[sims] Nova T6 Additional period at the end of the day

[ChrisH]

For the timetable this year I have been asked to add a period to the end of the day so certain booster classes etc can be set up and attendance recorded etc. What is the best way to go about this? I'm assuming I can't just add an extra period and use alternative curriculum to define the classes as I would normally. I am just trying to figure out what kind of effect it would have on lesson monitor with only a select few doing this. Can anyone advise on the best way of going about this?

[RootsSchImp]

Hi Chris,

 

It's a while since I've done this but I'm pretty sure that there's a lesson monitor set up where you can tell it which periods are AM/PM and therefore that this period is not part of the 'real' school day. I'm going to say it's in Tools... but like I say I can't remember exactly. That's potentially one of your problems sorted but there's another.

 

Changing the cycle mid-year used to give LM a real problem - I don't know if this has been resolved but if you decide to go ahead I recommend doing it with a back up of sims.net on hand in case things get buggy. If you do and it works could you post here please? I'm curious to know if it's workable.

 

Ed

[bobsmith]

Tools >> Setups >> Lesson Monitor Setup is the path I think RootsSchImp is referring to.

 

Extra periods aren't necessarily a problem, We have a lunch lesson and a period 5, The students who do a lunch time lesson and not period 5 varies each day.

[ChrisH]

Thanks so you're saying I can add it to the end and not bother adjusting the lesson monitor bit or not?

[bobsmith]

As what you are doing here is a change to the school day, what kind of issues do you think you are likely to see with lesson monitor?

 

Your AM/PM needs to be properly set up regardless of these extra periods.

[ChrisH]

I wasn't sure what I'd see, I suppose if there are no pupils assigned to a class then there would be no missing marks an therefore no missing registers and there would be no issues with any other numbers regarding lesson marks?

[bobsmith]

Would there be a time when there are no students assigned to the class?

 

If it's really ad hoc rather than regularly scheduled, you may be better off looking at their new Activities module.

[RootsSchImp]

I think if you export a new timetable cycle to the current academic year you'll get a message pop up saying words to the effect of 'this will screw up lesson monitor'. I've never wanted an extra period enough to find out exactly what the nature of this screw up is or whether it happens at all. You would think that if in your new cycle existing periods are unchanged and the new period takes place afterwards then it wouldn't mess with LM at all - but then this is SIMS so who knows?

 

Good luck and let us know if you decide to take the plunge.

[ChrisH]

Sorry I didn't make it clear in my first post this will be for next year so less worries about a cycle change.

[Cache]

Add a blanking code in for those periods, it will stop Nt6 trying to schedule anything in to those slots that you don't want to timetable into.