End of year procedures - Preparing for a new school year - secondary

9 Step by Step – Setting up Block Promotion Rules based on Current Year Ancestor Schemes.... The process is therefore:  allocate students to base bands in each year group  allocate s

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Preparing for a New School Year (Academic) - Secondary

01

Working on Academic Structures in the New Academic Year

This chapter contains:

Chapter Introduction 2

Step by Step – Setting the Academic Year 3

Step by Step – Exploring Existing Memberships of Academic Schemes 3

Step by Step – Allocating Students to Base Bands and Classes Manually 4

Step by Step – Allocating Students Manually to Base Bands 5

Activity – Allocating Students Manually to Base Bands 5

Step by Step – Allocating Students Manually to Classes 6

Step by Step – Setting up Base Band Promotion Rules 7

Activity – Setting up Base Band Promotion Rules 8

Step by Step – Setting Block Promotion Rules for Year 9 from Year 8 9

Activity – Setting Block Promotion Rules for Year 8 from Year 7 9

Step by Step – Setting up Block Promotion Rules based on Current Year Ancestor Schemes 10

Step by Step – Using Promotion Rules to Make Curriculum Assignments 11

Step by Step – Allocating Students to Classes Using Export and Import Routines 14

Step by Step – Editing the SYLK File 15

Step by Step – Importing the SYLK File 16

Chapter Introduction

Curriculum structures consist of bands, blocks and cluster groups of classes Where there is more than one band, blocks will have been created that serve either one band or all bands Students can only be allocated to classes in blocks if they have first been allocated to the relevant band which serves them The process is therefore:

 allocate students to base bands in each year group

 allocate students to curriculum schemes (classes in blocks) in each band

The allocation of students can be done manually by using academic promotion rules or by export and import methods

Manual Allocation

Students are placed in relevant groups by selecting checkboxes in a grid

Academic Promotion

The purpose of the academic promotion functionality is to generate curriculum memberships

in the next academic year for all the groups of a scheme at once, on the basis of equivalent memberships of classes and other curriculum groups in the current academic year The promotion uses rules that can be set up using SIMS

Export and Import

All curriculum allocation involves selecting checkboxes There are automatic processes that can also be used, for example the academic promotion rules mentioned in the preceding section

An alternative is to export the tick grid itself to Microsoft Excel and make allocations outside SIMS using a specially formatted spreadsheet The spreadsheet can then be imported into SIMS

Some worked examples

Step by Step – Setting the Academic Year

As the data in SIMS is date-related and the focus of a year’s data is by default the current academic year, SIMS should be set to refer to the relevant academic year This setting only applies to the workstation in use and is not necessary when the year changes in September,

as it happens automatically when the date changes to a date in the new year

If not already done, set the academic year to the year you will be working on

1 Select Tools | Academic Management | Set Academic Year

2 Select the new academic year, then click OK

3 Click OK in response to the message displayed

Step by Step – Exploring Existing Memberships of Academic Schemes

1 Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment by Scheme

to explore the memberships of curriculum schemes (or lack thereof)

2 Leave Year Taught In set to Any and change Type to Bands

3 Click Search to populate the Scheme browser

4 Double-click Base Bands in Year 10 or highlight it and click Open

5 Select <Working Academic Year> as the Named Date Range when asked It may be

appropriate to select the Don’t ask me again (this session or until manually

changed) checkbox to suppress this requirement each time a new scheme is selected

6 Note that the listed students are displayed with their current Reg Group, but the base

bands available are for the following academic year

7 Click Browse and explore the other base band schemes Note that there are no

memberships in place

8 Change the Type to Any and continue to explore other schemes

NOTE: The only schemes with students listed are base band schemes All other

schemes have no list of students – this is because students must be assigned to

appropriate base bands before they are available to be assigned to block schemes,

which serve the respective bands and the classes they contain

Step by Step – Allocating Students to Base Bands and Classes Manually

Students should be allocated to base bands before they can be allocated to classes in blocks associated with a base band

1 Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment by Scheme

2 Click Search to view all curriculum schemes

3 Select Curriculum Year 8 in the Year Taught in drop-down list, then click Search to

view year 8 schemes only

Up Level and Down Level switch the browse filter between Band Schemes, Block

Schemes and Cluster Schemes (where these exist)

4 Select the Base Bands scheme, then click Open or double-click

5 Set the Named Date Range to Working Academic Year (if applicable) Click OK

Step by Step – Allocating Students Manually to Base Bands

NOTE: You may right-click to display the same menu as clicking Action

To clear a highlighted group of students, click anywhere away from the currently selected students but avoid clicking over a cell as this may edit the contents of that cell

Click Max Sizes to display the numbers of students allocated to schemes

It is possible to display gender totals at the bottom of the columns by selecting the View Split Totals option from the Action menu

The Advanced Mode checkbox controls whether the Filters panel is visible or hidden

1 Select the required band column heading then either:

 select cells individually using the mouse or keyboard and click the drop-down to the

right of Reg Group, select the required registration group, click Filter to display students from the select group, click Action | Select All Students and then click Action | Tick Selected Cell(s)

 or sort on Registration Group and select the students required using Ctrl or Shift

and the mouse to highlight individuals or groups of students and click on one of the highlighted cells in the appropriate band column

Clicking Action provides a comprehensive list of options which can also be accessed by

right-clicking in various parts of the screen

2 Allocate registration groups 7A-7C to band x and registration groups 7D-7F to band y If

prompted, click OK to confirm

3 Click Save

Activity – Allocating Students Manually to Base Bands

 Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment by Scheme

 Search to view all curriculum schemes

 Select Curriculum Year 10 in the Year Taught in drop-down list, then click Search to view year 10 schemes only

 Select the Base Bands scheme, then click Open or double-click

 Set the Named Date Range to Working Academic Year (if applicable) Click OK

 Select Action

 Allocation registration groups 10A-10C to band x and registration groups 10D-10F to band y If prompted, click OK to confirm

 Save

Step by Step – Allocating Students Manually to Classes

Once allocated to the appropriate base band, students can be allocated to classes in blocks

which are sourced by bands 8x and 8y

1 Click browse and select 8x Maths If applicable, accept the highlighted Effective Date Range

2 Allocate students to Maths sets by selecting relevant checkboxes It is likely that this

would be carried out under instruction from the Head of Department If prompted, click

OK to confirm the assigning of students to a class

3 Click Save

4 Return to the browser and select the 8x Reg Groups scheme

This is a linear block and will allocate students to a range of classes which are to be taught in tutor or registration groups

5 The most appropriate way to select checkboxes could be to filter by registration group and use multiple selecting techniques described above

6 If prompted, click OK to confirm the assigning of students to a class

7 Click Save

8 Return to the browser and highlight the 8x Reg Groups scheme

9 Click Down Level to access the list of cluster schemes associated with the selected

scheme

10 Open a few of the cluster schemes and observe that the students have been made members of all such classes These memberships have been affected by the allocations

of students to the 8x Reg Groups scheme

11 Select Browse to return to the list of schemes

12 Change the Year Taught In to Curriculum Year 8 and click Search

13 Make some further allocations to 8y Maths and 8y Reg Groups schemes Save any

changes then close the curriculum assignment by scheme browse

14 Close the Curriculum Assignment by Scheme screen

Allocating Students to Base Bands and Classes Using Academic Promotion

It is likely that many class memberships will follow on from the previous year This is

particularly true for year 10 into year 11, that is to say next year’s year 11 classes will be the same as this year’s year 10 classes

Nevertheless, each year the new classes should be populated with students There are several routines which make this more efficient

Academic Promotion

The process follows two stages

 Set up academic promotion path rules by selecting Routines | School | Academic Promotion Rules

 Apply academic promotion when assigning students to academic schemes in Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment by scheme

NOTE: Before Academic Promotion can be carried out, the new academic year should

be created within SIMS and contain the correct curriculum structure More information

on this can be found in Curriculum Management using Nova-T

Step by Step – Setting up Base Band Promotion Rules

1 Select Routines | School | Academic Promotion Rules

2 Select the academic year to promote into, examples, as shown in the following graphic

NOTE: Selecting the academic year here is not influenced by the set academic year

routines explored earlier

The academic promotion rules window is displayed, as shown in the following graphic

It is important to realise that the settings relate to the destination of the class memberships,

hence a national curriculum year group (NCYear) is selected, a Scheme Type is selected from Bands, Block or Cluster (classes) and a Mode is selected from Previous Year or Current Year

The year group selected determines what will be displayed elsewhere in terms of ancestor schemes and groups Year 7 has no such schemes or groups available in the previous year

The different settings will be explored

3 Select 9 from the NC Year down list, select Bands from the Scheme Type down list, then select Previous Year from the Mode drop-down list

drop- Possible ancestor schemes are base bands in year 8

 Groups for the selected scheme displays 9x and 9y, the year 9 base bands

4 Highlight Base Bands in Year 8 in the Possible Ancestor Schemes field

5 The Groups for Selected Scheme field now displays the Base Bands for Year 8, as

linked to base bands in year 9

6 If these links are correct, click Confirm and Save

It is possible to override the suggested link in the groups for selected scheme field by

selecting a different group and clicking Link between the two boxes

The existing links can be broken by clicking Unlink and re-established manually, as in the

preceding text

Where the suggested link is not correct, and required links have been manually established, these can be saved by clicking Confirm and Save

Activity – Setting up Base Band Promotion Rules

 Select Routines | School | Academic Promotion Rules

 Complete the promotion rules mapping for all remaining year group base bands

Consider any potential issues for promoting the Year 11 and 12 band structures into Years 12 and 13 respectively

NOTE: The promotion rules for blocks and clusters follow the same process as those for base bands

It is also possible to pick and mix the linking of schemes, for example an English scheme could be linked to a Maths ancestor scheme if this were an appropriate option

In general, it is likely that where curriculum structures follow on from one year to another, the suggested links will be appropriate and, where curriculum structures differ

substantially, links should be established manually

Step by Step – Setting Block Promotion Rules for Year 9 from Year 8

1 If required, return to the Academic Promotion Rules screen by selecting Routines | School | Academic Promotion Rules (with the new academic year selected as the one

to promote into)

2 If this has not already been done, set the promotion rules for bands – select year 9,

Band and Previous Year in the settings at the top

3 In Schemes select Base Bands in Year 9

4 In Possible Ancestor Schemes, select Base Bands in Year 8

5 Click Confirm and Save

6 Now set up rules for Year 9 blocks Select Year 9, Block and Previous Year in the

settings at the top

7 Highlight the top scheme in Schemes (A cademic Year…)

8 Observe that the suggested links have automatically been identified and are as desired

Click Confirm and Save

9 Work down the schemes for band 9x in turn, accepting suggestions or creating manual links as required

10 Do not create any links for 9x Science

NOTE: Link 9x Common Sets for 2019/20 to Year 8 Reg Groups from 2018/19

The staff member in charge of academic promotion will need some degree of familiarity with the structure the timetabler has used when constructing the timetable

Activity – Setting Block Promotion Rules for Year 8 from Year 7

 If required, return to the Academic Promotion Rules screen by selecting Routines | School | Academic Promotion Rules (with the new academic year selected as the one to promote into)

 If this has not already been done, set the promotion rules for bands - select NC Year 8, Bands and Previous Year in the settings at the top

 In Schemes, select Base Bands in Year 8

 In Possible Ancestor Schemes, select Base Bands in Year 7

 Click Confirm and Save

 Now set up rules for Year 8 blocks Select Year 8, Block and Previous Year in the

settings at the top

 Highlight 8xy PSE under Schemes (for the new year) and 7xy PSE under Possible

Ancestor Schemes (for the current year)

 Observe that the suggested links have automatically been identified and are as desired Click Confirm and Save

 Repeat steps 7 and 8 for 8x Maths, 8x Technology, 8y Maths and 8y Technology

Step by Step – Setting up Block Promotion Rules based on Current Year

Ancestor Schemes

NOTE: In Year 7, English was taught as part of a linear block In Year 8, English will be taught in sets The membership of the Year 8 English classes will be based on the Maths memberships

1 If required, return to the Academic Promotion Rules screen by selecting Routines | School | Academic Promotion Rules (with the new academic year selected as the one

to promote into)

2 Select Year 8, Block and Current Year

Note that both schemes and possible ancestor schemes display the same data

 Highlight 8x English in Schemes

 Highlight 7x Maths in Possible Ancestor Schemes

There will be no suggested links, and these will need to be created manually

3 Highlight 8X/En1 in Groups for Selected Scheme and 7x/Ma1 in Possible Ancestor Groups

4 Click <<Link>>

5 Continue to link the classes and select Confirm and Save The screen should look

similar to the following graphic

6 Repeat steps 2 to 5 for 8y English

7 Close the Academic Promotion Rules screen

Step by Step – Using Promotion Rules to Make Curriculum Assignments

1 Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment by Scheme and filter Year Taught in to Curriculum Year 9

2 Click Search

Where promotion rules have been created, schemes will be shown as Promotable

3 Select Base Bands in Year 9 and, if applicable, accept the Effective Date Range

4 Click Allocate and select Curriculum Promotion Wizard from the menu displayed (this

is now live for this scheme)

5 The Curriculum Promotion Wizard will open, click Next

6 Check the Effective Date Range and Reference Date If these are correct, click Next