – associated with the lesson.
The Class name and Period of the selected lesson are displayed at the top of
the page.
The Resource Usage panel displays all of the resources that are associated
with the lesson over the course of the Effective Date Range and consists of a
list of resources displayed in the rows of the page and a timeline across the top
of the page. Existing resource allocations for the selected lesson are displayed
as an orange bar, running across the page. The length and the location of the
bar should be used in conjunction with the timeline at the top of the page to
determine the period of resource allocation for the selected lesson.

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NOTE: Unlike the timelines on the Student Curriculum Summary page

and in the Historical Curriculum Membership Details dialog, it is not
possible to edit the duration of a lesson resource by double-clicking a
timeline bar on the Lesson Details page. Any change to the duration of a
resource allocation to a class is controlled using the Select Effective Date
Range dialog, which can be opened from the Lesson Details page by
clicking the Field Browser button adjacent to the Effective Date Range
field.

Additional resources can be added if required, to ensure the lesson has a full
set of resources for the whole academic year.

Adding a Member of Staff as a Lesson Resource

(Resource is ‘Free’)
A member of staff can be added as a lesson resource. This is particularly useful
for a French class, for example, where a language assistant assists in the
classroom.
1. Select the required lesson (please see Selecting a Lesson on page 85).
2. Click the Add Staff button to display the Select staff for Class dialog.

The Title Bar of the Select staff for Class dialog displays the class code and
the period for the selected class, together with the validity range.
The dialog initially displays members of staff who are ‘free’ of timetable
commitments for the selected period, but this can be changed to display all
members of staff by deselecting the Free check box. If you deselect the Free
check box, click the Search button to refresh the display.
Over-riding current resource assignments is particularly useful if you want to
switch lesson resources for a short period of time.

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NOTE: It should not be used to provide temporary cover for a teacher, but
could be used to schedule a long-term replacement.

This functionality removes the member of staff from their current assignment
for that lesson and re-assigns them to the selected lesson.
3. Limit the list by selecting search criteria such as the staff member Role from
the drop-down list, or by entering part or all of the required Staff Code, staff
Surname or Subject Code.
The subject code can be used as a filter only if subject specialisms have been
set up in Focus | Person | Manage Classroom Staff.
4. Click the Search button or press Enter to display the filtered list of members
of staff.

In the previous graphic, only teachers whose list of specialist subjects includes
French (fr in the Subject field) and who are free at the selected period, are
displayed.
Their staff Code and Staff name are displayed as well as their subject
specialisms (Subject(s)) and their Role. Information relating to their
timetable assignments for the Previous period, This period and Next
period are also displayed.

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5. Highlight the member of staff you wish to add to the selected lesson and click
the OK button to return to the Lesson Details page.

The newly added member of staff is displayed in the list of lesson resources for
the selected lesson.

NOTE: Unlike the timelines on the Student Curriculum Summary page

and in the Historical Curriculum Membership Details dialog, it is not
possible to edit the duration of a lesson resource by double-clicking a
timeline bar on the Lesson Details page. Any change to the duration of a
resource allocation to a class is controlled using the Select Effective Date
Range dialog, which can be opened from the Lesson Details page by
clicking the Field Browser button adjacent to the Effective Date Range
field.

6. Click the Save button to save the changes to lesson resourcing.

More Information:
Adding a Member of Staff as a Lesson Resource (Resource is Already Booked for the
Selected Lesson) on page 89
Understanding Subject Specialisms on page 147

Adding a Member of Staff as a Lesson Resource (Resource is Already

Booked for the Selected Lesson)
It is possible to assign a member of staff to a lesson, even if they are currently
assigned to another, unrelated lesson at the same period.
This process is generally used to remove a member of staff from their regular
lesson and re-assign them to the selected lesson. Other options include a
‘swap’ with another member of staff, or to allow a member of staff to ‘double
up’ (they are assigned to both lessons, i.e. if a member of staff is unable to
take a gym lesson, another member of staff might take their own lesson and
the additional one).
1. Click the Add Staff button to display the Select staff for Class dialog.

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2. Deselect the Free check box and enter search parameters to limit the list.
Alternatively, leave the search parameters blank to display all members of
staff.
3. Click the Search button or press Enter to display the filtered list of members
of staff, including those who are currently assigned to a lesson for the selected
period.

In the previous graphic, only teachers whose list of specialist subjects includes
French (fr in the Subject field) are displayed. Teachers who are free at this
period, as well as those who currently have an assignment for the selected
period, are displayed.
Members of staff who are not currently free can be identified by there being an
entry in the This period column. In the previous graphic, Anita Abell is
currently scheduled to take class 7A/Sc for the selected period.
4. Highlight the member of staff you wish to add to the selected lesson and click
the OK button.

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If the selected member of staff is currently assigned to another lesson at the

selected period, the Lesson Resource Conflict dialog is displayed.

The potential clash details (if the assignment goes ahead) are displayed,
together with three ways of handling the conflict:
Remove – removes the member of staff from their existing lesson and
assigns them as a resource for the selected lesson.
Keep – the selected member of staff retains the assignment to their
existing lesson and is also assigned to the selected lesson.
Swap – swaps the staff resources for the two affected lessons, i.e. Anita
Abell is moved to the selected lesson, and Milan Konchalski is moved to
cover Anita Abell’s existing lesson assignment. If more than one member
of staff is already assigned to the selected lesson, highlight the member of
staff you want to swap.
5. Select the appropriate radio button and click the OK button to return to the
Lesson Details page.
The newly added member of staff is displayed in the list of lesson resources for
the selected lesson.
6. Click the Save button to save the changes to lesson resourcing.

Adding a Room as a Lesson Resource (Resource is ‘Free’)

A room can be added as a lesson resource. This is particularly useful for a
French class, for example, where a language assistant wants to work with a
group of students in a separate room. It could also be useful where students in
a Science class need to spend half of the period in the Science Lab and the
other half in the classroom.

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1. Click the Add Room button to display the Select room for Class dialog.

The Title Bar of the Select room for Class dialog displays the class code and
the period for the selected class, together with the validity range.
The dialog initially displays rooms that are ‘free’ of timetable commitments for
the selected period, but this can be changed to display all rooms by deselecting
the Free check box. If you deselect the Free check box, click the Search
button to refresh the display.
Over-riding current resource assignments would be particularly useful if the
regular room for a lesson is required for an examination. This functionality
removes the room from its current assignment for that lesson and re-assigns
it to the selected lesson.
2. Limit the list by entering all or part of the Room code or Description.

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3. Click the Search button or press Enter to display the filtered list of rooms.

In the previous graphic, only rooms whose code starts with L (language
rooms) are displayed.
The Room name, Description, Capacity and Area (size) are displayed.

NOTE: Room information can be edited by selecting Focus | School |

Rooms.

Information relating to the room’s timetable assignments for the Previous

period, This period and Next period are also displayed.
4. Highlight the room you wish to add to the selected lesson and click the OK
button to return to the Lesson Details page.

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The newly added room is displayed in the list of lesson resources for the
selected lesson.

NOTE: Unlike the timelines on the Student Curriculum Summary page

and in the Historical Curriculum Membership Details dialog, it is not
possible to edit the duration of a lesson resource by double-clicking a
timeline bar on the Lesson Details page. Any change to the duration of a
resource allocation to a class is controlled using the Select Effective Date
Range dialog, which can be opened from the Lesson Details page by
clicking the Field Browser button adjacent to the Effective Date Range
field.

5. Click the Save button to save the changes to lesson resourcing.

More Information:
Adding a Room as a Lesson Resource (Resource is Already Booked for the Selected
Lesson) on page 94

Adding a Room as a Lesson Resource (Resource is Already Booked for

the Selected Lesson)
It is possible to assign a room to a lesson, even if it is currently assigned to
another, unrelated lesson at the same period.
This process is generally used to remove the room assignment from its regular
lesson and re-assign it to the selected lesson. Other options include a ‘swap’
with another room, or to allow two rooms to be available for the selected
lesson. This is useful if an activity in the school requires the use of the School
Hall at the same period that a PE class is scheduled to take place. This
functionality could be used to move the PE class to another location.
1. Click the Add Room button to display the Select room for Class dialog.
2. Deselect the Free check box and enter search parameters to limit the list.
Alternatively, leave the search parameters blank to display all rooms.

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3. Click the Search button or press Enter to display the filtered list of rooms,
including rooms that are currently assigned to a lesson for the selected period.

In the previous graphic, only rooms in the Languages department are

displayed. Rooms that are free at this period, as well as those that currently
have an assignment for the selected period, are displayed.
Rooms that are not currently free can be identified by there being an entry in
the This period column. In the previous graphic, room L7 is currently
scheduled to host class 13C/Fr1 for the selected period.
4. Highlight the room you wish to add to the selected lesson and click the OK
button.
If the selected room is currently assigned to another lesson at the selected
period, the Lesson Resource Conflict dialog will be displayed.

The potential clash details (if the assignment goes ahead) are displayed,
together with three ways of handling the conflict:

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Remove – removes the room from its existing lesson and assigns it as a
resource for the selected lesson.
Keep – the selected room retains the assignment to their existing lesson
and is also assigned to the selected lesson.
Swap – swaps the room resources for the two affected lessons, i.e. room
L7 is moved to the selected lesson (11A/Fr1), and room L3 is moved to
13C/Fr1. If more than one room is already assigned to the selected lesson,
highlight the room you want to swap.
5. Select the appropriate radio button and click the OK button to return to the
Lesson Details page.
The newly added room is displayed in the list of lesson resources for the
selected lesson.
6. Click the Save button to save the changes to lesson resourcing.

Removing a Resource from a Lesson

If a resource is no longer required for a lesson, or if the resource was added in
error, it can be removed.
1. Select the required lesson (please see Selecting a Lesson on page 85).

2. Click the Remove button.

3. Click the Save button to save the changes to lesson resourcing.

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Rotating Staff and Room Resources of a Lesson

It is now possible to rotate staff and room resources of lessons of selected
classes of a Block scheme, for an Effective Date Range. The classes retain their
students, but their timetabled staff and room resources at each scheduled
period rotate.

NOTE: Classes in a linear group will not be offered for rotation.

1. Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Rotate Timetabled

Staff/Rooms to display the Rotate Timetabled Staff and Rooms dialog.
2. Click the Effective Date Range Field Browser button to display the Select
Effective Date Range dialog (please see Selecting an Effective Date Range
on page 68).
3. To select the block you wish to rotate, click the Selected Block Field Browser
button to display the Select Curriculum Scheme dialog (please see
Selecting a Curriculum Scheme on page 16).

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4. Click the OK button to return to the Rotate Timetabled Staff and Rooms
dialog, where the Selected Block is displayed.

The periods at which the classes associated with the selected block are
scheduled are displayed in the Classes panel.
Any classes associated with the selected block over the Effective Date Range
are displayed, together with the member(s) of staff and room(s) assigned to
the class.
5. Remove the resource(s) you do not wish to include in the rotation by
deselecting the appropriate check box(es) in the list.
A whole class can be removed from the rotation by deselecting its check box.
This is useful only if there are three (or more) classes in a block whose
resources you wish to rotate, but you want to edit the resources of only two (or
more) of the classes.
Individual members of staff or individual rooms can be excluded from the
rotation by deselecting the appropriate check box. All staff and All rooms
can also be excluded from the rotation.
6. Edit the order of the class rotation by highlighting the class you wish to move
and clicking the Up or Down button in the Move Class section.

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7. Rotate the staff of a lesson by selecting the check box of all of the members of
staff you wish to include in the rotation and clicking the Up or Down button in
the Rotate Staff/Rooms section. In the previous graphic, selecting the
check boxes for Dr J Lebon and Mrs A Zelinskova and clicking the Down
button swaps their class assignments so that Mrs Zelinskova is now assigned
to the German class and Dr Lebon is assigned to the French class.
This method can also be used to rotate rooms between lessons by selecting the
check box of the rooms you wish to rotate and clicking the Up or Down button
in the Rotate Staff/Rooms section.
The following graphic shows what would happen if only the rooms in the
previous example were rotated. The members of staff remain the same for the
lesson (so Dr Lebon continues to teach French and Mrs Zelinskova continues to
teach German), but Mrs Zelinskova’s German lesson will now be taught in
room L7 and Mr Lebon’s French class will now be taught in room L1.

8. Once the required rotation of staff and rooms has been carried out, click the
Apply button to save the changes. Alternatively, cancel any changes made by
clicking the Undo button.
9. Repeat steps 2-9, if required, to rotate the lesson resources in another block,
or to rotate these lesson resources again using a different Effective Date
Range. Alternatively, click the Close button.

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100 Academic Management

 08| Academic Promotion in SIMS

08|Academic Promotion in SIMS

Introduction .................................................................................101
Important Information Regarding Academic Promotion ...............102
Before Running Academic Promotion ............................................102
Advice on Running Academic Promotion .......................................103
Setting Up Academic Promotion Rules ..........................................103
Promoting Your Academic Structure .............................................113

Introduction
The purpose of the Academic Promotion functionality is to generate curriculum
memberships in the next academic year en masse, on the basis of equivalent
memberships of classes and other curriculum groups in the current academic
year. In Academic Management, this process is known as academic
promotion.
Rules used by Academic Promotion have in the past been set up in Nova-T4.
The Transfer Curriculum routine in Nova-T can be used by the timetabler to
begin work on the curriculum plan for the next academic year. This process is
run in order to save duplication of work in setting up new groups when they
are essentially the same as the old ones. If the timetabler indicates that
student group memberships for a particular Block in the current academic year
should be carried forward to the following academic year, this is recorded in
Nova-T as part of the new curriculum plan. For example, membership of this
year’s 10y/En1 should carry forward to 11y/En1 next year. For a two year
GCSE Maths class, the promotion process can ensure that the students
currently in class 10x/Ma1 will be in class 11x/Ma1 in the next academic
year (please see Setting Up Academic Promotion Rules on page 103).
When the new curriculum plan is exported from Nova-T into the next academic
year in SQL, a promotion path is created between groups in the current
academic year and groups in the next, as indicated by the timetabler when
using the Transfer Curriculum routine.
The Curriculum Manager can immediately start to manually assign student
group memberships.
Academic Promotion is also possible, between groups for which a promotion
path has been created. The promotion can be run any number of times.
This process is performed using a wizard, and automates a process that is
otherwise both time consuming and prone to error. It could, in theory, be
performed manually using the Tick Grid on the Memberships of Groups of a
Scheme page.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Academic Promotion process must be run for each
Scheme containing groups you wish to promote.

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Important Information Regarding Academic Promotion

Before using the Academic Promotion process, please be aware of a number of
important notes associated with this piece of functionality.
Academic promotion can take place only if the academic year into which
promotion is taking place has been defined in SIMS, contains curriculum data
exported from Nova-T, and has been selected as the current academic year in
Academic Management.
To select the current academic year, select Tools | Academic Structure |
Set Academic Year to display the Select Academic Year dialog (please see
Selecting the Academic Year on page 153).
If the academic year you want to select as current is not displayed in the
dialog, it has not yet been defined. For the purposes of academic promotion,
only the term start and end dates for the new academic year need to be
defined. Half-term dates, teacher training dates and any other details can be
defined at a later date, when more information might be available.
Once the academic year has been defined, Pastoral Promotion must be run to
ensure that the students are in the correct years and National Curriculum
Years for the new academic year. The curriculum and timetable must be
transferred from Nova-T into the new academic year. For more information,
please refer to the New Features in Nova-T 4.86 document (NT486NEW.PDF).
In the majority of secondary schools, academic promotion applies to years
10-11, and years 12-13, because these pairs of years represent the delivery of
two-year courses (GCSE courses are generally delivered during years 10-11
and AS/A Level courses during years 12-13). However, this does not preclude
the use of academic promotion across other National Curriculum Year
combinations, such as years 7-8, where you might want to preserve sets in
Maths and Modern Languages.

Before Running Academic Promotion

The Academic Promotion process for a Scheme in the next academic year is
run from its Tick Grid. A new column named Promotable has been introduced
on the Find Curriculum Scheme browser, from which you should open a
Scheme marked as Promotable in this column.
Academic promotion must be run for each Scheme whose groups you want to
promote with memberships from the previous academic year, one Scheme at
a time. It is not possible to promote all of the required Schemes at the same
time. The reason why there is not a single promotion routine for all Schemes is
because of the problem of dealing with any exceptions that might arise. It is
important to promote the Schemes in a logical order, starting with the band
Schemes and progressing down to the block Schemes and non-singleton
cluster Schemes (cluster Schemes with more than one destination group, e.g.
a cluster Scheme which provides a linked class arrangement).
The Curriculum Promotion wizard can create a group membership in the
new academic year for a student only when certain conditions are fulfilled
(please see Important Information Regarding Academic Promotion on page
102).

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At each stage, there might be individual students who do not meet these
conditions. The promotion routine reports these and these need to be
considered on an individual basis. Such exceptions might be evidence of errors
in the data, such as missing National Curriculum Year memberships for
example, or of multiple or missing memberships within the Scheme in the
previous academic year. In these and other cases, the problem must be
resolved manually.
The promotion process can be repeated as many times as required for the
same Scheme, until the promotion is performed to your specific needs. For
example, a promotion could be performed based on a Reference Date of 10th
June, and then repeated for the Reference Date of 18th July, which is nearer to
the end of the Summer Term. This is particularly useful if there is a change to
the student population or a change to the group memberships for the selected
Scheme, perhaps due to an end-of-year assessment.

NOTE: The Reference Date is the date on which current student group
memberships are read, in order to populate group memberships in the new
Academic Year.

Advice on Running Academic Promotion

It is strongly recommended that you promote Bands before promoting any
other groups. Promoting students to their new groups higher up the hierarchy
ensures that they are automatically eligible for memberships lower down the
hierarchy, for the appropriate groups.
For example, assigning a student to Band 7x, automatically makes them
eligible for the groups associated with 7x Maths, 7x English, 7x Science, etc. If
bands are not promoted first, all students in year 7 would be ineligible for
membership of all the groups associated with that year.
Promoting bands first would also lead to a reduction in the number of warning
messages being displayed when running academic promotion.

Setting Up Academic Promotion Rules

Academic Management provides the functionality to set up promotion paths
between bands, groups and classes, typically in adjacent academic years. This
functionality enables the rapid population of academic groups in cases where
the membership is generally derivable from membership in an equivalent
group at a given point in the previous year. This is usually the case where the
classes support two-year courses, e.g. GCSE or A-Level.

NOTE: Setting up promotion rules alone does not affect group memberships.
Instead, it sets up rules which govern the promotion mechanism which may
be run at a later date.

The restriction that academic promotion can only copy student memberships
from one Academic Year to the next has been lifted. In Academic
Management, promotion paths will link groups in one Academic Year either to
groups in the next Academic Year or to groups used in a new timetable later in
the same Academic Year.

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Editing Academic Promotion Rules

You might typically want to set up relationships between groups in the current
Academic Year and their equivalents, usually in the next Academic Year. These
equivalents might often be of an obvious nature, whereby this year’s Option A
classes and Maths sets in Year 10 will map directly to next year’s Option A
classes and Maths sets serving Year 11. Any such obvious equivalents are
identified by the system and are suggested automatically as possible
mappings. These possible mappings can be accepted or rejected as required.
Suggesting possible mappings between groups potentially reduces the
amount of user input required.

IMPORTANT NOTE: To use this function, you must have been granted the
Permissions associated with the Curriculum Manager or the Timetabler in
System Manager for Windows.

When setting up promotion rules, the general practice is to select a Scheme

(band Scheme, block or cluster) containing the groups that need to be
populated, and the system then displays a list of plausible Ancestor Schemes,
i.e. Schemes containing the groups from which memberships can be copied.
Once the appropriate Ancestor Scheme has also been selected, a list of
plausible Ancestor Groups is displayed.
1. Select Routines | School | Academic Promotion Rules to display the
Select Academic Year dialog.
If the system detects that no Schemes have yet been defined in SQL, a
message is displayed and you will not be able to proceed.

2. Highlight the Academic Year containing the destination groups for your
promotion rules and click the OK button to display the Academic Promotion
Rules page.

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If no curriculum Schemes exist for the selected Academic Year, a message is

displayed and you will not be able to continue. This happens if the curriculum
has not yet been transferred from Nova-T4 to SQL for the selected Academic
Year.

The Academic Promotion Rules page provides information relating to all of

the Schemes in the selected Academic Year and their possible Ancestor
Schemes. Check boxes allow the Mode to be selected (either the selected year
or the previous year) as the source of Ancestor Schemes. Drop-down lists
allow a year and the type of Scheme to be selected, e.g. Band, Block or
Cluster.
When a Scheme and an Ancestor Scheme are highlighted, the Groups for
Selected Scheme panel and the Possible Ancestor Groups panel are
populated. The number of groups to be populated might differ from the
number of Ancestor Groups; in such circumstances, it might still be worthwhile
setting up promotion rules, even though memberships of some or all of the
groups will need to be adjusted after the promotion has been carried out.
If the number of groups displayed in the Possible Ancestor Groups panel is
greater than the number displayed in the Groups for Selected Scheme
panel (in Previous Year mode), this would indicate that this year there are
less groups. This might be caused by a reduction in the number of students
taking a course (i.e. some students might have left the course) and a reduction
in the number of groups might be required, meaning that the memberships of
the remaining groups might have to be adjusted to cater for this. This scenario
could also be caused by a teacher shortage for a particular subject and a group
might have to be removed.

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If the number of groups displayed in the Groups for Selected Scheme panel
is greater than the number displayed in the Possible Ancestor Groups panel
(in Previous Year mode), this indicates that this year there are more groups.
This might be caused by more students taking the selected course, so a new
group could be created to cater for this.
The Schemes and groups in the new Academic Year might be named
differently to the Ancestor Schemes and Groups, even though they are
actually the same Scheme or group. If this is the case, no mappings are
Suggested and this will have to be resolved manually.
Select the NCYear whose promotion rules you want to set up from the
drop-down list.

NOTE: Typically, a user might select Year 11 (to set up promotion paths
between years 10 and 11, i.e. a two-year GCSE course) or Year 8 (to set up
promotion paths for selected Schemes between years 7 and 8. Some schools
might want to set up promotion paths for most of the National Curriculum
Years.

3. Select the Mode in which you wish to work:

Select the Previous Year radio button to work with a list of Ancestor
Schemes and Groups in the previous Academic Year.
Select the Current Year radio button to work with a list of Ancestor
Schemes and Groups from an earlier date range in the current Academic
Year.
4. Select the required Scheme Type from the drop-down list. The types of
Scheme available are Bands, Block and Cluster.

NOTE: It is not compulsory to select each of the options from the Scheme
Type drop-down list. It is envisaged that the majority of the work will be
carried out on Blocks, because the number of bands might be considerably
less than the number of blocks and the clusters will cascade down from the
work you carry out on blocks.

On selecting a Scheme Type, the Schemes (Year) panel displays a list of

bands, blocks or clusters associated with the selected Academic Year. The
Possible Ancestor Schemes (Year) panel displays a list of bands, blocks or
clusters associated with either the current or previous Academic Year
(plausible Ancestor Schemes), depending on the Mode selected.
5. Highlight a Scheme in the Schemes (Year) panel for which you want to set up
a promotion path and highlight the corresponding, suitable item from the
Possible Ancestor Schemes (Year) panel.

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NOTES: If you highlight a Scheme in the Schemes (Year) panel that the
system detects has a plausible Ancestor Scheme, the Ancestor Scheme in the
Possible Ancestor Schemes (Year) panel is highlighted automatically,
meaning you do not need to highlight it manually. A plausible Ancestor
Scheme is one whose name is identical to a Scheme in the current academic
year apart from the year number (including capitalisation), e.g. 10x OPTA
would be a plausible Ancestor Scheme of 11x OPTA but 10X OPTA would
not be a plausible Ancestor Scheme of 11x opta. If an appropriate Ancestor
Scheme exists, but it has not been identified by Academic Management, a
link can be created manually by highlighting the pair of Schemes and linking
their associated groups. This is most likely to happen if the labels used for
classes in the new Academic Year differ from those used in the previous
Academic Year.

Any row in the Schemes (Academic Year yyyy/yyyy) panel whose

Ancestor Scheme column is populated and has a Status (i.e. promotion
state) of Full has already been matched with an Ancestor Scheme and their
associated groups have been linked and saved to the database. If you are
satisfied that the links are correct, no further work needs to be carried out on
this Scheme.
Any row in the Schemes (Academic Year yyyy/yyyy) panel whose
Ancestor Scheme column is blank and has a Status of None means that
although an automatic association might have been made with an Ancestor
Scheme, their associated groups have not yet been linked and saved to the
database. The associated group links might be Suggested (if the system can
find a plausible Ancestor Scheme) and can be saved in order to make them
Confirmed, or you might have to link the groups manually.
Any row in the Schemes (Academic Year yyyy/yyyy) panel whose
Ancestor Scheme column is populated and has a Status of nn of nn has
already been linked to an Ancestor Scheme and some of their groups have also
been linked. nn of nn indicates the proportion of destination groups in each
Scheme which have confirmed mappings to Ancestor Groups. If the Status
displays 3 of 5, this means that of the five groups associated with the
Scheme, three would be populated from group memberships in a previously
populated block, leaving two groups yet to be confirmed and saved (although
they might be suggested, or you might have to link the remaining two groups
manually).
Highlighting a Scheme in the Schemes (Academic Year yyyy/yyyy) panel
populates the Groups for Selected Scheme panel with a list of its groups.
Highlighting a Scheme in the Possible Ancestor Schemes (Year) panel
populates the Possible Ancestor Groups panel with a list of its groups.
Highlighting a Scheme in the Schemes (Academic Year yyyy/yyyy) panel
that already has confirmed mappings with an appropriate Ancestor Scheme
and then highlighting an unrelated Scheme in the Possible Ancestor
Schemes (Year) panel leads to a warning message being displayed, as you
are attempting to link a Scheme with two Ancestor Schemes. This warning
message states that you intend to select a different Ancestor Scheme and asks
you to confirm that you wish to delete the confirmed mappings. Click the Yes
button to delete the confirmed mappings and continue, or the No button to
cancel.

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Once a Scheme is highlighted in the Schemes (Academic Year yyyy/yyyy)

panel, a list of possible Ancestor Schemes is displayed. The Ancestor Schemes
displayed are Schemes of the corresponding Scheme type (e.g. Block)
belonging either to an appropriate NC Year in the previous Academic Year or to
the same NC Year in the current Academic Year. If any of the destination
groups of the Scheme are already mapped, then this indicate s that the
corresponding Ancestor Scheme in use and this is selected automatically.
If none of the destination groups are mapped, then an Ancestor Scheme is
selected only if one can be found with a plausible Ancestor name.
6. Highlight a group in the Groups for Selected Scheme panel for which you
want to set up a promotion path from the previous year and select the
corresponding item from the Possible Ancestor Groups panel.
If the Ancestor Scheme is selected, mappings between the groups are
displayed. These fall into two categories. Confirmed mappings are recorded
associations between a group in the selected Scheme and a group in the
selected Ancestor Scheme. The system attempts to generate Suggested
mappings for all unmapped groups in the current Scheme whenever the
Ancestor Scheme is selected. A suggested mapping is a corresponding group
in the Ancestor Scheme with a plausible matching name. Roughly speaking, a
plausible Ancestor Group label is generated by replacing the year code on the
front of the group label with the label for the previous year.
7. Click the Link button to set up the link between the two groups. This sets up a
promotion path for the group from the previous academic year to the group in
the current academic year.
To unlink groups linked in error, repeat steps 6-7 to highlight the Schemes and
groups for which you want to remove the promotion path and click the Unlink
button.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Removing the link between a group in the current

academic year and an Ancestor Group means that student memberships are
not carried forward to the next academic year when the Academic Promotion
routine is run.

8. Once all of the promotion paths for the selected NC Year have been defined,
click the Confirm and Save button to save the changes.

NOTE: To ensure that the changes made to promotion rules are saved, you
must click the Confirm and Save button after completing work on EACH
Scheme.

9. Repeat steps 3-8 for each of the National Curriculum Years for which you want
to define promotion paths.

Understanding the Academic Promotion Rules Page

The following section provides an overview of each of the panels on the
Academic Promotion Rules page and how the data displayed in one panel
might change the data displayed in another.

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Schemes (Academic Year yyyy/yyyy) Panel

The Scheme Name column displays the names of Schemes in the current
(i.e. new) Academic Year into which you want to promote group memberships
from groups in an Ancestor Scheme.
The Ancestor Scheme column remains blank until some or all of the
Scheme’s associated groups have been linked with Ancestor Groups and the
changes have been saved to the database. Once the links have been saved,
this column displays the name of the Ancestor Scheme with which it has been
linked. This column will also be blank if you have removed all of the links
between the associated groups and you have saved the changes.
The Status column displays the promotion state for the selected Scheme and
displays one of the following values:
None – although an automatic association might have been made with an
Ancestor Scheme, their associated groups have not yet been linked and
saved to the database. The associated group links might be Suggested (if
the system can find a plausible Ancestor Scheme) and can be saved in
order to make them Confirmed, or you might have to link the groups
manually.
Full – The Scheme has already been linked to an Ancestor Scheme and
their groups have also been linked. If you are satisfied that the links are
correct, you do not need to carry out any further work on this Scheme.
nn of nn – The Scheme has already been linked to an Ancestor Scheme
and some of their groups have also been linked. nn of nn indicates the
proportion of destination groups in each Scheme which have confirmed
mappings to Ancestor Groups. If the Status displays 3 of 5, this means
that of the five groups associated with the Scheme, three would be
populated from group memberships in a previously populated block,
leaving two groups yet to be confirmed and saved (although they might be
Suggested or you might have to link the remaining two groups
manually).

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Possible Ancestor Schemes (Academic Year yyyy/yyyy) Panel

The Ancestor Scheme column displays the name of a Scheme from either
the current or previous Academic Year (depending on the Mode selected)
whose group memberships you want to promote into the current Academic
Year. Highlighting an Ancestor Scheme populates the Possible Ancestor
Groups panel with a list of its associated groups. Highlighting a Scheme in the
adjacent panel will automatically highlight an Ancestor Scheme in this panel
if one or more of their associated groups have already been linked and saved
to the database, or if the system offers a Suggested mapping. Once
mappings have been saved, the name of the Ancestor Scheme will be
displayed in the Ancestor Scheme column in the adjacent panel.

Groups for Selected Scheme Panel

The Group Name column displays the name of a group in the current (i.e.
new) Academic Year into which you want to promote group memberships from
an Ancestor Group.
The Staff column displays the timetable initials of the member of staff named
as the main teacher of the group in the current Academic Year.

The Ancestor Group column is blank if the system cannot suggest any
plausible group mappings (between current and Ancestor Groups) having
highlighted a Scheme. If the system can suggest a link between groups, this
column displays the name of the Ancestor Group with which it can be linked.
On saving one or more links between groups for the selected Schemes, this
column continues to display the Ancestor Group. This column is also blank if
you have removed all of the links between the associated groups (i.e. click the
Unlink button after highlighting the appropriate groups) and no plausible
Ancestor Scheme is found. However, if you confirm and save the changes
made and reselect that group, any suggested mappings are once again
displayed.

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The Link Status column displays the state of the link between the group you
want to promote (in the Ancestor Scheme) and the group into which you want
to promote (in the current Academic Year) and displays one of the following
values:
<Blank> – the status is blank under any of the following conditions:
If the selected group has not been linked with an Ancestor Group and
there is no suggested mapping
If you have removed the link between a pair of groups and saved the
changes to the database.
Suggested – this status is displayed only if the system detects a possible
link between a group in the current Academic Year and an Ancestor Group,
based on the group names. If you elect to accept these changes and save
them to the database, the status changes to Confirmed.
Confirmed – this status is displayed for all groups that have been linked
and saved to the database.
User Linked – this status is displayed only if you have created a link
manually by highlighting a pair of groups and clicking the Link button. The
status changes to Confirmed once the changes have been saved.
Removed – this status is displayed only if you have removed a link by
highlighting a pair of groups and clicking the Unlink button. The status
changes to <Blank> once you have saved your changes.

Possible Ancestor Groups Panel

The Ancestor Group column displays the name of a group from either the
current or previous Academic Year (depending on the Mode selected) whose
student memberships you want to promote to an appropriate group in the
current Academic Year.

The Staff column displays the timetable initials of the member of staff named
as the main teacher of the group in either the current or previous Academic
Year (depending on the Mode selected).
The Mapped column displays details of whether or not the Ancestor Group is
linked to a group in the current Academic Year and displays one of the
following values:
<Blank> – this value is displayed if a promotion path has not been set for
the Ancestor Group. Linking a pair of groups manually (highlight two
groups and click the Link button) changes the value to Yes (i.e. linked).
Yes – this value is displayed if the Ancestor Group has either a
Suggested or Confirmed mapping with a group in the current Academic
Year.

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Unknown – although very rare, this value is displayed if the Ancestor

Group has a promotion path, but this is not in the curriculum plan of either
of the academic years.

Example
The following graphic is typical of what is displayed when setting up academic
promotion rules.

In this example, a user has elected to set up promotion rules for blocks and
groups in NCYear 11 based on student group memberships in last year’s Year
10 (Previous Year has been selected from the Mode drop-down list).

NOTE: If required, the user could set up promotion rules for blocks and
groups in Year 11 based on students group memberships in the current
Academic Year by selecting Current Year from the Mode drop-down list.

The user has selected Scheme 11xy Option A in the Schemes (Academic
Year 2007/2008) panel. The system has identified a plausible Ancestor
Scheme (10xy Option A), based on Scheme name, so the Ancestor Scheme
has been highlighted automatically in the Possible Ancestor Schemes
(Academic Year 2006/2007) panel.
On closer inspection of the Schemes (Academic Year 2007/2008) panel,
it becomes evident that of the 11 groups associated with this Scheme, five
have already been linked with groups in the Ancestor Scheme (as indicated by
5 of 6 in the Status column). As these five links have been confirmed and
saved to the database, the Ancestor Scheme column for this block displays
the name of the associated Ancestor Scheme 10xy Option A.

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The Groups for Selected Scheme panel displays the groups associated with
the selected Scheme together with any mappings (Confirmed or Suggested)
to groups in an Ancestor Scheme. Groups 11A/Ar1, 11A/Dr1, 11A/Fr1,
11A/Gg1 and 11A/Re1 have been linked to groups in an Ancestor Scheme
and their promotion rules have been set up.
None of the groups in this example have Suggested mappings. Suggested
mappings occur when a group is identified as having a plausible Ancestor
Group by the system but these mappings have not yet been saved to the
database.
Group 11A/Gg2 has a blank Link Status, meaning that it has not yet been
mapped to an Ancestor Group. The system is also unable to find a plausible
Ancestor Group, as the group names are not identical. If there is an
appropriate group with which you wish to link the selected group, they can be
linked manually by highlighting both groups and clicking the Link button and
then clicking the Confirm and Save button.
Once a pair of groups has been linked and the mapping has been saved to the
database, the name of the Ancestor Group is displayed in the Groups for
Selected Scheme panel.
Highlighting a group in the Groups for Selected Scheme panel whose Link
Status is Confirmed or Suggested also highlights automatically its mapped
group in the Possible Ancestor Groups panel to facilitate the viewing of
group mappings.
The Possible Ancestor Groups panel displays the names of the groups
associated with the Ancestor Scheme which can be linked to groups in the
selected Scheme. If an Ancestor Group has either a Confirmed or Suggested
mapping, the Mapped column displays Yes, otherwise it is blank.

Promoting Your Academic Structure

IMPORTANT NOTE: Before running the Academic Promotion process, you
are strongly advised to take a full backup of your SIMS SQL database.
Changes to student group memberships are not saved to the database until
you take the conscious decision to click the Save button on completion of the
promotion. However, this is a powerful process which creates many student
group memberships: once any changes have been saved, it is time
consuming to return the data to its original state.

The Academic Promotion process must be run for each of the Schemes you
wish to promote. Once the promotion has been performed on a Scheme, it can
be saved and you can move onto the next Scheme to be promoted.
Academic Promotion can be run as many times as you want. This is particularly
useful if a group was inadvertently removed from the promotion process and
the data was saved. Even if the data is saved, the process can be run again to
correct the data. The most recent promotion of a Scheme is set as current in
the database.

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1. Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment

by Scheme to display the Find Curriculum Scheme browser.

2. Enter search parameters and click the Search button or press Enter without
entering any search parameters to display all of the Schemes in the curriculum
plan.
If you know the Name, Year Taught In or Type of the curriculum Scheme
you want to promote, either enter the information or select the appropriate
option from the drop-down lists and click the Search button. However,
clicking the Search button without entering any parameters displays all
available curriculum Schemes.

NOTES: It is possible to promote a Scheme only if the Promotable column in

the Find Curriculum Scheme browser displays Promotable. Any Scheme
displaying Promotable in this column, has at least one destination group
which is the target of a promotion path defined in SQL. Any Schemes whose
column is blank cannot be promoted, as no promotion path has been defined
which points at any of its groups. It is not possible to run the Academic
Promotion wizard for those Schemes that display a blank. For those
Schemes that display a blank in the Promotable column, an alternative
method of promoting student group memberships is to use the Student
Curriculum Import and Export process (please see Creating Class
Memberships for the Next Academic Year on page 122).

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3. Either highlight the required Scheme and click the Open button or double-click
the required Scheme to display the Select Effective Date Range dialog.

4. Select the Effective Date Range you wish to use for the Academic Promotion
and click the OK button to display the Tick Grid. New memberships created by
the promotion process are for the Effective Date Range selected here.
For example, for the purposes of Academic Promotion, you could select the
pre-defined dates for the following academic year. The selection defaults to
the Working Academic Year of the currently selected academic year, which
will usually be the appropriate option for this purpose.
5. Select the mode in which you wish to work. The two options are Relaxed
Mode and Strict Mode.
Click the Relax button to suspend the eligibility rules so that students can be
allocated to groups for which they are ineligible.
Once you have clicked this button, the background on the button changes, so
that it is easy to tell the mode in which you are working.
Alternatively, if you want to ensure that eligibility rules for student class
memberships are enforced (Strict Mode), ensure that the button is deselected.
Strict Mode is the default.
6. Start the Academic Promotion process by clicking the Allocate button and
selecting Curriculum Promotion Wizard from the pop-up menu.
On opening the wizard, you are warned that any student tagging or selections
on the Tick Grid are removed if you proceed. This is because tagging is used to
indicate any students for whom a membership was not created by the
promotion process.
If you need to make a note of the tagged and/or selected students before they
are cleared, click the Cancel button to return to the Tick Grid. Start the
Curriculum Promotion wizard again when you are ready.
Any filters that have been set to restrict the student list in the Tick Grid will
apply when promoting the selected Scheme. Those students who are filtered
out are excluded from the promotion process. The names of these students are
displayed later in the process.

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7. Click the Next button to display the Confirm Dates page.

The Effective Date Range, as selected in the Tick Grid for the next academic
year, is displayed, and a reference date in the current academic year that can
be edited.
If the Effective Date Range displayed is incorrect, click the Cancel button to
close the wizard and edit the Effective Date Range in the Tick Grid (please see
Selecting an Effective Date Range on page 68).
8. Select the Reference Date for the Academic Promotion by clicking the
Calendar button and selecting a date from the Calendar (please see Selecting
Dates from the Calendar on page 153). The Reference Date is the date on
which student group memberships are read, in order to populate group
memberships in the new Academic Year.
The Reference Date defaults to the day prior to the start date of the new
Academic Year, but it is probable that there will be no student memberships
then. The date you use must lie within the academic year prior to the new
academic year, and often would be selected near to, or at the end of the
summer term.
However, if your school completes its ‘normal’ curriculum early in the year
(e.g. the end of June) and for the rest of the year the students are placed into
different groups for a special project and you ran the promotion process and
accepted the default Reference Date, there would be a danger that the
promotion would not find the student memberships to promote. Instead,
editing the Reference Date to the day before these short-term groups came
into effect would ensure that the original curriculum is promoted.

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9. Click the Next button to display the Select Groups page.

The groups affected by the Academic Promotion are displayed for review.
These are the groups associated with the selected Scheme in the Tick Grid on
the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page.
10. Define the groups you wish to include as part of the Academic Promotion by
selecting or deselecting their associated check boxes.

NOTE: It will not be possible to continue until at least one group has been
selected.

It might be necessary to remove groups from the promotion process if for

example, you wish to reduce the number of Maths classes in the following
year. This could be due to a shortage of teachers in the new academic year,
resulting in a required reduction in the number of classes that can be taken.
This would mean that the students in the third maths class would need to be
evenly distributed to the two remaining classes (10x/Ma1 and 10x/Ma2 in
the previous graphic) to ensure they still get taught maths this year. After the
wizard has assigned students to 10x/Ma1 and 10x/Ma2, and you can assign
those that were in 10x/Ma3 to either of the other two remaining groups
manually, using the Tick Grid.
When the groups have been selected, the system can identify the students
whose group memberships next year will be affected by the promotion
process. The students are those who appear as editable in the Tick Grid (i.e.
are listed, and with a white background) and were members of corresponding
groups in the previous year, on the Reference Date.
11. Click the Next button to continue.
A warning is displayed if a student is known in the new academic year, but was
unknown in the previous academic year. This might occur if, for example, a
student joins your school at the start of the new academic year.
12. Click the Yes button to confirm that you wish to continue or click the No
button if you wish to investigate this further before proceeding. If you
continue, these students are included as part of the promotion process.
The number of students who were members of groups in the previous
academic year but do not appear in the Tick Grid for next year are displayed.

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NOTE: Students who were members of a group in the previous academic

year but who are not eligible for the next year group, or have been filtered
out of the Tick Grid, cannot be promoted. A student who is displayed in the
Tick Grid with a read-only row (yellow background) can only be promoted if
you have clicked the Relax button. The number of students who could
potentially be promoted, but have no membership of the appropriate group
in the previous academic year is also displayed. This is very unlikely to
happen, unless you have selected an inappropriate reference date, and no
students have a membership on the date you selected.

13. Confirm that you wish to continue by clicking the OK button.

The number of students who could have been promoted, but were filtered out
of the Tick Grid are displayed.
14. Confirm that you wish to continue by clicking the OK button.
The number of students who, at the Reference Date in the previous academic
year, are members of more than one group belonging to the Scheme are
displayed. This is possible, although highly unusual. Such students’
memberships are not promoted. If you want to assign such students to a
group, you must do this manually.
15. Confirm that you wish to continue by clicking the OK button.
The number of students, whose row in the Tick Grid was read-only on entering
the Academic Promotion wizard, are displayed. Their class memberships is
not promoted to the new academic year. To enable these class memberships
to be promoted to the new academic year, you should close the wizard and
relax the eligibility rules by clicking the Relax button (please see Relaxing the
Eligibility Rules of a Group on page 79). You can then run the wizard again and
the students will not be displayed in this list.
16. Confirm that you wish to continue by clicking the OK button to display the
Current Settings page.

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This page displays a summary of the information that is used when promoting
academic data to the next academic year and is based on the options already
selected in the wizard. This information includes the Effective Date Range
(over which the new memberships are created), the Reference Date (on which
previous memberships are read), the mapping of groups from the previous
academic year to the groups of the next year Scheme that you have selected
for promotion and the names of students who could not be promoted for
various reasons (detailed above).
17. To start the Academic Promotion based on the information displayed in the
Current Settings page, click the Next button. To edit any of the options
selected, click the Back button. Alternatively, click the Cancel button to exit
from the wizard and return to the Tick Grid.
Promoted memberships are displayed on the Tick Grid, but are not yet saved
to the database. The changes can still be rejected by clicking the Undo button
once the wizard has been closed.
Once the Academic Promotion process has been completed successfully, the
final page of the wizard is displayed, informing you that the process has been
completed.
18. Click the Finish button to close the wizard and return to the Tick Grid.
Those students that could not be promoted (i.e. because of their status in the
Tick Grid, or not having a membership on the reference date, etc.) are tagged.
To display any tagged students at the top of the Tick Grid, right-click anywhere
in the Tick Grid and select Sort by | Tagged from the pop-up menu. This
facilitates the subsequent manual assignment of students to their new classes.
19. Click the Save button to save the changes made by the Academic Promotion
process.
Only after clicking the Save button will the changes made by academic
promotion be saved to the database.
More Information:
Defining Named Date Ranges on page 157
Selecting an Effective Date Range on page 17

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120 Academic Management

 09| Importing and Exporting Student Group Memberships

09|Importing and Exporting Student

Group Memberships

Introduction .................................................................................121
Why Should I Use the Import and Export Routines? .....................122
Important Note on Permissions Required to Import and Export
Data ..............................................................................................125
Exporting Student Group Memberships for Destination Groups of
a Curriculum Scheme ....................................................................125
Viewing and Editing Student Group Memberships in a
Spreadsheet Application ...............................................................129
Importing Student Group Memberships for Destination Groups
of a Curriculum Scheme ................................................................131
Understanding the Validation Checks Performed when
Importing Data into Academic Management .................................136

Introduction
Academic Management allows the export of student curriculum group
memberships so that they can be edited outside of Academic Management,
e.g. in Microsoft Excel or another application capable of reading the files
produced. Once the memberships have been edited, they can be imported
back into Academic Management and saved, so that the edited group
memberships can be used.
This import and export functionality is provided by two wizards, which allow
you to:
Export memberships of groups of a Scheme from Academic Management
as a SYLK (Symbolic Link) file (.SLK file extension). In Academic
Management, this type of file is known as a Curriculum Membership File.
Import memberships of groups of a Scheme back into Academic
Management following an export, from a SYLK file (.SLK file extension).
Import student group memberships from a delimited text file, which has
been generated using a third-party application. This partially reproduces
the functionality already provided by Nova-T, e.g. import into a single
Scheme. In Academic Management, this type of file is known as a Generic
CSV File.
The third procedure would be particularly useful for those schools that compile
their membership lists in a third-party system.
The first two procedures allow Heads of Departments to experiment with
groupings and memberships, and view the results of their amendments before
implementing those changes in the live system. The import function avoids the
necessity for manual data entry by school staff.

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The Curricular Manager can export the information displayed in a Tick Grid so
that other members of staff, who might not have access to Academic
Management, can assign students to groups using a spreadsheet application
such as Microsoft Excel. Once a Curriculum Membership File has been edited,
it can be re-imported into the Tick Grid in Academic Management.
On importing into Academic Management, a series of validation checks is
performed, to ensure that valid data only, for valid students only, is saved to
the SIMS SQL database.
More Information:
Understanding the Validation Checks Performed when Importing Data into
Academic Management on page 136

Why Should I Use the Import and Export Routines?

The main purpose of the Import and Export routines in Academic
Management, is to enable Heads of Departments to use a familiar spreadsheet
environment in Microsoft Excel for example, to assign students to classes. This
removes the requirement to grant additional permissions in Academic
Management to those users who need to manually enter information, and also
reduces the training requirement for the users that would otherwise have to
learn about more of the functionality in Academic Management.
There are other benefits in using Import and Export, and these are outlined in
the following sections.

Creating Class Memberships for the Next Academic Year

Quite often, class memberships of certain classes next year are carried over
from the current year. For example, students in classes 10x/En1, 10x/En2
and 10x/En3 this year will belong to classes 11x/En1, 11x/En2 and
11x/En3 next year. The normal method of arranging this is for the timetabler
to use File | Transfer Curriculum in Nova-T when setting up a curriculum
plan for next year, and to select the Transfer Students check box for the
Year 10, Band a Maths block.
However, the timetabler might not have done this originally, and may have
already carried out a lot of work regarding the construction of the timetable.
Any use of File | Transfer Curriculum at this stage would erase the
timetable currently under construction, and require the work to start again.
An alternative method of working is to export the Tick Grid for the Year 10
Band x Maths block Scheme in the current academic year, make a small
alteration to the file and then import the file into the Tick Grid for the Year 11
Band x Maths block Scheme in the next academic year.
The following graphic illustrates the file
10x_English_20070720_20070305.SLK produced by the export routine.

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The column headings 10x/En1, 10x/En2 and 10x/En3 should be edited

using Microsoft Excel or another spreadsheet application, to read 11x/En1,
11x/En2 and 11x/En3.

Once the editing of the file has been completed, you are strongly advised to
save this version of the file to a different location. This ensures that the edited
file cannot get confused with the files produced by the export routine. Select
File | Save As from the spreadsheet application to achieve this. To make
these new files more easily identifiable, it is sensible, although not absolutely
necessary, to use a naming convention such as:
11x_English_20070720_20070305.SLK; or
11x_English_20070720_20070305_Import.SLK
This convention is based on the format of:
<Scheme Name>_<Reference Date>_<Today’s Date>.SLK.

NOTE: Any spaces in the path or file name are automatically converted to
underscores, even if they are manually entered. All dates are in the format
YYYYMMDD. Both a path and a file name must be specified before you can
continue.

The final step is to import the data from this new file into the Tick Grid for Year
11 Band x Maths in the next academic year.
To avoid the need to repeatedly switch between academic years, it is
convenient to prepare and edit files for all of the Schemes like 10x Maths,
where student group memberships are to be carried forward to Schemes in the
next academic year. Tools | Academic Management | Set Academic Year
can then be used to switch to the new academic year, in order to import from
the various amended files.

Memberships of ‘Double’ Options Classes

A school has three Science classes in a Year 10 block named Option B and
three more in another Year 10 block named Option E. The classes in Option E
have the same members as corresponding classes in Option B, because the
students are following a Double Science course.
In addition to the three Science classes, Option B has two Geography classes
and a General Science class. Option E has its three Science classes and also
classes in French, History and Art. The Options module has been used but it
has placed students in the classes in a rather arbitrary manner, and the Head
of Science wants to assign students to particular classes in Option B, and to
have these assignments copied to Option E.
The Curricular Manager carries out the following steps to achieve this:
1. Select the Tick Grid for Year 10 Option B.
2. Order the students by holding down the Shift key and clicking the Assigned
column heading.

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3. Scroll down the list to find the first student in 10B/Sc1 and click on this
student.
4. Scroll further down the list to find the last student in 10B/Sc3 and, whilst
holding down the Shift key, click on that student. This selects and highlights
all of the students assigned to the Science classes.
5. Right-click this selection of students and select Tag/Select | Tag Selected
Students from the pop-up menu.
6. Select <True> from the Tagged filter at the top of the screen and click the
Filter button.
7. Create an SYLK export file (e.g. 10xy_OptionB_20070720_20070305.SLK)
in the usual way and give this file to the Head of Department.

NOTE: The previous graphics shows that the columns for Year, Reg. Group,
etc. have been hidden. It is not necessary to hide these columns, but if you
wish to do so they should only be hidden, not deleted.

This export file contains rows only for students who have been placed by the
Options module onto the Double Science course. The Head of Department
edits the file, saves it in SYLK format with a different name and returns it to the
Curricular Manager. The file name given to the file might be:
10xy_OptionB_20070720_20070305_Import.SLK
The Curricular Manager continues:
8. Select the Tick Grid for Year 10 Option B.
9. Select a suitable Effective Date Range, e.g. the Working Academic Year.
10. Import the data from the file supplied by the Head of Department. It is not
necessary to apply a filter to the student list this time.
11. Open the file in Microsoft Excel (or another spreadsheet application) and edit
the column headings, changing 10B/Sc1, 10B/Sc2 and 10B/Sc3 to
10E/Sc1, 10E/Sc2 and 10E/Sc3. There is no need to change or delete the
remaining column headings.

The previous graphic shows the file after the editing has taken place (note that
some columns are hidden for display purposes).
12. Save the file using the Save As function, preferably with a name such as
10xy_OptionE_20070720_20070305_Import.SLK.
13. Select the Tick Grid for Year 10 Option E, with an appropriate date range. It
is not necessary to apply a filter to the student list.
14. Create an export SYLK file, which will be useful as a backup of your work.

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15. Import the data from the file:

10xy_OptionE_20070720_20070305_Import.SLK.

Using the Export File as a Backup File

Before carrying out any substantial editing of data within a Tick Grid, it is
advisable to export the existing data to a SYLK file as this file can be used as
a useful backup. With this backup file, if mistakes are made during the editing
process, it is possible to revert to the original group membership allocations by
importing from the SYLK file. An example of this is Step 14 in the previous
section.
SYLK files as a means of backup are very helpful when preparing data in
advance. However, be aware that such backups are of immediate value only,
if they are created during a school term. Then, in a short time, other data
(such as lesson marks) may be attached to the student class memberships.
Such data would be invalidated if the memberships were changed.
It is also important to exercise care with the Effective Date Range when
performing an import. The SYLK file represents a snapshot of the student
memberships on a particular date, which is recorded as part of the file name.
When importing from the file, you are declaring the memberships to be valid
not just on a particular date, but for an extended period of time, and you must
be sure to select an Effective Date Range during which those memberships
really are valid.
However, the process of importing data from a SYLK file involves exactly the
same checks that are applied when using the mouse or Spacebar to place ticks
in the Tick Grid. The same effect would be achieved, though more slowly, by
printing the file in Microsoft Excel (or another spreadsheet application) and
then entering the data via the keyboard, so the warnings described previously
apply equally to importing and entering the data manually.

Important Note on Permissions Required to Import and

Export Data
Only those users assigned the Curriculum Manager role in System Manager
can perform import and export functions in Academic Management.
For more information on assigning users to groups in System Manager, please
refer to the Managing SIMS Users, Groups and Databases handbook. All
handbooks can be accessed from the Documentation Centre which is
launched by clicking the Documentation button on the Home Page in SIMS.
Once open, click the Handbooks button, select the required category, then
click the required handbook from the Handbooks page.

Exporting Student Group Memberships for Destination

Groups of a Curriculum Scheme
The Export Curriculum Membership wizard is used to export student group
memberships to a Curriculum Membership File. All group memberships for all
destination groups of a curriculum Scheme can be exported.

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This process should be run if you want to edit student group memberships
outside Academic Management. Once the export file has been created, it can
be opened in a spreadsheet application such as Microsoft Excel for example,
and from there, group memberships can be edited. Once the group
memberships have been updated, they can be saved back to the file (or to
another file using the Save As functionality) and can then be imported into
Academic Management using the import wizard, where the changes are
incorporated into the database.
Before running the Export Curriculum Membership wizard, ensure that the
Tick Grid you wish to export has been opened in the Memberships of Groups
of a Scheme page and that all of the students whose memberships you want
to export are visible in the Tick Grid, i.e. they are filtered only if that is what
you want.

IMPORTANT NOTES: If you export a list of all the students, but do not
export their current group memberships and then manually add group
memberships for only some of the students into this file, a subsequent
import of this list deletes the memberships of other students. The SYLK
import sets tags, so if any of the students in the Tick Grid have been tagged
prior to data import, these tags (including those for any filtered students) are
removed once the import process has been initiated.

All of the information contained in an import file is imported into the SIMS SQL
database, if possible. This means that if any changes are made to student
group memberships in the import file, the existing memberships in Academic
Management are amended with these changes.
When creating an export file, you are strongly advised to accept the default file
name. By default, the export file is named according to the name of the
selected Scheme. Accepting this default name ensures that, when importing
the file back into Academic Management after any changes have been made to
student group memberships, it can be identified quickly and easily by the user
prior to running the import process.

NOTE: The export process exports student group memberships for the
selected Scheme only. It is not possible, at present, to export student group
memberships for more than one Scheme at a time.

1. Select the required curriculum scheme (please see Selecting a Curriculum

Scheme on page 16).
2. Select the required Effective Date Range (please see Selecting an Effective
Date Range on page 68).
3. If necessary, filter the student list in the Tick Grid to ensure that only those
students who you wish to export are displayed in the Tick Grid. For example,
you could set a filter to display those students in a particular registration
group.
The selectable fields displayed have no effect on the content of the export file,
as the export file is of a fixed format (please see Viewing and Editing Student
Group Memberships in a Spreadsheet Application on page 129).
4. Start the export process by clicking the Allocate button and selecting Export
Curriculum Membership Wizard from the pop-up menu.

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5. Click the Next button to continue.

6. Select the Reference Date for the data export, either by clicking the
Calendar button and selecting a date from the Calendar (please see Selecting
Dates from the Calendar on page 153) or by manually entering the date. The
Reference Date is the date on which current student group memberships are
read in order to populate the export file.
The Reference Date defaults to the first day of the Effective Date Range, but
can be edited if necessary. If you wish to edit the Reference Date, the date
entered must lie within the current Academic Year.
7. Click the Next button to continue.

This page enables you to determine the level of detail to include in the
exported file. Selecting the Populated radio button exports the columns of
the Tick Grid, together with the student group memberships as of the
reference date, indicated by a T in the appropriate cells. Selecting the Empty
radio button exports the columns of the Tick Grid, but does not export the
student group memberships. The cells are left blank, for completion in a
spreadsheet application such as Microsoft Excel.

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NOTE: The Populated radio button is available only if group memberships

for the selected Scheme exist on the selected Reference Date.

8. Select the required radio button to indicate the type of export file you wish to
produce and click the Next button to continue.

A default path and File Name for the export file are provided. The path
suggested is the one that was used for the last data export (if an export has
previously taken place), or the My Documents folder (if an export has not
previously taken place). The File Name is based on the name of the Scheme
that is currently selected in the Tick Grid. The type of file is always .SLK
(Symbolic Link File).
The default File Name can be edited if required, either by entering the path
and file name manually, or by clicking the Field Browser button and
navigating to the required location and entering a name manually or selecting
an existing file to overwrite. If a file with the same name and location already
exists, you are asked to confirm that you wish to overwrite the existing file.
There is a benefit in accepting the default file name when creating an export
file. By default, the export file is named according to the name of the selected
Scheme. Accepting this default name ensures that, when importing the file
back into Academic Management, it is quickly and easily picked up by the
import process, as the import process by default searches for files relating to
the selected Scheme. Another benefit of retaining the default file name
becomes evident when browsing through a list of import files in Windows
Explorer, as the default file name indicates the Tick Grid with which it is
associated.
The file name supplied by default is in the following format:
<Scheme Name>_<Reference Date>_<Today’s Date>.SLK

NOTES: Any spaces in the path or file name are automatically converted to
underscores, even if they are manually entered. All dates are in the format
YYYYMMDD. Both a path and a file name must be specified before you can
continue.

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9. Click the Next button to continue.

The Current Settings page displays the information supplied whilst running
the wizard, which consists of the Reference Date, the Level of Detail and
the name and location of the Export File.

NOTE: If you wish to change any of these settings, click the Back button to
navigate to the required page.

10. To start the export based on the information displayed in the Current
Settings page, click the Next button. To edit any of the options selected, click
the Back button. Alternatively, click the Cancel button to exit from the wizard
and return to the Tick Grid on the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme
page.
Once the file export process has been completed successfully, the final page of
the wizard is displayed, informing you that the process has been completed.
11. Click the Finish button to close the wizard and return to the Tick Grid on the
Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page.
The export file (called a Curriculum Membership File in Academic
Management) can be opened in Microsoft Excel or another spreadsheet
application, to view and edit the student group memberships.

Viewing and Editing Student Group Memberships in a

Spreadsheet Application
Once the export of data has been successfully completed, it is possible to view
and edit student group memberships in an external spreadsheet application,
such as Microsoft Excel. The Reference Date, Level of Detail and any filters set
on the Tick Grid determine the information that is exported.

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When opened in a spreadsheet application, an export file creates a single

worksheet, named the same as the file name. By default, the Student Name,
Gender, Year Group, Reg. Group, House, Admission Number and Date of Birth
are displayed. The display fields exported are standard, and are not dependent
on those displayed in the Tick Grid. The destination groups associated with the
selected Scheme are also displayed. If you create a Populated export file, the
ticks in the Tick Grid are signified by the letter T. If you create an Empty
export file, the cells in these columns are blank in preparation for manual
entry.
The following graphic is a sample output from a Populated export file, using
a Science Scheme in Year 11 as its basis.

The following graphic is a sample output from an Empty export file, using the
same Science Scheme in Year 11 as previously.

IMPORTANT NOTES: When editing this file, entering the letter T informs
Academic Management that the student is a member of that group (this
translates to a ‘tick’ on the Tick Grid). The letter ‘T’ can be entered in either
upper case or lower case. Removing the letter T from a cell informs Academic
Management that the student is no longer a member of that group. When
entering student group memberships, you should enter one ‘T’ per row in the
import file. Entering more than one ‘T’ per row (which indicates multiple
group memberships), or entering any character other than T or t, causes
that row not to be imported.

The columns containing student name, gender, year group, reg. group, house
and date of birth are included in the file for identification purposes only. You
should not delete these columns but they can be hidden if required, by
highlighting the unwanted columns, right-clicking the selection and selecting
Hide from the pop-up menu.
When editing student group memberships in an import/export file, it is
imperative that the original file format, admission numbers and export IDs are
not changed. Any editing of admission numbers or export IDs results in group
memberships not being imported for those students whose data has been
changed.
It is possible to edit the file name, as long as it is saved with the same file
extension and adheres to standard Windows file naming conventions.

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Importing Student Group Memberships for Destination

Groups of a Curriculum Scheme
The Import Curriculum Membership wizard is used to import student
group memberships from a Curriculum Membership File or a Generic CSV File.
All group memberships for all destination groups of a single curriculum
Scheme can be imported.

NOTE: The import process imports student group memberships for the
selected Scheme only. It is not possible to import student group
memberships for more than one Scheme at a time.

This process should be run if the Export Curriculum Membership wizard

has already been used to export student group memberships, and have
subsequently edited this file to update the group memberships. The type of file
used in this scenario is called a Curriculum Membership File. Once the file has
been edited, these changes can be incorporated into Academic Management
using the import wizard.
This process can also be run if a student list has been created in an external
application, e.g. Microsoft Excel or Nova legacy modules, and you wish to
create student group memberships manually, outside of Academic
Management. The type of file used in this scenario is called a Generic CSV File.
Before running the import wizard, ensure that the Tick Grid into which you
wish to import the amended student group memberships has been opened in
the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page, that the correct date range
for the student memberships has been selected, that all of the students whose
memberships you want to import are visible in the Tick Grid i.e. they are not
filtered, and that you are working in Relaxed Mode to ensure that group
memberships for any ineligible students can be updated by the import
process.

NOTE: If any of the students in the Tick Grid have been tagged prior to data
import, these tags (including those for any filtered students) are removed
once the import process has been initiated.

All of the information contained in an import file is imported into the SIMS SQL
database, if possible. This means that if any changes are made to student
group memberships in the import file, the existing memberships in Academic
Management are amended with these changes.
A series of validation checks is carried out on the import file before it is
imported, to ensure that only valid data originating from a valid file format is
imported into the system.
1. Select the required curriculum scheme (please see Selecting a Curriculum
Scheme on page 16).
2. Select the required Effective Date Range (please see Selecting an Effective
Date Range on page 68).

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Effective Date Range selected here is applied to

the imported student group memberships.

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3. For the purposes of importing student group memberships, select the mode in
which you want to work. The two options are Relaxed Mode and Strict
Mode.
Click the Relax button to suspend the eligibility rules so that students can be
allocated to groups for which they are ineligible, i.e. if some of the students
have been added to the Tick Grid by clicking the Add button.
Once this button has been clicked, the background on the button changes, so
that it is easy to tell the mode in which you are working.
Working in Relaxed Mode ensures that any changes made to student group
memberships in the import file are recorded for the appropriate student(s) in
the SIMS SQL database, regardless of their eligibility status in the Tick Grid.
Alternatively, if to ensure that eligibility rules for student group memberships
are enforced (Strict Mode), ensure that the button is deselected.
Working in Strict Mode prevents any changes made to student group
memberships in the import file from being associated with ineligible students
in the selected Tick Grid.
4. If necessary, remove any filter applied to the students in the Tick Grid.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Any student who is present in the import file but not
visible in the Tick Grid (due to filtering, for example) will not have their data
imported into Academic Management. The import process works only on
visible students in a Tick Grid.

However, it does not matter which display fields are selected.

5. Start the import process by clicking the Allocate button and selecting Import
Curriculum Membership Wizard from the pop-up menu to display the
Import Curriculum Membership wizard.
On opening the wizard, you are warned that any student tagging and
selections are removed to enable the tags to indicate the success or failure of
the import for each student.
6. Click the Next button to remove any tagging and selections and to display the
Confirm Dates page. Alternatively, click the Cancel button to return to the
Tick Grid and make a note of any existing tags or selections, so that they can
be re-instated once the process has been completed.

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The Effective Date Range, as selected in the Tick Grid on the Memberships of
Groups of a Scheme page, is displayed.
If the Effective Date Range displayed is not what you intended, click the
Cancel button to close the wizard and edit the Effective Date Range in the Tick
Grid (please see Selecting an Effective Date Range on page 68).
7. Click the Next button to continue.

This page enables the user to determine the source of the import file. Selecting
the Curriculum Membership File radio button, which is the default option,
informs the wizard that the import file is a .SLK file that originated from SIMS.
Selecting the Other radio button informs the wizard that the file is a .CSV file
that originated from an external application. This radio button should be
selected if a .CSV file has been created in the correct Generic CSV format
(please see Understanding the Validation Checks Performed when Importing
Data into Academic Management on page 136) that contains student group
memberships and now want to import data from this file into Academic
Management.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please ensure that you select the correct option. For
example, selecting the Other radio button does not allow you to import a
Curriculum Membership File as the file formats are different.

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8. Select the required radio button to indicate the type of file you want to import
and click the Next button to continue.

A default path and File Name for the import file are supplied. The path is
based on the path selected for the last data import, and the File Name is
based on the name of the Scheme that is currently selected in the Tick Grid on
the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page and the type of file being
imported. The type of file relates to that selected on the previous page of the
wizard.
This demonstrates a benefit in accepting a default file name when creating an
export file. By default, the export file is named according to the name of the
selected Scheme. Accepting this default name ensures that, when importing
the file back into Academic Management, it is quickly and easily picked up by
the import process. However, a wildcard symbol (*) is displayed after the
Scheme name, so click the File Browser button to select the required file. The
file browser automatically searches for those import files matching the search
criteria in the File Name field.
9. Click the Next button to continue.

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IMPORTANT NOTES: Before continuing, the wizard checks the format of

the selected import file. If the file is of an incorrect format, the import is
cancelled. Any validation errors relating to the selected file are displayed
on-screen for review. If the import file contains one or more rows with no T
to indicate student group memberships, you are asked whether you wish to
remove the previous memberships of all such students or to leave the
existing memberships in place. If the import file contains unrecognised
columns (i.e. columns whose names do not match any in the Tick Grid), the
import continues but these columns are ignored. If the import file lacks any
columns displayed in the Tick Grid, the import continues but the columns in
the Tick Grid missing from the import file are not affected by the process.

The Current Settings page displays the information supplied whilst running
the wizard, which consists of the Effective Date Range, the File Type and
the name and location of the Import File. The names of those students that
are excluded from the import process because of validation errors are also
displayed.

NOTE: If you wish to change any of these settings, click the Back button to
navigate to the required page.

10. To start the import based on the information displayed in the Current
Settings page, click the Next button. To edit any of the options selected, click
the Back button. Alternatively, click the Cancel button to exit from the wizard
and return to the Tick Grid.
Once the file import process has been completed successfully for those items
that could be imported, the final page of the wizard informs you that the
process has been completed.
11. Click the Finish button to close the wizard and return to the Tick Grid.
If there are any students that are present in the import file but are not present
in the Tick Grid, the wizard reports that the row has not been identified by the
import process and the row is not imported.

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If there are any students that are present in the Tick Grid but are not present
in the import file, they are ignored by the import process and their existing
data is not changed. This might occur on a full list of students, if an export was
made, changes were made to the import file, another student was added to
the Tick Grid and then the data was imported.
Any student tags or selections that were removed as part of the import
process, are not re-instated once the import has been completed successfully.
Instead, those students for whom data was present in the import file but could
not be imported, are tagged on completion.
If an assignment in a student row in the import file was not imported because
of a validation error, that student’s row on the Tick Grid is tagged. Filter the list
to display only the tagged students, then you can see easily where the
problems arose, and manually assign these students to groups, if required.

NOTE: Any ticks must be lower or upper case ‘T’. There must be only one tick
or no tick on a row.

You can choose whether the presence of rows in the import file that do not
contain any ticks should result in the deletion of previously existing
memberships or whether these memberships should be preserved unchanged.
12. Click the Save button to save the imported data to the database.

NOTE: If you wish to undo the process and cancel any changes that have
been made by running the import process, click the Undo button. ALL
changes made by the import process are undone.

Understanding the Validation Checks Performed when

Importing Data into Academic Management
Before student group memberships can be imported from an import file (either
a Curriculum Membership File or a Generic CSV File), a number of validation
checks are performed on the file, to ensure the validity of the data contained
therein.
Validation errors might occur if the import file is of an invalid format, if it
contains erroneous data or if the student list in the Tick Grid has been filtered
so that the students present in the import file are not displayed.
If any of the validation checks fail, a message is displayed on-screen before
the import commences, to inform you of any potential problems. At this stage,
it is possible to cancel the import and investigate the issues.
Alternatively, you can continue with the process. Only those records in the
import file that have passed all of the validation checks are imported into
Academic Management.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The validation checks performed depend entirely on

the type of import file selected.

The following sections describe the variety of validation checks that are
performed on an import file, once it has been selected in the Import
Curriculum Membership wizard.

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Validating the Import File Format

The import process fails if the selected import file is of an invalid format. The
validation rules applied to an import file depend entirely on the type of import
file selected.
If the import file has been created outside of Academic Management, e.g. a
Generic CSV File, it must adhere to the following formatting rules:
It must consist of two columns only.
It must not contain any row headers.
The first column must contain the Admission Number (AdNo) of a student
displayed in the Tick Grid.
The second column must contain the name of a destination group of the
Scheme to which you want to assign the student, as it is displayed in the
Tick Grid e.g. 9x/Ma1. This must be entered exactly as it is displayed in
the Tick Grid. Entering one group name incorrectly for one student causes
the entire import process to fail.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Care must be taken when manually creating a file for
import into Academic Management (Generic CSV File). An incorrect entry in
the import file can lead to students being granted membership of the wrong
group.

If the import file has been created as a result of an export from Academic
Management, e.g. a Curriculum Membership File, its format is automatically
accepted by the wizard. Each data row in a Curriculum Membership File
consists of:
Student Name
Gender
Year Group
Reg. Group
House
Admission Number
Date of Birth
‘Ticks’ to denote student group membership.

NOTES: In an import file, ticks are displayed as the letter ‘T’. When entering
group memberships, the ‘T’ is not case-sensitive. If ALL of the rows in the
import file are in an incorrect format, a message is displayed on-screen and
the import is cancelled. If there are one or more rows in the import file with
an incorrect format, these are displayed on-screen and you are asked
whether you want to continue with the import, without importing these rows.

Identifying the Link Between the Data Rows in the Import File and the
Visible/Filtered Students in the Tick Grid
The import process attempts to associate the data rows in the import file with
the students in the selected Tick Grid. It searches for both visible students
(those students that are present on the Tick Grid display) and filtered students
(those that have been removed from the display on the Tick Grid by using the
Filter function).

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Although the import process does not affect group memberships for students
who have been filtered out of the view on the Tick Grid, this information is
collected for reporting purposes later in the process.
The Admission Number is used to link a student in the import file with a
student in the Tick Grid, as it is a unique identifier within the SIMS SQL
database.

NOTE: In the import file, the Admission Number is called AdNo.

Some students, for example guest students and students in pre-admission

groups who have been accepted but not admitted, do not have admission
numbers. These students are identified by their export ID instead.
If the import file does not contain any data rows which can be linked with a
visible student, a message is displayed on-screen and the import process is
cancelled as there is no data to process.
If there are any data rows in the import file which can be linked with a student
who has been filtered out of view, a message is displayed on-screen explaining
that the student’s data will not be imported.
The number of data rows in the import file that could not be linked with either
visible or filtered students are also displayed. It is still possible to continue
with the import, although the data relating to these students will not be
imported.

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10|Managing Classroom Staff

Introduction .................................................................................139
Searching for Classroom Staff.......................................................140
Viewing and Editing Classroom Staff Details .................................141
Importing Classroom Staff Automatically .....................................145
Understanding Staff Codes ...........................................................145
Adding a Member of Classroom Staff Manually .............................146
Deleting a Member of Classroom Staff ..........................................147
Understanding Subject Specialisms ..............................................147
Understanding Staff Roles ............................................................148
Editing the Role History of a Member of Classroom Staff ..............149

Introduction
In schools a variety of people take on classroom roles. These include people
other than teachers employed by the school: non-employees such as agency
staff, consortium staff, and volunteers. Up until now, it has not been
straightforward to include on the timetable people other than teachers
employed by the school.
When a timetable is imported into SQL, staff who are scheduled with lessons
are identified by their Staff Code (often formed from a teacher’s initials), by
which staff are represented on timetable displays, printouts, etc.
A category of person called Classroom Staff has been introduced to indicate
any person who can be assigned to lessons on the timetable. Each Classroom
staff member is given a Staff Code. A person’s staff code may naturally change
at some point in time, for example because of a change of name. The system
retains a historical record of Staff Code changes so that records of staff in
previous Academic Years remain consistent, and so that changes of Staff
Codes for future Academic Years can be planned in advance.
‘Staff Roles’ are used to distinguish between types of Classroom Staff.
Currently there are just two possible roles: Teacher and Teaching Associate.
Any Classroom staff member can be assigned to one or more Staff roles.
All people recorded in Personnel with a Staff Code and marked as ‘Teaching
Staff’ are given a Staff Role of ‘Teacher’.

NOTE: In many cases, you may want to use the functionality in Personnel 7
to capture information on police checks, etc. for any person who will be
displayed on a timetable, even if they are not an employee of your school. If
this is the case, you should first enter them as a person in Personnel 7, save
the record and click the Classroom Staff Details link in the Links panel on
the right-hand side of the page to add them as a member of Classroom Staff.

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Searching for Classroom Staff

Before viewing or editing the details of Classroom staff, you must select them
from the Find Classroom Staff browser.
1. Select Focus | Person | Manage Classroom Staff to display the Find
Classroom Staff browser.

2. Enter any required search parameters. If no search parameters are entered

and the Search button is clicked, all known Classroom Staff are displayed.
Filter the list by selecting search criteria from the drop-down lists, such as the
current Academic Year or the person’s Role within the school (e.g. Teacher
or Teaching Assistant).
You can also enter all or part of the employee’s Surname, Staff Code or the
Subject for which a person is eligible to assist in the fields provided.
It is also possible to set the parameters to find staff who have no Staff Code
during the selected Academic Year, by selecting No from the has staff code?
drop-down list.
3. Click the Search button or press Enter to carry out the search based on the
parameters entered.
Any matching people returned by the search are shown with their Name, staff
Code, Gender, Role(s), Subject(s) and whether or not they are Active in
the currently selected Academic Year.
In the previous graphic, the search has been carried out on Classroom Staff in
the current Academic Year (Active = Yes and 2006/2007), whose roles
include Teacher on today’s date.

IMPORTANT NOTE: People are displayed in the list only if they have been
given a Staff Code in Personnel 7 AND they are either scheduled on the
timetable during the current Academic Year or if they are a member of the
Teaching Staff Group (formerly known as Teacher Group) as of today’s date.

The content of the browser can be sorted by clicking on the appropriate column
heading. To clear any search parameters that have been entered, click the
Reset All button. Please note that this clears from the browser only the search
parameters entered, not the result of the search.
4. The content of the browser can be printed, if required, by clicking the Print
button.

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5. If the search result does not include the required person, you are advised to
perform another search using fewer search criteria, for example enter only
their surname.
If the required person is still not displayed in the search results, they might not
yet be recognised as a Classroom Staff member. This would be particularly
common if the person you are searching for is not an employee of the school,
e.g. a student, contact, parent/guardian.
Alternatively, the required person might not have been identified in Personnel
7 as a Teacher. You are advised to check in Personnel 7 whether or not the
person has been identified as a teacher.
6. A Classroom Staff member can be added manually, if required (please see
Adding a Member of Classroom Staff Manually on page 146).
7. If you identify a person displayed in the search results who you do not think
should be a member of Classroom Staff, they can be ‘demoted’ and not
removed from SIMS (please see Deleting a Member of Classroom Staff on page
147).
8. Highlight the required employee and click the Open button or double-click the
required employee to display the Classroom Staff Details page.
More Information:
Viewing and Editing Classroom Staff Details on page 141
Importing Classroom Staff Automatically on page 145
Adding a Member of Classroom Staff Manually on page 146
Deleting a Member of Classroom Staff on page 147

Viewing and Editing Classroom Staff Details

After importing or manually adding Classroom Staff, it is possible to view or
edit their details. This is particularly useful if you want to update either their
list of subject specialisms or their roles within the school.
1. Select Focus | Person | Manage Classroom Staff to display the Find
Classroom Staff browser.
2. Search for and select an existing Classroom Staff member (please see
Searching for Classroom Staff on page 140).
The Basic Details panel is displayed.

The selected person’s basic details are displayed in read-only mode.

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The Classroom Information panel displays more in-depth information

regarding the selected person, including their subject specialisms and their
Staff Code.

3. The Staff Code (nn/nn) displays the Staff Code assigned to the person for
the selected Academic Year (in this example, 06/07). This code can be edited
if required, by entering the new code in this field.
This updates the Existing code assignments list with the name of any staff
member whose code matches that which is entered. If the code entered
matches a code already assigned to another person, the background colour of
the field changes to red and a message is displayed in the Status Bar. It is not
possible to save the record until a unique code (across the current Academic
Year) has been entered.

NOTE: Once a person has been made a member of Classroom Staff, their
Staff Code can be maintained in Academic Management ONLY; it will no
longer be possible to edit it in Personnel 7 (please see Understanding Staff
Codes on page 145).

4. Any subjects for which the selected person has sufficient knowledge to assist
in the classroom are displayed in the Subject(s) list. To edit this list, click the
Edit button adjacent to the Subject(s) list to display the Add/Remove
Subject(s) for <Classroom Staff> dialog.

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5. Amend the selection of subjects by selecting or deselecting the appropriate

check box(es). The list of subjects displayed are those that have been entered
as subjects (either in Nova-T or via route Tools | Setups | Subjects in
SIMS).
6. Click the OK button to return to the Classroom Staff Details page.
7. An alternative method of removing a subject from the selection is by
highlighting the required subject on the Classroom Staff Details page and
clicking the Remove button.
8. The order in which subjects are displayed can be changed by highlighting the
subject to be moved and clicking the Up or Down buttons.
9. The Role(s) as at <Today’s Date> list displays the selected person’s
current teaching role(s) within the school, if you are working in the current
Academic Year (including those that have been or will be active at any point
during the selected Academic Year). If you are working in the next Academic
Year, the roles displayed are those that will be in place as of the first day of the
next Academic Year.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to be set up as a Classroom Staff member, a

person MUST have had a Role for at least one day during the selected
Academic Year. If a person DOES have at least one ‘Role-day’ in the
Academic Year, they can be assigned a Staff Code and be available to provide
assistance in that Academic Year.

10. The role associated with the selected Classroom Staff member can be
amended by selecting the appropriate check box adjacent to the required role,
which allocates the role to that person as of today’s date. A role can be
removed from a Classroom Staff member by deselecting the required check
box, which revokes their role as of today’s date.

NOTE: Currently it is possible to select one role per member of Classroom

Staff ONLY.

Alternatively, a role membership for a member of staff can be terminated on a

given date by clicking the Terminate All button to display the Staff Role
Termination dialog.

Enter the Date on which to terminate all roles or click the Calendar
button and select the required date. Default the termination of all staff roles to
the last day of the current Academic Year by clicking the End of Year button.
Click the OK button to confirm the selection.
As a person’s role might change throughout the year, or across year
boundaries, it is possible to view past role assignments and to view or edit
present and future role assignments.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: By terminating a staff role using one of these methods,

the appropriate roles are removed regardless of any previous or planned
classroom assignments.

11. To view the role assignments in more detail, click the Edit button to display
the Edit Roles for <Classroom Staff> dialog.

This timeline view is similar to that used in the Historical Curriculum

Membership Details dialog in Academic Management. It displays the full
history of a person’s role assignment and allows you to make changes to a
person’s role history.
12. Click the OK button to return to the Classroom Staff Details page.
13. Click the Save button to save any changes made.
14. To view the details for another Classroom Staff member whose details were
displayed in the browser, click either the Next or Previous button. To perform
another search, click the Browse button to display the browser (which was
hidden from view when the previous selection was made) and enter different
search criteria. Alternatively, click the Close Window button to finish working
with Classroom Staff.
More Information:
Understanding Subject Specialisms on page 147
Understanding Staff Roles on page 148
Editing the Role History of a Member of Classroom Staff on page 149

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Importing Classroom Staff Automatically

The system attempts to identify all of those people in SIMS who should be
recognised as Classroom Staff (i.e. somebody who should be made available
to provide assistance in a lesson).
This is achieved by locating those staff records in Personnel that have a Staff
Code and where either the ‘Teacher’ flag is selected or where the person has
been scheduled on the timetable. Any employees matching these criteria are
imported into Academic Management and given a Role of Teacher (the roles
associated with Classroom Staff can be viewed and edited on the Classroom
Staff Details page). This initial automated process means that you do not
have to select each teacher and manually make them assignable.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This assumes that all people marked with the ‘Teacher
Tick’ in Personnel are in fact teachers. Some schools might have marked
support staff as teachers so that they could be imported onto the timetable.
If this is the case in your school, you should correct the list of staff roles after
the import.

When a person is made into a member of Classroom Staff in this way,

Academic Management adds to their list of subject specialisms the subject of
any class for which the person is timetabled during the current Academic Year.
This list (the Subject(s) list on the Classroom Staff Details page) can be
edited subsequently if required.

Understanding Staff Codes

Any Staff Code added in Academic Management must be unique across an
Academic Year, it may contain up to three valid alpha-numeric characters
(A-Z, 0-9, _ and *) and must not be blank. Staff codes must also be valid and
unique in Personnel 7 prior to importing into Academic Management.
If a staff code in Personnel 7 is assigned to a different person in Academic
Management, the import from Personnel 7 of this staff code fails.
If a member of Classroom Staff (Neil J Ross) has been allocated a Staff Code
of NJR for the current (e.g. 2006/07) Academic Year, but a newly appointed
employee (Nelly J Roberts) has been allocated the same code of NJR for the
next Academic Year, the Staff Code for either Nelly or Neil must be changed for
the next Academic Year to maintain uniqueness during Academic Year
2006/07.
On creation of the new Academic Year, SIMS analyses all Classroom Staff to
determine whether records should be created for them for that Academic Year.
For each member of Classroom Staff to be created for the next Academic Year
(those that have a staff role membership within the next Academic Year), the
system copies their Staff Code from the current Academic Year into the next
Academic Year.

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Adding a Member of Classroom Staff Manually

This process should be run if you would like to make any non-teacher, whose
details are stored in SIMS, a member of Classroom Staff. This might be useful
if, for example, a Year 13 student is going to be used as a Classroom Assistant
for a Year 8 class, or if a parent has volunteered to help out with reading. It is
also possible to add a person as a member of Classroom Staff who is unknown
to SIMS.
Any person added as Classroom Staff in this way is displayed with the existing
school employees in the Find Classroom Staff browser.
1. Select Focus | Person | Manage Classroom Staff to display the Find
Classroom Staff browser.
2. Ensure that the person for whom you are searching has not yet been identified
as Classroom Staff (i.e. has not been identified as a teacher in Personnel) by
entering search parameters and clicking the Search button (please see
Searching for Classroom Staff on page 140).
3. If you are certain the person does not already exist, click the New button to
display the Add person page. The Basic Details panel will be displayed.

4. To refine the list of people returned in the browser, enter part or all of the
person’s Surname and/or Forename and select a Person Role from the
drop-down list.
5. Click the Continue button or press Enter to perform the search.

The system displays the names of all non-employees known to SIMS who
match the search criteria entered in the Matched People list. To facilitate
selection, their Role(s) and Home Address details are also displayed.
6. Highlight the person you wish to add as Classroom Staff and click the Open
button to return to the Classroom Staff Details page. Alternatively, if the
required person is not displayed in the list, click the New button to create a
new person based on the search criteria entered.
The selected person’s name is displayed in the Title Bar of the page (please see
Viewing and Editing Classroom Staff Details on page 141).

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7. Once all of the details have been entered, click the Save button to save the
changes.

Deleting a Member of Classroom Staff

This process removes a person as Classroom Staff, so that they are not visible
in Academic Management and therefore cannot be used as a resource when
arranging classroom assistance.

NOTE: This process deletes a person from the list of Classroom Staff on the
system, but it does not delete their staff record from SIMS.

There are circumstances in which it is not possible to remove a person from

the list of Classroom Staff. Classroom Staff can be deleted only if they are not
assigned to an event in SIMS, e.g. a lesson, classroom assistance, etc.
1. Select Focus | Person | Manage Classroom Staff to display the Find
Classroom Staff browser.
2. Search for the Classroom Staff you wish to delete (please see Searching for
Classroom Staff on page 140).
Highlight the person’s name, click the Remove button and select the required
option from the drop-down list.

Removing Assignability from the Selected Year

Selecting Remove assignability from selected year removes the person’s
assignability as a member of Classroom Staff for the current Academic Year
only, therefore preventing them from providing classroom assistance. If the
person has been assigned to any lessons on the timetable during the selected
Academic Year, it is not possible to delete them.
However, if no timetable periods or classroom assistances have been
assigned, the deletion can continue. Click the Yes button to confirm the
deletion or the No button to cancel the process.

Removing All Assignability

Selecting Remove all assignability removes the person’s assignability as a
member of Classroom Staff for the current and all future Academic Years,
therefore preventing them from providing classroom assistance. If the person
has been assigned to any lessons on the timetable, it is not possible to delete
them.
However, if the person has never been assigned to any timetable period, the
deletion can continue. Click the Yes button to confirm the deletion or the No
button to cancel the process.

Understanding Subject Specialisms

Members of staff might have experience or qualifications in a wider range of
subjects than they teach at the school. It is possible to record a list of these
subject specialisms against any Classroom Staff member.
The maintenance of these records can occur in two ways; automatically and
manually. Subject specialisms are generated automatically as part of the
import timetable and importing Classroom Staff processes. The process can
also be run manually using the Classroom Staff Details page.

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A member of staff can have more than one subject specialism, so it is possible
to specify an ‘order’ which determines their suitability for providing classroom
assistance from their strongest subjects (displayed at the top of the list)
through to their least strong (displayed at the bottom of the list) by
highlighting a subject and clicking the Up or Down buttons.

NOTE: The list of staff subject specialisms is not limited to the subjects a
teacher teaches on the timetable.

Updating the Subject Specialism List

For planning purposes, Nova-T6 records departmental allocations against staff
indicating the subjects that they are expected to teach. There is no automatic
transfer of the subject allocation to SIMS. Therefore, the subject list for
teachers in SIMS needs to be maintained independently through Focus |
Person | Manage Classroom Staff.

Understanding Staff Roles

There are currently two types of staff role, named Teacher and Teaching
Assistant. Only one staff role can be given to a member of Classroom Staff.
Once assigned, staff roles can be edited through the Classroom Staff
Details page.
The precise effect of selecting a role check box depends on circumstances. If
no further memberships of the selected staff role have been planned for the
selected person in the future, membership of the selected role takes effect
from today’s date and continues indefinitely.
However, if further memberships of the selected staff role have been planned
for the selected person in the future, membership of the selected role takes
effect from today’s date and run on to the end of their next future membership
of the staff role.
Deselecting a role check box terminates membership of the associated staff
role as of yesterday’s date and removes any future memberships of the
selected staff role.
Clicking the Terminate All button on the Classroom Staff Details page
terminates all roles for the selected person as of a date specified by the user.
It also removes any future memberships for that role (even non-contiguous
memberships). This function is particularly useful when a person is leaving the
school; all of their staff roles can be terminated in one process to indicate that
they offer no further staff role beyond a certain date. This process is also run
automatically for students added as Classroom Staff (when they are given a
date of leaving, or in the case of employees of the school, an employment end
date).

IMPORTANT NOTE: A member of Classroom Staff MUST have (or must

have had) at least one staff role in the current Academic Year. If no role has
been specified and you try to save any changes made in the page, a message
is displayed and you are not permitted to continue.

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Due to the historical nature of the SIMS SQL database, a history of role
‘memberships’ is kept over time, making it possible to view memberships ‘as
they were’ on a particular date and to report on them elsewhere in SIMS. In
order to record a role membership, the minimum duration of assignment to a
staff role is one day.
Multiple ‘disjoint’ assignments are permitted, i.e. a person can be a Teaching
Assistant during the Autumn Term, no longer serve this role between
Christmas and Easter and then re-assume the role in the Summer term.
Separate but contiguous memberships are merged into one continuous
membership.

Editing the Role History of a Member of Classroom Staff

This section describes the use of the Edit Roles for <Member of Classroom
Staff> dialog, which displays the full history of a person’s role assignment. It
also offers a convenient way of editing a person’s role membership.
1. Select Focus | Person | Manage Classroom Staff to display the Find
Classroom Staff browser.
2. Search for and select an existing member of Classroom Staff (please see
Searching for Classroom Staff on page 140).
3. Click the Edit button adjacent to the Role(s) panel on the Classroom Staff
Details page to display the Edit Roles for <Member of Classroom Staff>
dialog.

The Edit Roles for <Member of Classroom Staff> dialog displays a history
of a member of Classroom Staff’s role memberships, using a calendar ruler at
the top of the display and timelines to indicate their period of membership for
each of the staff roles. The initial view displays role memberships for the
current Academic Year (the name of which is displayed adjacent to the
calendar ruler, in this example Academic Year 2006/2007), but this can be
edited if required.

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A vertical green line indicates today’s date (Effective Start Date) and a vertical
red line indicates the end of the current Academic Year (Effective End Date).
Highlighting a timeline displays further detailed information relating to the
staff role membership. The Selected Role displays the name of the role
selected and the date range of the selected staff role membership is displayed
in the Selected Date Range field.

NOTE: For those staff role memberships whose end date has not been
specified, i.e. an ongoing membership, the end date is blank. For example,
for a membership starting on 1st September 2006 with no end date, this is
displayed in the Selected Date Range field as 01/09/2006 - <Blank>.

Hovering over the calendar ruler or anywhere in the timeline area displays the
day of the week on which the cursor is resting (Cursor Day) and the date
(Cursor Date).
If you wish to edit the dates between applying any changes, right-click the
required date on the calendar ruler and select either the Select Effective
Start Date or Select Effective End Date from the pop-up menu.
Selecting Select Effective Start Date moves the green vertical line to that
date. If this date is not changed, it points to today’s date. Selecting Select
Effective End Date moves the red vertical line to that date. If this date is not
changed, it points to the last day of the current Academic Year.
4. To view staff role memberships for another Academic Year, click either the
Back or Forward button.
5. To view a particular area of a timeline in more detail, click the Zoom button.
Click the Zoom button again to return to the normal view.
6. To view or edit the precise start or end date of a staff role membership, either
double-click the timeline bar or highlight the timeline bar and click the Open
button to display the Add/Edit Date Range dialog.

7. Enter a Start Date and an End Date for the selected staff role membership,
or click the appropriate Calendar button and select the required dates.
Leaving the End Date field blank indicates an ongoing membership, but this
can be edited if required.
8. Click the OK button to return to the Edit Roles for <Member of Classroom
Staff> dialog.
9. To create a new staff role membership, click the New button to display the
Add/Edit Date Range dialog. The End Date defaults to blank to indicate an
ongoing membership, but this can be edited if required.

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10. To delete a staff role membership for a member of Classroom Staff, highlight
the required timeline and click the Delete button. Alternatively, click the
Terminate All button and enter the Date on which to terminate all roles.

Relaxing the Role Membership Eligibility Rules

Click the Relax button in the Edit Roles for <Member of Classroom
Staff> dialog to relax the eligibility rules so that members of Classroom Staff
can be allocated to a role retrospectively.
When the Edit Roles for <Member of Classroom Staff> dialog is opened,
Relaxed Mode is disabled.
Clicking the Relax button relaxes the membership eligibility rules for the
current role.
Once you have finished working in Relaxed Mode, click the Relax button again
to restore the read-only status of the added students.

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11|Additional Information
Selecting Dates from the Calendar ................................................153
Selecting the Academic Year .........................................................153
Understanding Named Date Ranges ..............................................155
Understanding Curriculum Cascading ...........................................159
Academic Management Buttons ....................................................162
Academic Management Menus in SIMS .........................................166

Selecting Dates from the Calendar

The Calendar button featured in many SIMS pages enables you to specify the
date on which the requested data is based. It is possible to view data from
previous years, e.g. classes a student attended in the last academic year. The
Calendar date defaults to today’s date unless otherwise specified. It can be
changed as follows:
1. Click the Calendar button to display the current month, with today’s date
highlighted.
2. Click the Forward or Back arrows to change the month as required, then click
the specific date. Alternatively, click the month displayed to select a different
month from the drop-down list.
3. Click the Year to display up and down arrows, allowing you to move between
years as necessary.
4. Double-click the date and it will now be displayed in the date field.

Selecting the Academic Year

If more than one academic year has been defined in the system, Academic
Management enables you to choose the one with which you want to work. For
example, you might recently have been recording student group membership
changes in academic year 2006/2007, but would now like to work on class lists
for academic year 2007/2008. In order to edit data in another academic year,
you must select 2007/2008 as the current academic year.

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1. Select Tools | Academic Management | Set Academic Year to display the

Select Academic Year dialog.

A list of all of the academic years defined in SIMS is displayed, together with
their start and end dates. The Current column informs the user of the
currently selected academic year. In this example, the current academic year
is 2006/2007.
2. Highlight the academic year to which you want to change. In this example, the
academic year will be 2007/2008.
3. Click the OK button to change the academic year.
To start working with the newly selected academic year, SIMS must be
restarted. When the Select Academic Year dialog is re-opened, the Current
flag is displayed against the newly selected academic year.
The setting of an academic year is on a per user basis, so changing the year
does not affect other users of Academic Management. The system remembers
the academic year in which you have selected to work, and other users can
continue to work with their selected academic year.

NOTE: Only the Academic Management areas of SIMS are affected by this
setting.

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Understanding Named Date Ranges

The Effective Date Range dialog offers two methods of selecting the date
range you want to apply to a particular function. These are Custom Date
Range and Named Date Range.

Selecting a Custom Date Range allows two discrete dates for a specific
purpose to be selected. This is particularly useful for ad hoc editing of data, or
for those occasions where a Named Date Range has not been defined.
Selecting a Named Date Range allows a pre-defined range of dates to be
selected, over which time a particular piece of information is to be considered
valid. Selecting one of these date ranges is particularly useful if you ordinarily
work within a specific time frame, for example setting up student group
memberships for the entire academic year, for the entire working academic
year, or for specific terms within the academic year. Selecting a pre-defined
Named Date Range allows you to use and re-use a commonly used date range,
quickly and easily, rather than select the dates manually on each occasion.
Examples of useful Named Date Ranges might include:
Academic Year – where the associated date range runs from the first day
of the academic year through to the day before the start of the following
academic year.
Working Academic Year – where the associated date range runs from the
first day of the school year (the first day the students attend school in an
academic year) through to the last working day of the school year (the last
day the students attend school in an academic year).
Whole Terms – where the associated date range runs from the first day of
term to the last day of the end of term holiday (e.g. 1 September through
to 3 January). A variant of this can be created, to remove the end of term
holiday from the date range if required.
Half Terms where the associated date range runs from the first day of a
half-term, through to the last day of the half-term holiday. A variant of
this can be created, to remove the half-term holiday from the date range
if required.

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The Academic Year, Working Academic Year and Whole Term options are
calculated by the system, based on dates already in your system. This can be
used in conjunction with the Restrict date range from today to end check
box to further refine the date range selected. Custom date ranges can also be
selected from this dialog.
However, the variants of the date ranges as described in the list, together with
the half-term date ranges and any other useful date ranges, can be created
manually in order to facilitate the use of Academic Management in the school.

Important Points for Consideration when Defining Named Date Ranges

An important factor to consider when assigning student group memberships,
is the start and end date for each membership. Consider the common situation
in a school, where the start date of the academic year, the date on which
timetable data is first available (which is dictated by the timetable export to
the SIMS SQL database) and the date on which students return to school
might be three different dates. This leaves the Curriculum Manager with a
decision to make, regarding the date from which student group memberships
should be created.
One issue that might arise if an incorrect start date is selected for a student
group membership, is when the first day of the timetable availability precedes
the date on which students return from a holiday. At first, it might appear to be
valid to create student group memberships which start on the day that the
students return from their summer break, for example. However, this would
leave what would appear to be a ‘gap’ in their membership at the beginning of
the academic year. Once memberships have been assigned, the Tick Grid
displays the o flag (missing curriculum) for those students with such an
arrangement, if the Effective date Range was set to the actual beginning of the
academic year. This inaccurate flagging of missing curriculum could in fact
mask other genuine problems.
If student group memberships finish before the timetable availability finishes,
similar problems might occur at the end of an academic year.
Another point to consider when defining Named Date Ranges is the end date
for student group memberships. If you want to assign students to groups
during the Autumn term, you might want to end this assignment on 19
December (before the Christmas holiday). However, if assignments for the
Spring term start on 5 January, another apparent ‘gap’ in memberships would
be assumed, between 20 December and 4 January as students appear to have
no curriculum assigned. Instead of finishing student group memberships prior
to the Christmas holiday, you might want the memberships to continue until
the last day of the holiday. Using this method, at any time during the academic
year, it would be possible to answer the question ‘What is this student’s
curriculum?’.
Therefore, to avoid any apparent gaps in student group memberships, the
Named Date Ranges supplied by Academic Management include their
associated holiday at the end of the term. To avoid similar issues when
creating a Named Date Range, you are strongly advised to include any
holidays at the end of the group assignments. This is particularly useful if you
want to create a Named Date Range for each half-term. Similarly, if you create
a Named Date Range to cover a working week, you are advised to set up the
range from Monday to the following Sunday.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: When defining your own Named Date Ranges, the
events on which the date ranges are based are those that have previously
been defined in the School Diary. You should ensure that the dates for each
term, half-term and holiday are defined in the School Diary before
attempting to create a Named Date Range (please see Defining Named Date
Ranges on page 157). Diary events named Start of Autumn Term, Last
Day of Autumn Term, First Day of Christmas Holiday etc. should be
created and scheduled for the appropriate day in your diary.

Defining Named Date Ranges

1. Select Tools | Setups | Curriculum Setup | Curriculum to display the
Curriculum Setup page.
2. Click the Named Date Ranges hyperlink to display the Named Date
Ranges panel.

Adding a Named Date Range

1. Click the New button to display the Add/Edit Curriculum Named Date
Range dialog.

2. Enter a Name for the date range.

3. Either enter or select the Start and End date for the date range. This can be
achieved using one of the following methods.
Enter the date into the appropriate date field in DD/MM/YYYY format.
Click the Calendar button and select the required date from the Calendar.

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Click the Browser button to display the Select Curriculum Diary Date
dialog.

To assist you in ensuring that there are no gaps in group memberships, the
Day of the week is displayed.
Highlight the required date and click the OK button to return to the Add/Edit
Curriculum Named Date Range dialog.
4. Click the OK button to return to the Named Date Range panel on the
Curriculum Setup page.

The Named Date Range that has been created is displayed in the list.
5. Click the Save button to save the changes made.

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Editing a Named Date Range

NOTE: Only user-defined Named Date Ranges can be edited.

1. Highlight the Named Date Range you want to edit and click the Open button to
display the Add/Edit Curriculum Named Date Range dialog.

2. Edit the details of the Named Date Range (please see Adding a Named Date
Range on page 157).
3. Click the OK button to return to the Named Date Range panel on the
Curriculum Setup page.
4. Click the Save button to save the changes made.

Deleting a Named Date Range

Highlight the Named Date Range you want to delete and click the Delete
button.

Understanding Curriculum Cascading

Additional functionality has been introduced in the area of curriculum
cascading to populate the destination groups of singleton Schemes
automatically, under a number of circumstances.
Group 8-A is the source group of various cluster Schemes, each of which has
one class as a destination group, and these classes are 8-A/Fr, 8-A/Hi, 8-A/Ma,
8-A/Sc, etc. Memberships of these classes need to be created automatically
when a student is placed in group 8-A manually, using either the Tick Grid or
the Student Curriculum Summary page.
When the Academic Promotion wizard is used, and a promotion rule exists
to promote members of group 7-A in the current academic year into group 8-A
in the next Academic Year, the students who are being assigned membership
of group 8-A also need to join classes 8-A/Fr, 8-A/Hi, 8-A/Ma, 8-A/Sc, etc.
without any additional user intervention.
If a new singleton class 8-A/Gg is added to linear group 8-A in Nova-T4 or
Nova-T6 after students have already been assigned to group 8-A in Academic
Management, then when the new curriculum plan is exported to SQL for a
chosen date range, students should be given membership of 8-A/Gg
automatically for any part of that date range during which they were members
of 8-A.
If student memberships are being exported to SQL from Options, and some of
these memberships are of linear groups belonging to an option block rather
than classes, then the students need memberships of the singleton classes
associated with those linear groups.

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Cascading Group Memberships After Submission from Nova-T

(Automatic)
When a new linear group is submitted from Nova-T (using the Transfer
Curriculum routine), its student group memberships in Academic Management
is populated automatically.

Cascading Group Memberships After Submission from Options

(Automatic)
This is an automatic process which fills out the membership of singleton
clusters if a group has been split into two classes.
Normally the option blocks in SQL into which the Options program submits its
memberships are simple (the destination groups of each option block are all
classes).
However, it is possible for the timetabler to introduce complexity into the
curriculum structure after the blocks have been handed over from Options to
Nova-T, but before the curriculum has been submitted to SQL. In particular,
the timetabler might decide to make a class linear, by creating a second class
taught by another teacher at different periods. The two classes each now
belong to a cluster Scheme sourced by a new linear group. It is student
memberships of this group that are exported from Options to SQL, and the
cascade process ensures that these memberships are copied to the two
classes as well.

Cascading Group Memberships for a Single Scheme (Manual)

This is a manual process which forces a recalculation of the singleton cascade
dependent on membership within a Scheme.
1. Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment
by Scheme to display the Find Curriculum Scheme browser.
2. Enter search parameters and click the Search button or press Enter without
entering any search parameters to display all of the Schemes in the curriculum
plan.
Limit the list by selecting search criteria such as Year Taught In and Type
from the drop-down list, or by entering the first few letters of a specific
Scheme Name. Click the Search button or press Enter to display the filtered
list.
3. Highlight the required Scheme and click the Open button or double-click the
required Scheme to display the Select Effective Date Range dialog.
4. Select an appropriate date range and click the OK button to display the
selected Scheme on the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page (please
see Selecting an Effective Date Range on page 68).
5. Click the Action button and select Cascade Memberships from the
drop-down menu.
You are asked if you want to remove old memberships of singleton Schemes
before the cascade is implemented.
Once the cascade has been performed, a summary of the actions taken is
displayed. This information includes the number of students whose
memberships have changed and a list of the Schemes and groups affected by
the cascade.
6. Click the Save button to save the changes made by the cascade.

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Cascading Group Memberships for a Single Student (Manual)

This is a manual process which forces a recalculation of the singleton cascade
throughout a student’s curriculum.
1. Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment
by Student to display the Find Student for Curriculum Assignment
browser.

2. Enter the first few letters of the student’s Surname and/or Forename to filter
the list and therefore make it easier to locate them. Additional filters are also
available.
3. Click the Search button or press Enter to search for the required student,
based on the filters that have been selected.
4. Double-click the student you want to work with or highlight their name and
click the Open button.
5. Click the Action button and select Cascade Memberships from the
drop-down menu.
You are asked if you want to remove old memberships of singleton Schemes
before the cascade is implemented.
Once the cascade has been performed, a summary of the actions taken is
displayed, including a list of the Schemes and groups affected by the cascade.
6. Click the Save button to save the changes made by the cascade.

NOTE: The order in which the Schemes are cascaded is ‘top-down’, as the
cascade could, in theory, produce new Schemes in which the student takes
part.

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Academic Management Buttons

The majority of the buttons available in Academic Management in SIMS have
a keyboard equivalent. Generally, keyboard shortcuts are provided for those
processes that are likely to be used on a frequent basis.

Buttons With a Keyboard Shortcut Equivalent

Ctrl + Z
Undo Changes button

Allows you to undo or cancel the changes made since the last save, one
change at a time. Once data has been saved, further changes cannot be
undone. This feature works in the same way as the Microsoft Word® ‘undo’
feature.

Ctrl + Y
Redo Changes button

Allows you to re-instate the changes that were originally cancelled by clicking
the Undo button. Once data has been saved, further changes cannot be
re-instated.

Ctrl + S
Save button

Saves any changes to the current record.

Ctrl + O
Open selected item browser

Opens the highlighted record in a browser. Once opened, this item can then be
viewed or edited. This is equivalent to double-clicking an item in a browser.

Ctrl + P
Print button

Produces a printed list based on the current page.

Ctrl + B
Browse button

Shows or hides the browser for the current page.

Ctrl + >
Next button

Opens the next record in the database, as defined by the order in the browser.

Ctrl + <
Previous button

Opens the previous record in the database, as defined by the order in the
browser.

Ctrl + F4
Close button

Closes the current page and prompts you to save any unsaved data.

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Esc
Cancel button

Closes a dialog without saving changes.

Shift + F4
Unpin button

Detaches the current page from the main SIMS application, allowing it to be
treated as a separate window. Press Alt+Tab to cycle through the open
windows.

Buttons Without a Keyboard Shortcut Equivalent

Up Level button

The Up Level and Down Level buttons provide a means of navigating the
curriculum plan hierarchy (please see Examples of Schemes in Academic
Management on page 12).
With a particular Scheme highlighted in the Find Curriculum Scheme browser,
clicking the Up Level button causes the Schemes immediately above it in the
curriculum plan hierarchy to be listed. For example, if the highlighted Scheme
is a block, then all bands which it serves will be listed.

Down Level button

The Student Curriculum Summary page displays those Schemes within

which either a student is eligible for membership or already has membership.
Clicking the Add button on this page allows you to find, and add to the display,
additional Schemes for which the student is not eligible.
The Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page displays those students
who are either eligible for membership or already have membership of its
groups. Clicking the Add button on this page allows you to find, and add to the
display, additional students not eligible for membership within the Scheme.
In either case, selecting Relaxed Mode allows you to give the student the
required ineligible membership.

Add button

Click this button when a Scheme is highlighted on the Student Curriculum

Summary page, or a student is highlighted on the Memberships of Groups
of a Scheme page, to display the Historical Curriculum Membership
Details dialog. This dialog displays details of the student’s group
memberships within the Scheme.

Open Details button

Opens the highlighted record in a dialog. Once opened, this item can then be
viewed or edited. This is equivalent to double-clicking an item in a dialog.

Open selected item (dialog)

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Click this button when you have highlighted a student on the Membership of
Groups of a Scheme page. The Student Curriculum Summary page will
be displayed for that student, displaying all of their curriculum group
memberships and the resulting timetable.

Student button

Click this button when you have highlighted a Scheme on the Student
Curriculum Summary page. The Membership of Groups of a Scheme
page will be displayed for that Scheme, displaying the assignment of students
to its groups.

Allocate button

For Schemes consisting of more than one group, clicking this button offers for
selection a number of methods for allocating students to groups within the
Scheme. The options are Automatic Random Allocation or Student
Carousel Rotation Wizard.

Narrow button

Toggles the width of the columns on a Tick Grid between narrow and normal.
When in narrow mode, columns headings are displayed vertically.

Relax button

Click this button to relax eligibility rules so that students can be allocated to
groups for which they are ineligible.

Exclusive button

When editing student group memberships within a Scheme on the Historical

Curriculum Membership Details dialog, click this button (so the button is
‘selected’) to prevent the creation of simultaneous membership of more than
one group.

Action button

On the Student Curriculum Summary page, click this button to display a

menu relating to the displayed Schemes.
On the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page, click this button to
display a menu relating to the displayed students.
All of the functionality available from the Action button can also be accessed
from context (right mouse click) menus on these pages.

Zoom button

Allows you to view a timeline at a higher resolution, so that intervals of a single

day can be seen clearly. Clicking this button a second time restores the view to
its default setting.

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Browser button

Allows you to select an Effective Date Range in the Tick Grid on the
Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page or on the Curriculum
Membership Details page.

Singletons button

By default, the Student Curriculum Summary page will show only those
Schemes that have more than one destination group. If you would also like to
view Schemes consisting of a single group (Singleton Schemes), click the
Singletons button.

Keyboard Shortcuts Without Button Equivalents

The keyboard shortcuts detailed here are representative of standard
commands used in Windows®.

Ctrl + A Select All

Highlights all the items in a list.

Ctrl + C Copy

Copy a selected item or items to the Windows® clipboard.

Ctrl + V Paste

Pastes an item into an area of the screen that has previously been copied to
the Windows® clipboard.

Alt + F4 Exit

Exits from SIMS.

Tab

Cycles forwards through the fields on a page.

Shift + Tab

Cycles backwards through the fields on a page.

Arrow Keys (Up, Down, Left and Right)

Moves one cell at a time around a grid.

Page Up and Page Down

Moves one screen at a time up or down a page.

Home

Moves to the first item on the current grid row.

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End

Moves to the last item on the current grid row.

Ctrl + Home

Moves to the first item on the first row of the grid.

Ctrl + End

Moves to the last item on the last row of the grid.

Academic Management Menus in SIMS

The Academic Management functionality is accessed from three menu routes
on the SIMS Menu Bar:
Whole Curriculum Assignment can be accessed by selecting Focus | School |
Academic Structure | Whole Curriculum Assignment.
Curriculum Assignment by Scheme can be accessed by selecting Focus |
School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment by Scheme.
Curriculum Assignment by Student can be accessed by selecting Focus |
School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment by Student.

NOTE: Curriculum Assignment by Student can also be accessed by selecting

Focus | Student | Curriculum Assignment by Student.

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Glossary
Academic Year
The representation in the SIMS SQL database of a school year. Each academic
year has a name, e.g. Academic Year 2005/2006, and defines a date range,
typically 01/09/yy – 31/08/yy. Academic years are defined using SIMS and
contain terms, half-term holidays, holidays, teacher training days, school
closure days and statutory holidays.
In Academic Management, you always work within a single academic year
(please see Selecting the Academic Year on page 153).

Bands
A common timetabling strategy is to deliver some elements of the curriculum
not to a whole year group at the same time, but to a subdivision of a year.
Such subdivisions are known as bands. A band is a type of curriculum group
and has student members. A student is normally a member of only one band
at any one time—the bands, therefore, are said to be disjoint.
Example: one half of Year 7 is taught English, when the other half is taught
Maths, and vice versa. To provide for this arrangement, two bands are defined
for Year 7: 7x and 7y.
Each student in Year 7 is then assigned to either Band 7x or Band 7y.
Furthermore, two Maths blocks (7x Maths and 7y Maths), together with two
English blocks (7x English and 7y English) are defined.
Students assigned to Band 7x are eligible for membership of a group in both
7x English and 7x Maths. Students assigned to Band 7y are eligible for
membership of a group in both 7y English and 7y Maths.
A Scheme of type bands has a year group as its source group and the
collection of bands of the year as its destination groups, e.g. the scheme Base
bands in Year 7 has source group Year 7 and destination groups 7x and 7y.

Blocks
A Block is a collection of classes placed together on the timetable at one or
more periods. For example, Maths is to be taught to all 120 students of Year 7
(Band 7x) at the same time. A block named 7x Maths is defined, which
contains four Maths classes: 7x/Ma1, 7x/Ma2, 7x/Ma3 and 7x/Ma4.
A Scheme of type block has one or more bands as its source groups. Its
destination groups can be either classes directly or teaching groups.
Example: Block Scheme 7x Maths has as its source group Band 7x, and as
its destination groups classes 7x/Ma1, 7x/Ma2, 7x/Ma3 and 7x/Ma4.
Also, Block Scheme 7y Tutor Groups has as its source group Band 7y and as
its destination groups teaching groups 7.A, 7.B, 7.C and 7.D.
Teaching groups source Cluster Schemes. These consist of a set of one or
more disjoint groups. Each block has a relationship to one or more bands
belonging to a disjoint set, so that students belonging to bans are eligible for
membership in one of the groups. For example, bands 8a and 8b students
might be eligible for Block 8a Teaching Set.

Academic Management 167

 G| Glossary

Clusters
Clusters are individual subject groups. Each block will relate to several clusters
and students will be assigned to clusters relating to their block. For example,
Block 8a Teaching Set can be assigned to 8a/Eng, 8a/Maths, etc.

Currently Selected Academic Year

The academic year currently selected in Academic Management.

Curriculum Plan
The definition of years, bands, blocks, groups and classes, which has been set
up in Nova-T6.

Disjoint
Mutually exclusive, separate groups, which have no elements in common.

Effective Date Range (EDR)

A specified period between two selected dates. This could be the whole
academic year, but is more likely defined to fall sometime within the year.

Eligibility
Initially, students will be eligible for a particular year group, which will
automatically make them eligible for a band within the year group. They can
belong only to one band at a time, but membership of the band will then make
them eligible for blocks related to the band and subsequently the clusters that
are related to the block.

Exclusive Mode
In Exclusive Mode, students cannot be allocated to more than one group
within a scheme. However, this rule can be relaxed and Exclusive Mode can be
turned off, allowing students to belong to more than one group at the same
time. This will result in timetable clashes requiring a resolution.

Filtered
A student who has been filtered on the Tick Grid.

Previous Academic Year

The academic year which precedes the academic year currently selected in
Academic Management.

Read/Write Student
A student whose row on the Tick Grid is read/write (i.e. editable).

Read-Only Student
A student whose row on the Tick Grid is read-only (i.e. not editable).

Relaxed Mode
In Relaxed Mode, eligibility rules are suspended and ineligible students are
deemed eligible for group membership. For example, a student row, which is
read-only due solely to ineligibility, will become read/write.

168 Academic Management

 G| Glossary

Scheme
A Scheme is populated by one or more source groups containing students who
will be eligible for membership. However, it is possible to allocate students to
schemes to which they are not eligible, e.g. a student can be allocated to a
scheme even though they are not a member of the scheme’s source groups.

Singletons
A scheme consisting of one group only. A student’s membership of a Singleton
Scheme is not normally displayed, unless requested when working in the
Curriculum Student Details page. An exception to this rule is where a top-
level scheme contains only one group.

Strict Mode
In Strict Mode, eligibility rules are enforced for the purposes of group
membership, e.g. an ineligible student cannot be assigned membership of a
group.

Tick Grid
The tick grid is a visual display, which represents memberships of groups of a
scheme and which allows editing of these memberships.

Visible Student
A student who has a viewable row in the tick grid, even if the user needs to
scroll down the display in order to view the student's memberships.

Working Academic Year

The period from the first day of the Autumn term to the last day of the
Summer term. This is the period of time during which, with the exception of
the Christmas, Easter and occasional holidays, students attend lessons.
Normally, the timetable will have been exported to SQL over or within this
period, so that no classes are timetabled during the Summer holiday. Student
membership of classes should be assigned for the working academic year or
date ranges lying within the working academic year.

Academic Management 169

G| Glossary

170 Academic Management

 I| Index

staff as lesson resource ................87, 89

Index student group memberships ..........29, 31
advice on running academic promotion . 103
A allocating
Academic Management ineligible students to groups ............... 33
defining academic data........................ 6 student to selected scheme, historical
fundamentals ..................................... 1 curriculum membership page ........... 57
opening ........................................ 166 students .......................................... 31
preparing to use ............................... 13 students to groups ............................ 49
summary of main screens .................... 5 allocation
Academic Management process automatic random .......................35, 74
overview ........................................... 5 alternating pages ................................ 42
academic promotion amending
advice on running ........................... 103 role history of classroom staff ........... 149
before running ............................... 102 applying
important information ..................... 102 timetable cycle definition ................... 14
introduction ................................... 101 aspects
academic promotion rules displaying as read-only field on tick
grid .............................................. 22
setting up ...................................... 103
assigning
academic structures
a student to a group, manually ........... 32
describing ......................................... 9
ineligible student to group.................. 33
in Academic Management .................. 11
ineligible students to a group.............. 34
in Nova-T4 ........................................ 9
ineligible students to group ................ 33
in other timetable software ................ 10
selecting students to ......................... 32
understanding in a school .................... 8
several students to the same,
academic year
manually ...................................... 32
selecting ....................................... 153
student to selected scheme, historical
viewing on screen ............. 25, 51, 70, 80 curriculum membership page ........... 57
access rights students to a group ........................... 31
setting ................................... 2, 4, 125 assigning students to classes
actions rules ................................................. 9
undoing and redoing .................... 43, 74 assignments
adding students with incomplete ................... 27
class memberships for next academic automatic random allocation ............35, 74
year ........................................... 122
ineligible students to list in tick grid .... 33 B
member of classroom staff manually . 146 backup
named date range .......................... 157 using export file as ......................... 125
room as lesson resource .................... 91 before running academic promotion ..... 102
rooms as lesson resource .................. 94 before using Academic Management ....... 13
scheme ........................................... 56 buttons

Academic Management 171

I| Index

keyboard shortcuts without .............. 165 editing role history .......................... 149
without keyboard shortcut equivalent 163 importing automatically ................... 145
searching ...................................... 140
C
viewing and editing details ............... 141
calendar cloning a student’s curriculum ............... 61
using ............................................ 153 columns
cascading changing display order in tick grid ....... 70
curriculum ..................................... 159 changing width in tick grid ................. 70
changing comparing the tick grid and the student
display order of group columns ........... 70 curriculum summary page .................. 48
effective date range .......................... 54 configuring the tick grid........................ 18
group memberships using historical configuring the whole curriculum
curriculum membership details membership grid .............................. 70
dialog .......................................... 81 considering
student group memberships ............... 53 named date ranges ......................... 156
student group memberships in constructing timetables
student curriculum page ................. 53
rules ................................................. 9
tick grid display ................................ 18
creating
timetable orientation ......................... 59
class memberships for next academic
whole curriculum membership grid year ........................................... 122
display ......................................... 70
curriculum for a new student by
width of group columns ..................... 70 cloning ......................................... 61
checking member of classroom staff manually . 146
for timetable clashes ......................... 35 named date range .......................... 157
choosing current academic year
aspect to be displayed as read-only selecting........................................ 153
column on tick grid ........................ 22
curriculum
scheme to be displayed as read-only
column on tick grid ........................ 20 cloning a student’s ............................ 61
selectable fields for tick grid ............... 70 viewing a student’s ........................... 67
clashes curriculum assignment by scheme
checking for timetable ....................... 35 introduction ..................................... 15
reviewing/resolving timetable ............. 59 curriculum assignment by student
class memberships introduction ..................................... 47
creating for next academic year ........ 122 curriculum cascading ......................... 159
classes curriculum scheme
rotating students between ................. 36 selecting.......................................... 16
rules when assigning students .............. 9 cycles
classroom assignability viewing timetable details ................... 58
deleting from selected year .............. 147
D
classroom staff
data entry
adding manually ............................. 146
in a historical database ........................ 8

172 Academic Management

 I| Index

databases using .............................................. 58

data entry in historical ........................ 8 displaying
types of historical ............................... 7 assessment result data on tick grid ..... 22
understanding historical ...................... 6 membership of groups in another
what is a historical .............................. 7 scheme on tick grid ........................ 20

what is a non-historical ....................... 6 displaying selectable fields in tick grid .... 45

date ranges double options classes

adding named ................................ 157 memberships ................................. 123

changing effective ............................ 54

E
defining ........................................ 157
editing
deleting named .............................. 159
classroom staff details ..................... 141
editing named ................................ 159
effective date range .......................... 54
selecting effective ............................. 68
group memberships using historical
setting precise for group membership .. 82 curriculum membership details
understanding ................................ 155 dialog ........................................... 81
dates named date range .......................... 159
selecting ......................................... 68 preparing student list for ................... 29
defining role history of classroom staff ........... 149
academic promotion rules ................ 103 student group memberships ............... 29
named date ranges ......................... 157 student group memberships in
defining academic data spreadsheet ................................ 129

in Nova-T and Academic Management student group memberships, student

..................................................... 6 curriculum page ............................. 53

deleting student group memberships, tick grid .. 53

assignability from selected year ........ 147 student’s whole curriculum ................. 67

ineligible students from list in tick grid effective date range

................................................... 34 changing ......................................... 54
membership record ........................... 81 selecting........................................ 153
named date range .......................... 159 eligibility
resource from a lesson ...................... 96 student ........................................... 10
selected cells in tick grid .................... 44 eligibility details
student group membership ................ 52 for selected student .......................... 28
student group memberships ............... 41 eligibility flags
describing academic structures................ 9 understanding .................................. 41
detailed historical records eligibility rules
introduction to managing ................... 77 relaxing ........................................... 79
dialogs relaxing for role membership ............ 151
using historical curriculum examining information in a tick grid ....... 25
membership details ........................ 77 exclusive mode ..............................80, 82
differentiating between tagged and export file
selected students ............................. 29
using as a backup ........................... 125
display date ruler

Academic Management 173

I| Index

exporting manually assigning a student ............. 32

permissions required ....................... 125 manually assigning several students
student group memberships ...... 121, 125 to the same .................................. 32

whole curriculum membership grid ...... 71 relaxing eligibility rules ...................... 79

F H
filtering historical curriculum membership
details
student list ...................................... 30
important information ....................... 49
format
historical curriculum membership
validating import file ....................... 137 details dialog
fundamentals of Academic Management editing group memberships ................ 81
....................................................... 1
using .............................................. 77
G historical databases
group columns data entry ......................................... 8
changing display order in tick grid ....... 70 reports available from simple ............... 8
changing width in tick grid ................. 70 types of ............................................. 7
group membership understanding .................................... 6
deleting .......................................... 41 what is it?.......................................... 7
setting precise date range for ............. 82 historical records
group membership details introduction to managing ................... 77
editing in historical curriculum
I
membership details dialog............... 81
group membership timelines identifying

viewing ........................................... 43 links between records ...................... 137

group memberships important information

assigning students ............................ 31 historical curriculum membership

details .......................................... 49
changing for students ....................... 53
important notes
changing for students in student
curriculum page............................. 53 defining named date ranges ............. 156

deleting .......................................... 52 importing

recording for students ....................... 49 classroom staff automatically ........... 145

scheme ........................................... 15 permissions required ....................... 125

student ........................................... 47 student group memberships ...... 121, 131

whole curriculum membership ............ 65 validating file format ....................... 137

group sizes validation checks performed ............. 136

interpreting ..................................... 70 incomplete assignments

groups students .......................................... 27

adding ineligible students to, in tick ineligible students

grid ............................................. 34 adding to list in tick grid .................... 33
assigning ineligible student to ............ 33 assigning to a group.......................... 34
assigning students to ........................ 31 assigning to group ............................ 33

174 Academic Management

 I| Index

removing from list in tick grid............. 34 membership records

interpreting group sizes ....................... 70 deleting ........................................... 81
introductions memberships
curriculum assignment by scheme ...... 15 changing group, for students .............. 53
curriculum assignment by student....... 47 changing group, for students in
managing detailed historical records.... 77 student curriculum page ................. 53

whole curriculum membership ............ 65 creating for next academic year ........ 122
double options classes ..................... 123
K exporting ....................................... 125
keyboard importing ...................................... 131
use in Academic Management .............. 4 recording group, for students ............. 49
keyboard shortcuts viewing/editing in spreadsheet.......... 129
buttons without .............................. 163 whole curriculum .............................. 65
without button equivalents............... 165 menu items
Academic Management .................... 166
L
modifying
lesson resources
display order of group columns ........... 70
adding rooms .............................. 91, 94
effective date range .......................... 54
adding staff ................................ 87, 89
named date range .......................... 159
removing ........................................ 96
tick grid display ................................ 18
links
whole curriculum membership grid
identifying between records ............. 137 display ......................................... 70
with other modules ............................. 4 width of group columns ..................... 70
module links ......................................... 4
M
mouse
managing detailed historical records
use in Academic Management ............... 4
introduction ..................................... 77
manually assigning student to a group ... 32 N
manually assigning students to the named date ranges
same group ..................................... 32 adding .......................................... 157
maximum group size defining ......................................... 157
viewing, over EDR ............................ 79
deleting ......................................... 159
member of classroom staff
editing .......................................... 159
adding manually ............................. 146
important notes .............................. 156
deleting assignability from selected understanding ................................ 155
year ........................................... 147
navigating
membership details
Academic Management using mouse
editing group, in historical curriculum and keyboard .................................. 4
membership details dialog............... 81
new students
for selected student .......................... 28
creating a curriculum by cloning
membership flags existing student curriculum
understanding .................................. 41 assignments .................................. 61

Academic Management 175

I| Index

non-historical databases recording

what is it? ......................................... 6 student group memberships ............... 49
Nova-T redoing actions ..............................43, 74
academic structures ............................ 9 relaxed mode .................................... 168
defining academic data........................ 6 relaxing eligibility rules of a group ......... 79
relaxing eligibility rules of a role
O membership ................................... 151
opening removing
Academic Management .................... 166 all memberships in tick grid................ 45
orientation assignability from selected year ........ 147
changing timetable ........................... 59 ineligible students from list in tick grid
other timetable software ................................................... 34
academic structures .......................... 10 membership record ........................... 81
overviews named date range .......................... 159
Academic Management process ............ 5 resource from a lesson ...................... 96
student group membership ................ 52
P student group memberships ............... 41
performing tasks on multiple students reports available from a simple
using Action button ........................... 44 historical database .............................. 8
permissions resolving
for importing and exporting data ...... 125 timetable clashes .............................. 59
setting ................................... 2, 4, 125 resources
precise date ranges removing from a lesson ..................... 96
setting, for group membership ........... 82 reviewing
preparing student list for editing ............ 29 student timetable ............................. 57
preparing to use Academic Management timetable clashes .............................. 59
..................................................... 13 role history
process editing for classroom staff ................ 149
overview of Academic Management ....... 5 roles
promotion relaxing eligibility rules .................... 151
advice on running ........................... 103 rooms
before running ............................... 102 adding as lesson resource .............91, 94
important information ..................... 102 rotating
introduction ................................... 101 students between classes................... 36
promotion rules rules
academic, setting up ....................... 103 assigning students to classes ................ 9
constructing timetables ....................... 9
R
relaxing eligibility ............................. 79
random allocation........................... 35, 74
relaxing eligibility for role
read-only columns membership ................................ 151
displaying aspect on tick grid ............. 22
displaying scheme on tick grid ............ 20

176 Academic Management

 I| Index

S viewing/editing student group

memberships in ........................... 129
schemes
staff
adding ............................................ 56
adding as lesson resource .............87, 89
assigning student in historical
curriculum membership page........... 57 staff codes
displaying as read-only field on tick understanding ................................ 145
grid ............................................. 20 staff roles
group membership ........................... 15 understanding ................................ 148
selecting curriculum .......................... 16 structures
singleton ......................................... 52 academic, in Nova-T4 .......................... 9
school in academic management .................. 11
understanding academic structures ....... 8 student
searching assigning to a group, manually ........... 32
classroom staff............................... 140 assigning to scheme in historical
selectable fields curriculum membership page ........... 57
choosing for tick grid ........................ 70 eligibility ......................................... 10
selected students reviewing timetable........................... 57
differences to tagged students............ 29 viewing membership and eligibility
details .......................................... 28
selecting
student carousel rotation wizard ............ 36
all students in tick grid ...................... 45
student curriculum
curriculum scheme ........................... 16
cloning ............................................ 61
dates ............................................ 153
student curriculum summary page
effective date range .......................... 68
comparing with tick grid .................... 48
key group of students ....................... 67
student group membership timelines
rows in a tick grid ............................. 45
viewing ........................................... 43
students to be assigned ..................... 32
student group memberships
the academic year .......................... 153
adding/editing .................................. 29
setting
cascading ...................................... 159
permissions ............................ 2, 4, 125
deleting ......................................41, 52
precise date range for group
membership .................................. 82 exporting ....................................... 125
setting up importing ...................................... 131
academic promotion rules ................ 103 viewing/editing in spreadsheet.......... 129
simple historical databases student list
reports available ................................ 8 adding ineligible students to, in tick
grid .............................................. 33
singleton schemes ............................... 52
filtering ........................................... 30
sorting
preparing for editing ......................... 29
student list ...................................... 70
removing ineligible students from, in
the tick grid ..................................... 45 tick grid ........................................ 34
spreadsheets sorting ............................................ 70
students

Academic Management 177

I| Index

assigning ineligible to group ............... 33 removing all memberships ................. 45

assigning to a group ......................... 31 removing ineligible students from list... 34
assigning to the same group, selecting all students ......................... 45
manually ...................................... 32 selecting rows .................................. 45
changing group memberships ............. 53 sorting ............................................ 45
changing group memberships in sorting the student list ...................... 70
student curriculum page ................. 53
tagging rows .................................... 45
group membership ........................... 47
ticking selected cells ......................... 44
recording group memberships ............ 49
viewing single/split totals ................... 45
rotating between classes ................... 36
ticking selected cells in tick grid ............. 44
rules when assigning to classes ............ 9
timetable clashes
selecting a key group ........................ 67
checking for ..................................... 35
selecting those to assign ................... 32
reviewing/resolving ........................... 59
viewing/editing whole curriculum ........ 67
timetable cycle definition ...................... 14
with incomplete assignments.............. 27
applying .......................................... 14
subject specialisms
timetable cycles
understanding ................................ 147
viewing details ................................. 58
summary of main Academic
Management screens .......................... 5 timetable orientation

switching between pages ...................... 42 changing ......................................... 59

timetables
T rules when constructing ....................... 9
tagged students types of historical databases ................... 7
differences to selected students .......... 29
U
tagging rows in a tick grid .................... 45
tick grid understanding

adding ineligible students to list .......... 33 academic structures in a school ............ 8

assigning ineligible students to group .. 34 curriculum cascading ....................... 159

changing the display order of the eligibility flags .................................. 41

group columns .............................. 70 historical database .............................. 6
changing the width of the group membership flags ............................. 41
columns ....................................... 70 named date ranges ......................... 155
choosing aspect as read-only column .. 22 subject specialisms ......................... 147
choosing scheme as read-only column validation checks when importing data
................................................... 20 ................................................. 136
choosing selectable fields for display ... 70 understanding staff codes ................... 145
comparing with student curriculum understanding staff roles .................... 148
summary page .............................. 48
undoing actions ..............................43, 74
configuring ...................................... 18
using
deleting select cells ........................... 44
display date ruler .............................. 58
displaying selectable fields ................. 45
export file as a backup .................... 125
examining information ...................... 25
historical curriculum membership
filtering the student list ..................... 30 details dialog ................................. 77

178 Academic Management

 I| Index

the Action button to perform tasks ...... 44

the calendar .................................. 153
the keyboard ..................................... 4
the mouse ......................................... 4
the student carousel rotation wizard .... 36
the undo/redo buttons ................. 43, 74

V
validating
import file format ........................... 137
validation checks
when importing data ....................... 136
viewing
academic year on screen ... 25, 51, 70, 80
classroom staff details ..................... 141
maximum group size over EDR ........... 79
single and split totals in tick grid......... 45
student group memberships in
spreadsheet ................................ 129
student group memberships timelines
................................................... 43
student timetable ............................. 57
student’s whole curriculum ................ 67
timetable cycle details ....................... 58

W
what is a historical database ................... 7
what is a non-historical database ............. 6
whole curriculum membership
introduction ..................................... 65
whole curriculum membership grid
configuring ...................................... 70
exporting ........................................ 71
working in exclusive mode .................... 80
working with singleton schemes ............ 52

Academic Management 179