Year names in Nova and SIMS .net

Introduction

Year names and National Curriculum year names are stored, separately, in SIMS .net, Nova-T6 and Nova-T4. It is important that these names match in order for everything to work properly. This document shows the relationship between the different modules and explains how to make amendments if required.

Year names

Year Name in T6 model must match...		…Short Name in .net Pastoral Structure

National Curriculum year names

NCYear in T6 model must match...		…Year Taught In in .net Pastoral Structure

How to amend

.net Pastoral Structure can be observed (do not change!) via Focus | School | Pastoral Structure | Current Structure > Go
In Nova-T6, on the Model screen, in the Years section on the left, edit the Name and/or the NCYr to match those in SIMS .net. Editing these has no effect on the data in T6, but it is always good practice to do Data | Force backup beforehand.
Simon Wood, eLIM, July 2009

Pairing up subjects to overcome resource limitations

Introduction

In a straightforward world, schools would have complete freedom to teach all students of a year the same subject at the same time, with students grouped or set according to the requirements of that subject alone, for all subjects.

In reality, this does not happen because of a shortage of teachers, rooms and time.

Banding (splitting a year group into two or more populations) is one mechanism used to cope with such situations, and is covered in another document.

This document looks at another technique; “pairing up” a resource-hungry subject with one or more other subjects to ameliorate, or even overcome, such problems.

Assumptions

It is assumed that the reader is familiar with basic timetabling concepts and terminology, such as bands and blocks.

Pairing up

“Pairing up” is the process whereby a critically-grouped (or “set”) subject is combined in the same block with another subject (or subjects) which can use those same groupings. Usually, this is done to overcome resource limitations associated with the set subject.

Opinion will vary, of course, but subjects which are typically set include maths, English and science. Subjects where setting is often less critical include P.E. and art.

The idea behind pairing up is that, while some of the groups in the block are taught the resource-light subject, the other groups will be taught a different subject. Over the whole cycle, each group gets the planned number of periods.

To achieve this, at least one other subject must be added to the block in question. In the following simple example, there are 3 groups, each of which has 2 periods of English and 1 of humanities (this is fictitious):

If there are only 2 English teachers, clearly the three groups cannot be taught that subject simultaneously.

By suitable pairing-up with humanities, however, we can achieve the following scheduling arrangement (“build”):

Thus, when any two groups are being taught English, the third receives humanities. The block size was increased from two (English only) to three sessions in order to accommodate this pairing. This arrangement of two or more subjects per group “in a line” is commonly known as a linear block.

In simple situations like the one above, the calculations can be done ad hoc. However, when more periods and subjects are involved, a methodical approach is better.

A worked example

In this example, the timetabler is working on Year 9 maths, faced with the following constraints:

· Cohort size dictates there should be 5 maths groups (labelled M1 to M5), and that these groups will be setted i.e. students will be placed into one of the five groups based on some aspect of their mathematical ability

· It has been decided that each of these groups will have 6 periods of maths per week

· There are 3 maths teachers available to teach year 9. Thus, no more than three of the five groups can be taught maths at the same time

· Year 9 is timetabled in a single band

This is the relevant part of the initial timetable model:

All groups in a block are taught at the same time, so the model above will not work as it stands; only three (at most) of the five maths groups can be taught maths simultaneously. We will add another subject into the Maths block in order to pair-up and spread the load.

Determining block size

By placing additional subjects into the block, we will increase the block size i.e. the number of sessions the block will require on the timetable. Before choosing the additional subject, we need to know how many periods of it must be added to the block; a little maths will help.

We know the following:

Label	Meaning	In our example	Comment
g	Number of groups	5	M1 to M5
p	Number of periods planned, per group, for the resource-stricken subject	6	Periods of maths planned per group
x	Maximum number of periods of this subject that can be delivered simultaneously	3	The number of maths teachers available

With that information, the overall number of sessions required, s, can be determined by:

Or, in English: Multiply the number of groups by the number of periods required, then divide by the number of teachers available. If the answer isn’t a whole number, round it up to the next whole number.

Applying this to our example, we get:

So, the revised block will require 10 timetable slots. We can now choose another subject to pair up with maths, knowing that this subject must be delivered for periods. In our example, PE looks like a good candidate – 4 periods are planned, and the PE department is happy to use the maths group setting.

Revising the model

Having chosen PE as the pairing-up subject, the model is adjusted accordingly. Note that the block size for the maths block is now 10 (i.e. 6 + 4):

Build

In the build, we need to ensure that each maths group gets six periods of maths, and that no more than 3 groups have maths at the same time. If we stick to these rules, the rest of the build is easy.

Rotating teachers and rooms

Introduction

This document explains a routine for changing teachers and rooms using a carousel approach, in SIMS .net. In a carousel, teachers and/or rooms for a selection of classes within a timetable block change with the pattern A > B > C > A

Procedure

• Focus | School | Academic Structure | Rotate Timetabled Staff/Rooms
• Select the appropriate Effective Date Range for the changes
• In Selected Block, browse and select the block where the rotation is to occur (only non-linear classes can be rotated, i.e. those listed as 'classes' and not 'groups' in the destination groups column)

• Highlight a class and move it up or down, depending on where it should appear in the rotation
• Tick the classes, teachers and rooms to be rotated
• Use the Rotate Staff / Rooms buttons to implement the rotation
• If you do not get the result you expected, click Undo then try again
• Once you are satisfied with the rotation, click Apply – this commits the changes and Undo becomes inoperative

Note that:

• The rotation affects the SIMS .net timetable only
• The timetable model in Nova-T6 is unaffected
• Teacher column headings in Academic Management are unchanged
• A ‘send’ from Nova-T6 will wipe out any changes made in this manner

Simon Wood, SIMS Team, May 2009

Replacing teaching staff

Introduction

These instructions explain how to transfer all of an outgoing teacher’s commitments to another, new teacher (i.e. one with no existing commitments).

After carrying out the process below, the outgoing teacher will have no timetable. These will have been transferred to the new teacher

In SIMS .net

Focus | Person | Manage Classroom Staff

• Add the new teacher, making sure to:
• Record the appropriate teacher and cover status in the “Classroom Information” section
• Enter an appropriate working pattern in the Organisations section
• Make a note of the chosen staff code
• If the new teacher did not exist in Personnel already, note that the preceding steps will create a new entry in the Personnel database, visible under status All in the Personnel area. Make your personnel officer aware of this as they will need to consider any implications e.g. School Workforce Census.
• Call up the outgoing classroom staff record and set the cover option to Does not provide cover

Nova-T6

Plan | Teachers

Do not create the new teacher in Nova-T6. Instead:

• Call up the outgoing staff record
• Edit code and name to that of the new staff
• Export curriculum and t/t to SQL as usual

Simon Wood, SIMS Team, January 2009

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[1] This will also create a corresponding entry in the Personnel database, visible under status All in the Personnel area. Make your personnel officer aware of this as they will need to consider any implications e.g. School Workforce Census.

Linked classes

Introduction

Classes can be split in Nova-T6 in several ways.

Linked classes

Linked classes should be used if 2 teachers are teaching the class at the same time and the students are to be split into 2 groups. To set up a linked class:

1. On the Model screen, use ctrl-drag to drag the subject required from the list on the right hand side and drop it on top of the original class; the linked class will then appear immediately UNDER the original class:

2. On the classes screen you will see that there are now two classes in the same cell. If necessary, drag the first teacher on. Drag the second teacher on, saying 'No' to the question ‘do you wish to replace the existing teacher’. Now you have two classes and two teachers in the same cell.

3. On the classes screen, to set the main teacher for each class, click on each class label and choose the correct teacher.

4. On the sessions screen, highlight the appropriate class and assign the correct teacher to the correct class (note that 3 above does not do this automatically); if the teachers are on the wrong classes then simply drag them from the wrong to the correct class.

In SIMS .net, in Curriculum Assignment by Scheme, students are assigned to the separate classes by highlighting the class in the browser and using the 'Down Level' button (if required).

Assessment Manager will show a marksheet for each teacher for each class.

Extra teachers on the Classes screen

This is the normal method used where 2 or more staff teach the class at different times.

1. On the Classes screen, drag the second teacher onto the cell which contains the class to be shared

A message appears asking 'Replace the teacher?' Click on No. This places both teachers on the same class.

Double-click the class name to ensure that the correct teacher has been chosen as Main Class Teacher

2. On the Sessions screen, browse to the block that contains the class. Click on the required class and check to see that the required teacher has been assigned to the correct class on the Sessions window on the right hand side.

3. Check that the block has been correctly built and scheduled on the Block screen

In SIMS .net, in Curriculum Assignment by Scheme, the class appears once only with the main class teacher in brackets under the class name column heading. In Assessment Manager, on the Template setup only one marksheet appears with the main teacher's name, but when the teachers are logged into SIMS .net they will both find the marksheet under My Marksheets.

Extra classes on the Model screen

Instead of the previous method, an extra class can be added on the Model screen where a class is taught at different periods by different teachers. This is the way in which Nova-T4 handled the problem. However, this is not necessary in T6, although if this method is used, it does allow the user to assign each teacher as a Main teacher to their own instance of a class. If this method is used, Nova-T4 will show the same Plan and Timetabled period information for teachers as Nova-T6 (rather than showing the non main teacher just on the timetable and not on the Plan). A teacher does not have to be a main teacher to see their marksheet in Assessment Manager.

1. On the Model Screen, enter the class twice. i.e. drag the subject from the subject list on the right and drop it into a block, then drag the same subject again and drop it next to the original one in the same group on the same block. Add the correct number of periods for each instance of the class.

2. On the Classes Screen, click and drag the teachers to allocate them to the separate classes.

3. On the Sessions Screen; check that the correct teachers appear on the correct classes.

4. On the Block screen, build the block and check that it is scheduled.

In SIMS .net in Curriculum Assignment by Scheme, the allocation of students is normally done by group, so group membership will ensure that a student belongs to both classes.

Assessment Manager will show a marksheet for each teacher for each class.

Adding extra teachers/staff who are in the class at the same time as the main teacher

A teacher or teaching assistant can be added on the Classes screen using Method B above where they are in the same class at the same time as the main teacher. The system will highlight these 'over resourced classes' in pink on the Classes screen.

However the usual way to assign such extra assistance is to open a timetable (Year, Teacher etc), right click on the class and use the 'Add staff' option. These extra staff will show on brackets on the timetables in Nova-T6. In Assessment Manager, on the Template setup only one marksheet appears with the main teacher's name, but if the 'extra' teachers are logged into SIMS .net they will find the marksheet under My Marksheets.

Whichever of the methods above is used, all the staff will see a register for the class in Lesson Monitor and the class will appear in their Staff Groups link.

Simon Wood, SIMS Team, January 2010

Doubling-up a teacher to take 2 classes in the same block

Classes screen

Drag-drop the teacher onto both classes

Reduce the teacher’s commitment for the double-up class to zero by right-clicking on it:

Sessions screen

Locate the relevant block and select the class in Groups and Clusters

On the right, Plan will be zero. Ensure that Used is zero also–if it isn’t, right-click each period to de-allocate the teacher and reduce it to zero:

Block screen

Drag or build the unstaffed classes into the block:

Timetable

Use Timetable | New | Group to create a timetable for the double-up class

For each lesson, right-click the class name and Add Staff

Select All as opposed to Free, highlight the doubling-up teacher and OK

Opt to Double Up when prompted:

Changes will take effect when the revised timetable has been sent to SIMS in the usual way.

Simon Wood, SIMS Team, December 2009

Teacher department analysis

Reports | Curriculum Analysis | Teacher Departments

This report yields an analysis of staff utilisation:

I will explain the report fragment above by way of example, looking at Mrs Abell.

Background information

Here is the information from Plan | Teacher Departments, showing the anticipated period loading overall (19) and for various subjects:

Here is what she has been assigned on the curriculum plan (Classes screen). Note that this includes the non-class codes 11D (registration) and PPA.

Here is her timetable, showing what she has actually been scheduled to do:

Understanding the report

The subjects appearing in the report are those recorded against Mrs Abell in Plan | Teacher Departments.

For each subject, the report shows three associated numbers:

The number to the right of the subject is the subject loading from Plan | Teacher Departments:

The number below the subject is the number allocated in the curriculum plan (i.e. Classes screen):

The remaining number (bottom-right) is the number of periods actually scheduled:

++ indicates a discrepancy, for one or more subjects or NCCs, between what loading and the curriculum plan. The three associated figures are aggregated for all subjects/NCCs involved. For Mrs Abell, the figures mean:

· There is an overall discrepancy of 2 periods between subject loading (in Plan | Teacher Departments) and the curriculum plan. This is due to Sc, where she has been given a loading of 10 periods, but has been planned for 12 (NCCs do not figure in Plan | Teacher Departments and do not affect this figure)

· Overall, she has been planned for 6 periods of subjects/NCCs where there is a discrepancy and which are not included in the discrepancy figure, and has been scheduled for 7 such periods. The subjects and NCCs in question are:

o 11D (registration – 4 periods planned, 5 scheduled)

o PPA (2 periods planned, 2 scheduled)

Simon Wood, eLIM, May 2012