[sims] Alternative Curriculum Assignment

[LisaCN279]

Hi all,

 

I was wondering if anyone could give some advice. We use Alternative Curriculum for Sixth Form Study periods. One for Lower Sixth and one for Upper Sixth. These is assigned to a pupil's timetable where they are 'free' i.e. assigned to no other lessons. The purpose of this is to allow our Sixth Form Supervisors to register the pupil for that period.

 

The way we assign pupils is on an individual basis - a manual process of going through each pupil via Curriculum Assignment, adding an activity, searching for the Alternative Curriculum, selecting it and ticking all relevant periods.

 

Please tell me there's a quicker / better / more efficient way to do this?!

 

Looking forward to hearing about other ways you work around this as I find it really hard to believe that this is the only / best way to do this.

 

Kind regards,

Lisa

[coolhands]

I believe it (Alt curr) can only be done on an individual basis.

[LisaCN279]

Thanks for your reply. I believe this too, but I’m wondering is there another method of handling registering Sixth Form study periods rather than using the Alternative Curriculum.

[smarties11]

What we do is have a private study subject set up in Nova T6. We code it 'Zp'. Then every option block on the sixth form timetable has a subject Zp, alongside the other real subjects. Also, any subjects not running for all periods of the block have the short periods made up with Zp. This is then scheduled and sent to SIMS. When assigning course levels, the Zp classes need to be assigned to the 'General' level. Then, when doing curriculum allocations in SIMS, in any blocks where a student isn't taking a subject, we allocate them Zp. This fills the blank periods with Private Study. Registers can then be completed.

[LisaCN279]

Thank you smarties11 for this. We also have Private Study in this way in NovaT for our option blocks where some subjects are short, so it’s great to hear we can build on this solution and add to every block. Withhin SIMS, we allocate Alt Curr over the top of these periods for the purposes of registering pupils.

 

By assigning to general, I’m assuming this doesn’t cause any issues with returns etc?

 

I’ve suggested this method previously to our timetabler (I’m just the assistant) but they weren’t happy that it was a viable solution. For me, anything is viable that doesn’t involve hours of manual labour!

 

Appreciate your input.

[smarties11]

Hi Lisa,

 

Yes, exactly that - if you assign a general level then it isn't picked up as a learning aim in the October census.

 

It's a solution that we have been using for over 10+ years, it works really well and I've not come across any pitfalls.