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

Carouselling student class memberships

Introduction

This document explains a procedure for rotating the students of a set of classes, using a carousel approach e.g. with students in classes A, B and C, a carousel rotation could move the students thus:

- the students of class A move into class B, student of B move into C, students of C move into A

Procedure

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

2. Select scheme for rotation

3. If you have already assigned students to their initial classes, choose the date range appropriate for the second phase of the carousel. The end (“To”) date must be the day before the next stage starts. This may well be the last day of a half-term or other holiday. Now go to step 6

4. If you haven’t yet assigned students to their initial classes, choose a date range appropriate for the first phase of the rotation. This date range should extend from the first day of the academic year to the day before the second stage of the rotation (the latter may well be the last day of a half-term or other holiday). Make and save the necessary students assignments

5. Click on the magnifying glass at the end of the Effective Date Range field and select the date range appropriate for the second phase of the rotation, making sure that the end date is the day before the next stage, even if this is during school holidays

6. Click on Allocate… | Student Carousel Rotation Wizard then Next

7. Check that the date range you require is correct. The reference day should be the day before the start date of the date range. Click Next

8. Tick the groups involved in the Carousel and move them into the correct order for rotation using the Move Up and Move Down buttons. Click Next

9. Choose either Rotate Forwards or Rotate Backwards and click Next

10. Check the settings and click Next. You will then get a message saying it has completed. Click Finish. You can see the results by double-clicking a student to access their timeline.

11. Click Save to save the changes.

Repeat for other phases of the rotation as required.

Simon Wood, SIMS Team, May 2009

Splitting a double period between two teachers

Using Year Blanking Codes in the model

Overview

Some schools operate a cycle in which certain year groups do not have access to certain periods. The sixth form may have lessons in twilight periods not used by other year groups, for example. Split lunches can result in similar rules needing to be observed by the scheduling routines. As the concept of an extended school day becomes more common, many schools may need to consider the use of blanks.

In use

1. Change to the relevant year in the Model screen, right-click the appropriate band area and select Add Year Blanking Code from the menu:

T6 creates a dummy block for the band, which can be extended across other bands if required by using the Ctrl-drag technique on the block’s lower edge.

2. Enter the number of periods needing to be blanked (2, in this example):

As can be seen in the preceding graphic, the blanking block counts towards the curriculum total entered for this year group – 16 periods including the 2 blanks.

This block does not require staffing. When eventually the blank is scheduled, it will be automatically locked to the period(s) and cannot be unlocked. That is, it cannot be moved (although it can be deleted and placed somewhere else). If the entire school misses the same period (such as last period on Friday), then one method of tracking this is to create a one period blanking block for each year group, then schedule them all at the same period.

Simon Wood
eLIM, June 2013

Using Derived Years to create vertical blocks

Overview

Derived Years provide a mechanism for defining block(s) which serve more than one year group. These are often referred to as “vertical” blocks.

For example, a Sixth Form block may be required for students in years 12 and 13.

In use

The following example illustrates the process of creating an option block for year 12 band a and the whole of year 13. When this is exported to SIMS .net, the tick grid in Academic Management will automatically list students in 12a and 13 for placement in the C6 band and any associated classes.

1. Firstly, it is necessary to create a year group in T6 that can be used for the common sixth form structure.

	2. Create a new year group called C6 (common sixth form) and associate it with national curriculum Year 12 (it could have been 12 or 13). Do not edit the number of students belonging to this year.
	3. Right-click the Band area of the Model and select Add Derived from the menu displayed. The graphic illustrates the structure that has been created in year C6.

4. Assuming that it is intended for the common structure to serve Year 12 band a, and Year 13, change to each of these Year Groups and repeat step 2.

	5. Return to Year C6, right-click the derived block and select Derive From | 13:a 6. Repeat, this time selecting Derive From | 12:a
	What has been defined is the destination year C6 as being sourced from 13:a (94 students) and 12:a (49 students). Thus, any blocks created in the new band C6 will be expected to serve 143 students.

Suppose that the intention is to provide six groups of Citizenship for these 143 students.

7. Simply drag the subject Ci into the area used for blocks (just to the right of the derived structure). Define one period and create six groups.

The block in the preceding graphic has been given identifier C and title Citizenship.

8. Change to Year 12 and look at the derived structure.

The number of periods for band 12a is now 24 (whereas previously it was 23). In other words, the one period block in year C6 counts towards the entitlement of year 12, band a. The same applies to year 13.

In scheduling the sixth form structure, when the Citizenship block in year C6 is placed at a particular period, T6 will prevent any block serving 12a or 13a from being scheduled at the same time. This prevents double-booking of students. The auto-schedule routines also work to this system.

Simon Wood
eLIM, June 2013

Combing Charts - Introduction

Overview

The Combing Chart is an analysis tool that lets the timetabler carry out a feasibility check on the proposed staff assignments to classes in a single subject, or a number of subjects in the case of an entire department. It is currently normal procedure for Heads of Department to produce a simplistic version of a Combing Chart in the form of a spreadsheet.

Large departments tend to teach in blocks of half or a full year and teams of teachers are assigned to classes within each block. If the same teacher is assigned to two or more blocks, then these blocks cannot be scheduled simultaneously.

Departments that only just comb are considered inflexible, and may need to be scheduled before other departments. In a perfect situation, each large department would comb without exceeding the average loading of the staff. For example, where you have a cycle of 25 teaching periods, it would be ideal if each department combed into no more than 21 periods. If combing reaches 24 or 25 teaching periods this is not ideal and combing that exceeds the 25 teaching periods makes scheduling the timetable an impossible task.

By using the Combing Chart to simulate a number of different scheduling scenarios, you can clearly see where potential problems will occur before you spend a great deal of time actually trying to schedule the timetable.

In use

Select Tools | Combing Chart to display the Select Subjects dialogue.

All the subjects that have been used in the current Model are available for selection. Click the Clear All button to make an individual subject selection. If you want to try to analyse the proposed timetable structure using all available subjects, click the Select All button.

Alternatively, click the Department button to display the Select Department dialogue, then highlight the Description of the Department that you want to work with in the Combing Chart.

Click the OK button to continue, and the Combing Chart is displayed.

A Tour around the Combing Chart Page

The items to be fitted into the Combing Chart are shown in the list on the right-hand side of the page. Each item relates to a block within the block's build matrix. The bands, the block name and its attributes, i.e. the Staff and Rooms, for each item are also displayed in this list. The items are grouped by block and each block is colour coded so that it can be easily distinguished from others.

Every item is allocated a unique short code that is made up of the Year, the band or block identifier and a number, e.g. 10A:1, 7xy:13.

There are a number of ways that the items can be placed into the Combing Chart:

· Click and drag and individual item onto the Combing Chart.

· Hold down the Ctrl key and then click and drag multiple items from a block onto the Combing Chart.

· Click the Insert button to place all the items in the list onto the Combing Chart automatically.

When dragging items onto the Combing Chart, there are a number of things to be aware of:

· The possible destination cells in the Combing Chart ate shown with a black border.

· Items that would be displaced if the dragged items were dropped into their cells are shown with a black background.

· While the drag action is in process, the text inside the cells of any potentially displaced items displays the reason for the displacement, e.g. Band or a list of the conflicting attributes.

· If the drag cursor moves close to the edge of the chart area, the chart scrolls automatically.

Refer to the Nova-T6 handbook, or the eLIM Helpline, for detailed information relating to the functions available in the Combing Chart page.

If you click the Insert button to begin trying to fit the items into the grid, various items may be moved or 'shuffled' around the grid to enable the 'best fit'. Whilst this process is underway, a yellow progress bar is displayed at the bottom of the Combing Chart page detailing the item that is currently being 'fitted'.

Click the Abort button to stop the process at any time before it is complete.

When the shuffling is complete, the items in the grid are coloured in accordance with the block colours in the Model screen. Move the cursor over an item in the grid to view a tool tip displaying the names of the classes and the full list of attributes for the item.

If you want to keep the results of your Combing Chart analysis, click the Copy Chart button to display the Copy to Clipboard/Disk File dialog.

Simon Wood
eLIM, June 2013

Class appearing in SIMS .net as group

Symptoms

A linear group is reduced to a non-linear group and the group label is changed or deleted, but the original group name remains as the column heading in SIMS .net.

The correct class name does not appear in SIMS .net in the column heading in Academic Management, and the teacher’s initials are not shown.

When transferring the timetable to SIMS .net, the Curriculum Matching Wizard gives a message “The following groups have been inserted…”:

Cause

A group name change or the removal of a group name in Nova will not transfer to SIMS .net if it is done at the same time as the group is reduced to one class, nor will the change transfer to SIMS .net on any subsequent send.

Advice

IMPORTANT: If implementing this advice, note that careful checks must be made in the Curriculum Matching Wizard to ensure that all groups have retained the correct links. Some re-linking may be necessary where groups are being renamed.

Once a linear structure is created, then it is not removed even if the group is reduced to one cluster. This means that the teacher's name will not re-appear in brackets under the class name in block assignment.

The best that can be done, once the situation exists, is to rename the group to something appropriate, typically to reflect the subject name. This can be accomplished as follows:

1. In the Nova-T6 model, temporarily add another class to the group, with 0 periods, choosing any subject that starts with a letter alphabetically after the subject of the class which is to become the group label. This makes the cluster linear once more:

 

2. Send the timetable to SIMS .net. This will rename the group in SIMS .net as per the first (and required) subject in the cluster: Ma

3. Remove the temporary class from the model, making it once again a non-linear cluster of one class

4. Re-send the timetable to SIMS .net

Example

In this academic management screen, the column heading 7x/Hu1 is in fact the name of a linear group. The other columns show class names and teacher initials:

 

Here is the associated section of the Nova-T6 model which caused the situation. Note that the first row of the Maths block is a linear group because it contains a ‘cluster’ of more than one class. Nova-T6 automatically names this group 7x/Hu1 after the first class subject alphabetically:

Amending the model as below, and then resending, does not alter the situation in academic management; we still have a column headed 7x/Hu1. This is because the linear group structure cannot be removed from SIMS .net, once created:

Technically speaking, this does not cause a problem. The column 7x/Hu1 is a group containing the underlying class 7x/Ma1, which still exists. Ticking the 7x/Hu1 column automatically ticks the underlying class 7x/Ma1. This can be seen in academic management by:

1. Highlighting 7x/Maths in the list of schemes

2. Clicking the Down Level button

 

3. Open the revealed cluster, and note that we now see the class name and teacher (these were there all the time, but not visible because we were looking at group level):

 

So, not a problem from a technical point of view – if the group column is ticked, so will the underlying classes. Furthermore, it is the class names that will appear on student/teacher timetables, not group names.

However, the situation can be highly confusing for the operator doing academic management, especially if the group name bears no relation to the underlying subjects. To mitigate this, the linear group cannot be removed, but it can be renamed to something sensible, as explained previously.

Simon Wood, eLIM (SCC), July 2013