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Starting Next Year's Curriculum Early / 3C / Contents
01 Starting Next Year’s Curriculum Early 1
Introduction 1
Creating a Data Set for Next Year in Nova-T6 2
Send the Curriculum and Timetable to SQL 5
Preparation in Curriculum Assignment 5
Removing Students from Classes 5
Assigning Students to Classes 7
Carrying Forward Memberships into the New Timetable 8
Timetable for September 9
Populating the Classes for the September Timetable 9
Exporting and Importing SLK Files 9
Considerations for Course Manager and the School Census 10
Check List 11
Starting Next Year’s Curriculum Early / 0101
/Starting Next Year’s Curriculum Early
Introduction 1
Creating a Data Set for Next Year in Nova-T6 2
Send the Curriculum and Timetable to SQL 5
Preparation in Curriculum Assignment 5
Timetable for September 9
Exporting and Importing SLK Files 9
Considerations for Course Manager and the School Census 10
Introduction
This document assumes that you wish to send next year’s completed plan and timetable from Nova to SIMS for dates within this academic year, in addition to the next academic year. This means that you can start next year’s timetable early, but that the actual end of year and pastoral promotion remain unchanged and takes place in September as usual.
It is possible to edit this year’s timetable to include the new classes for next year, i.e. put Options blocks in Year 9 and send the details to SQL for June and July. In this scenario, students are assigned to classes in their current year group and academic promotion can then be used at year end to transfer these memberships to classes in next year.
Where schools wish to start the timetable early and show students as being in next year’s classes, i.e. Year 9 students in Year 10 Options classes, the procedures in this document should be followed.
It covers:
- Ensuring that 2011/12 memberships finish on the correct date.
- Transferring the curriculum into a new SPL file for the next academic year.
/ NOTE: At some point, the SPL file for the new timetable will need to be copied and dealt with as two SPL files, one for June/July and one for Sept 2012 onwards. This will enable the new teachers arriving in September to be assigned to the Sept 2012 timetable and teachers who are leaving at the end of the Summer term can be assigned to the June/July timetable. This also enables any other differences to be dealt with.
- Sending the curriculum plan and timetable to SQL.
- Assigning students to classes for June/July.
If this year’s student scheme memberships finish at the end of the Summer term, they need to be terminated at the date the new timetable begins. This should be done to prevent old, as well as new students from appearing in class lists. Schemes exist for the whole academic year, even if classes and student class memberships within the scheme have end dates before the end of the academic year, unless it was anticipated during the Summer of 2012 that schemes would finish earlier. If it was not anticipated that the 2011/12 timetable would finish early and existing memberships need to be adjusted, this should be done before making the new assignments.
This document assumes that you are familiar with the processes described. Further details on these processes can be found in the following documents available from Web Support:
Preparing the Curriculum for Using Nova-T6 and Options guide
Nova-T6 handbook
Academic Management in SIMS handbook
Copies of all handbooks are posted to SupportNet (http://support.capitaes.co.uk) and can be obtained by clicking the Documentation button on the Home page, then selecting SIMS Handbooks from the Category drop-down list and clicking the Search button.
/ NOTE: Please make frequent backups in Nova-T of all the SPL files that you are using. Select Data | Force Backup to create a backup. Alternatively, use the Save | Save As option to make a new copy of the SPL file.Creating a Data Set for Next Year in Nova-T6
1. Run Nova-T6 from SIMS.
2. Load a data set containing the current timetable (i.e. for academic year 2011/12).
/ NOTE: It is important that this is not a maintenance data set or a frozen data set.3. Select Data | Transfer Curriculum to display the Transfer Curriculum dialog.
The routine defaults to listing all of the blocks in the curriculum plan, but the list may be filtered by selecting an item from the Select Year drop-down list. The most likely columns for receiving transfers are coloured white (for moving across) and yellow (for moving up). In fact, a block may be transferred to any or all year groups, including grey ones.
4. A block and its classes can be copied without their attributes (teachers, and rooms if any). Click a white cell to copy the block into the same year group for next year, or click a yellow cell to copy the block into the next year group up (e.g. this year’s year group 7 into next year’s year group 8).
5. A block and its classes can be copied, together with their teachers (and rooms, if associated). Double-click in a cell. Single clicking in a cell places a tick, a second click inserts a face symbol and a further click removes everything from the cell.
Right-clicking a cell removes its contents. The tick indicates that the block is copied. The face symbol indicates that both staff and rooms (associated with classes in the curriculum plan) are also included. An unlikely example is shown in the previous graphic.
/ NOTE: The Shift key can be used to mark a continuous series of blocks for transfer.6. When you have set up all the transfers you want, click the OK button. The Enter Carry-Forward Options dialog is displayed.
It is now possible for the One-Per-Day settings of a block to be carried forward to a new dataset (via Data | Transfer Curriculum). It is also possible for block and class levels to be carried forward to a new dataset.
7. The new dataset is given the default name of <NoName>, you should now save this dataset with an appropriate new name, e.g. 2012-13A.
If you are using a copy of this year’s dataset instead of using the Transfer Curriculum routine, you must run the Tools | Remove SQL Links routine.
8. On the block screen, after the SPL files have been copied and you are working on the June/July timetable and Sept 2012 timetable separately, it is suggested that you rename the blocks so that the names begin with the letter J. This enables you to distinguish the June/July block from other blocks on the Curriculum Assignment screen in SIMS.
9. Edit the Curriculum plan and schedule, and then send them to SQL for the June/July timetable.
Send the Curriculum and Timetable to SQL
/ NOTE: It is strongly recommended that you run a backup in SIMS before sending the curriculum and timetable to SQL.Send the Curriculum and Timetable data to SQL via Data | Export Curriculum and Timetable to SQL.
Enter the Start date and End date in June and July when this timetable will operate – e.g. 13/06/2012 to 22/07/2012.
In the Curriculum Matching wizard, ensure that the new blocks for next year’s timetable appear as new items in the wizard. If they are linked to existing blocks, ensure that the links are broken before proceeding with the transfer.
Preparation in Curriculum Assignment
Removing Students from Classes
Any existing class memberships for the period when the new timetable will be used, e.g. June and July, must be removed for all students in each block scheme.
/ NOTE: This only needs to be done if the original class memberships for 2011/12 finish at the end of the Summer term.1. Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment by Scheme to display the Find Curriculum Scheme browser.
2. Click the Search button.
3. Select the first scheme in the list for which memberships are to be removed to display the Select Effective Date Range dialog.
4. Select the Custom date range radio button and complete the date fields as follows:
- In the From field, enter the date when you intend to start the new timetable, e.g. 13/06/12.
- In the To field, enter the date when your class memberships were originally due to end, e.g. 22/07/12.
5. Select the Don’t ask me again (this session or until manually changed) check box.
6. Click the OK button to display the Tick Grid for that year.
7. Click the Action button and choose Select All Students from the pop-up menu to select all the students in the grid.
8. Click the Action button to display the Remove All Memberships Confirmation dialog.
9. Select Remove All Selected Memberships from the pop-up menu and click the Yes button to remove all the memberships.
/ NOTE: For Band schemes, each column needs to be selected in the dialog in turn. For other schemes, memberships for all columns are removed in one go.10. Click the Save button to save the changes.
11. Click the Browse button to return to the scheme list and select the next scheme where memberships need to be removed. Repeat the process to remove memberships and continue until you have removed all student class memberships from this year’s timetable for the required dates.
Assigning Students to Classes
/ NOTE: Academic Promotion does not work for this scenario and should not be used.1. Select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment by Scheme to display the Find Curriculum Scheme browser.
2. Select Bands from the Type filter and click the Search button.
3. Select a band scheme to display the Memberships of Groups of a Scheme page.
4. Select the Custom date range radio button and complete the date fields as follows:
- In the From field, enter the date you intend to start the new timetable, e.g. 13/06/2012.
- In the To field, enter the date when your class memberships were originally due to end, e.g. 22/07/2012.
5. Select the Don’t ask me again (this session or until manually changed) check box.
6. Click the OK button to display the Tick Grid for that year, e.g. Year 9.
7. Click the green Add button above the Tick Grid.
8. On the Student browser, select the Year Group of the students who are to be assigned to the scheme’s destination bands (Yr 8 for Yr 9 schemes, Yr 9 for Yr 10 schemes and so on) and click Enter.
9. Click on the first student in the list, hold down the Shift key and click on the last student so that all students in the list are selected. Click the OK button.
10. Above the Tick Grid in the Filters section, select the same students’ Year Group, e.g. 8, and click the Filter button. Only Year 8 students are displayed.
11. Click the Relax button (which allows ineligible students to be given memberships) and assign students to bands as required. Be careful not to assign students inappropriately.
12. Now that the students are in bands, they can be assigned to blocks.
13. For batch allocation of student memberships, the export/import of student memberships via .SLK files can be used. To populate the June/July timetable where class memberships are carried forward from this year, memberships need to be exported for a date prior to June.The .SLK files can be opened in Excel so that the column headings can be edited.
Carrying Forward Memberships into the New Timetable
The export/import of Student Memberships function can be used extensively at year end to allocate students to classes. For full instructions, please refer to the Academic Management 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 requiredcategory, then click the required handbook from the Handbooks page.
The following example describes how to carry forward the memberships of year 9 Maths classes from the 2011/12 timetable to the June/July 2012 timetable.
1. In the 2011/12 academic year, select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment by Scheme to display the Find Curriculum Scheme browser.
2. Click the Search button and select the scheme for Year 9 Maths.
The relevant student’s memberships are displayed in the tick grid.
3. Click the Allocate button and select Export Curriculum Membership Wizard.
4. Select a Reference Date during May when memberships are most up-to-date.
5. Select the Populate with Student Membership option.
6. Make a note of the .SLK (Symbolic link) file name created and its location.
7. Click the Next button on each page of the wizard until you reach the final page then click the Finish button.
8. Open the file in Excel and change the column headings from, for example, 9x/Ma1 to 10x/Ma1, etc. Save the file in the same format.
9. Whilst still in the 2011/12 academic year, select Focus | School | Academic Structure | Curriculum Assignment by Scheme.
10. Click the Search button and select the scheme that you wish to import student memberships into, e.g. J 10x Maths block.
11. Ensure the selected date ranges are correct before proceeding, e.g. 13/06/12 to 22/07/12. The Tick Grid is empty.
12. Click the Allocate button and select the Import Curriculum Membership wizard.