Arbor - Timetabling

[CP2024]

Morning,

 

We have just migrated from Sims to Arbor and I am struggling on the timetable side of things, it seems more longwinded that Sims and not as intuitive from a timetable perspective.

 

If anyone can help/advise, I'd be very grateful. Not sure if I am just missing something, have also raised with Arbor helpdesk (awaiting response).

 

Teaching Groups:

Have set these up as have multiple subjects in blocks that we need automatic enrolment into. When I have added all the subjects required in the relevant teaching group and then pull the students through, its pulling anyone through that may have ever been in that block, even though they have moved to another block. Meaning they have two lots of lessons on their timetable. Surely Arbor is clever enough to just pull through the current students in those subjects for the teaching group?

 

Option Blocks - Yr 10 & 11:

We have various subjects in four option blocks (A, B, C, D) and within each of those blocks student's can take one subject. We have students that decide to change options, in Sims it was easy to quickly identify which options they may be able to switch to within that block - example Block A has Spanish, French, Catering, Computer Science, Business Studies, student wants to swap from Spanish to French. Normally I quickly pull up the block, check subjects available and check student numbers for each subject to see if the move is possible - say French shows 30 students, this move would be a no. Does anyone know how to do this in Arbor, without having to manually work through the course list to try and identify all those subjects in that block.

 

Many thanks

[RichP]

We struggled with this too - the curriculum structure in SIMS isn't a thing in Arbor. Whilst this gives more flexibility it does mean that you need check more to ensure students stay in the right blocks and bands.

Arbor will quite happily let you put Y7 students into a Y12 class, let alone a student in 7A into a 7B! It's great for dual reg students, and for students in 6th Form resitting subjects for example.

 

Make good use of the import spreadsheets, then at least you can do the checking outside of Arbor.

I tend to create a Teaching Group (think of it like a Linear Block in T6) and populate it with subjects. I use the import to make sure everyone is in the right block for 1 subject, then use that to populate the linear blocks with students.

 

With regards to your Option Blocks, I assume they are structured like 10X/Sp, 10X/Fr, 10X/CS etc? In which case try the Add option on a student's enrolment page and type 10X to see just the 10X classes with the current course numbers. You will need to delete the old enrolment, unless you just use that for numbers and then Transfer them instead.

You can see a better overview from the Table View via School -> Programme -> Courses for all courses.

 

As with everything Arbor, the Roadmap is the place to go to suggest obvious improvements that they could make! https://portal.productboard.com/arbor-education/1-arbor-development-roadmap/c/362-enrolment

 

Happy to show you how we make it work if that would help, just message me.

[CP2024]

Brilliant thanks so much that is amazing! that makes my life so much easier to look at options if I go to the student enrollment area.

 

Also thank you for the advice regarding teaching groups and populating - will start exploring that side of things

[johnfermor]

One of my schools migrated from SIMS to Arbor last year.

 

I discovered the free FET timetabling software (https://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/). This has done all of the heavy lifting for us which just leaves manual entering of the timetable into Arbor. My colleague had a timetable up and running in an afternoon and she hadn't clapped eyes on it before! incl staff, rooms, etc.

 

It was either this or pay £1200pa for the "recommended" options (which we are probably only going to use once or twice a year!)

Edited January 15, 2024 by johnfermor