Independent Study Periods

[Garnetteyes]

Hi

 

We're trying to add 'independent study' to students' timetables at our sixth form. We've added 'IS' to blocks in T6 and put students in groups as this was the only way we could think to do this. The issue we're having now is this is adversely effecting our lesson attendance.

 

Really I'm looking to either..

1. Find a way to add 'independent study' to students timetables without creating groups in the model and therefore registers or..

2. Find a way to ensure that these periods are pre-populated with an attendance code

 

Any ideas gratefully received!

 

Thanks

 

Nick

[Mistert89]

You also have to consider how this affects “courses of study” in your Census returns

[Garnetteyes]

I know independent study can count towards GLH in some cases but we don’t need it to, I literally just want the students to have it on their timetables.

 

Thanks

 

Nick

[bobsmith]

We've done it as just another subject in each of our blocks.

 

Then we have someone take the register each period. This solves the lesson attendance issue.

 

If you haven't got a person to do that then you could pre mark the lessons in lesson monitor each week (this is how we deal with offsite lessons).

[Garnetteyes]

Hi Bob

 

Thanks for replying, that sounds exactly like what we're dealing with. Pardon my ignorance but is there an automatic way of pre marking the lessons? Do you use a 'B' code?

 

It's a shame there appears to be no way in T6 or SIMS of saying, 'this session doesn't require a register' or even better 'omit this session from attendance calculations'

 

Nick

[bobsmith]

there's no automatic way - but you (whoever does attendance) can simply work your way through the class.

 

I don't use a B code because we actually have them in a suite of rooms with a supervisor so they are marked as normal.

 

If however they aren't supervised then another code perhaps a B would be better. Do they leave the site for Independent Study?

[Garnetteyes]

Some of them are entitled to leave site for independent study, but picking those out individually makes it into a lot more of a task

[bobsmith]

the only "official" thing I can say is that attendance is part of safeguarding, you can't mark students as present when they aren't on site.

 

If no one is actually bothered about tracking them/registering them then you could use the X code for their lessons, "not required to attend". it'll get rid of all those missing register notifications and dodgy attendance figures straight away.

[Garnetteyes]

That sounds ideal then, we’ll use the ‘X’ code

 

Thanks for your response, I was hoping for a clever sims/T6 solution, something like NCC but for students but I can’t find anything anywhere. At least I have a plan