E10 - Setting up for end of year programs (Headstart, Step Up, Transition, Orientation etc): Options and Considerations

Modified on Thu, 14 Aug at 12:54 AM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preamble
Type A: Only Years 10-11 move up into Year 11 & 12
Type B: All years doing Headstart

Preamble

This document will outline some of the options, considerations, and known implications of the variety of ways an orientation program can be run in a school. Unfortunately, we cannot suggest a 'best practice', as there are many options and implications that each school must assess to help decide which method best suits their individual needs. Schools use different terminologies for the end of year program but it will be referred to as Headstart for the rest of this document.

This document applies to a typical Year 7-12 school. It also provides Compass information due to the large number of Victorian schools using Compass. Schools using other Management systems should check their system's documentation.

The main types of Headstart program we see are:

Type A: Years 10 and 11 move up into Year 11 & 12, and Years 7-9 stay with their current program (or similar)
Type B: All years 7 - 11 students move up into the next year level at the same time

Depending on what your school chooses to do, there are different options within each of the above types for how to go about building your Headstart file.

Type A: Only Years 10-11 move up into Year 11 & 12

Type A: Options

Pros & Cons

Knowledge Base Documents Links

Option A1 - NOT using Headstart clone in Daily. This option uses 2 timteable "etz" files.

Summary:

Sync current year etz to both Daily and your admin system "Compass" as normal
Create next year's Yr12 classes as events in Daily.
Follow the same approach for next year's Yr11 classes.
Sync ONLY next year's yr11 and yr12 classes to Compass Headstart layer.

Pros:

Simple and easiest to implement.

Cons:

Daily Organiser have to manually create the events in Daily.
Covers for these events in Daily will not be visible in Compass

This is the recommended option if only running Headstart for each year level for a very short period time.

Link: Syncing your Headstart Program to Compass - Not Using Daily Headstart Clone

Option A2 - Using Headstart clone in Daily. This option uses 1 merged timetable "etz" file.

Summary:

Rollover the current year's file and generate lines for the following year.
Export the Yr11 and Yr12 classes and enrollments from the rolled over file.
Create a copy of the current year's file. This will become the Headstart etz file.
Import the Yr11 and Yr12 classes and enrolments from the rolled over file.
Staff the classes.
Place imported classes onto the grid.
Solve any clashes with the existing Yrs 7-9.
Sync Headstart etz to Headstart clone Daily and Compass.

Pros:

Teacher and room clashes can be highlighted and solved directly in the file
This etz file can be synced to a cloned dataset of Timetable Daily for Daily organisation activities, displaying the correct Headstart timetable.
Daily organisation is easier as all daily covers are in one database.

Cons:

It does not have a timetable grid import features, so some manual work must be done by confident timetablers to merge the current yr7-9 and next year's yr 11-12 timetable.
Daily Organisation (Timetable Daily) - not accurate reporting of absences, covers and extras. There is no dynamic link between the current year and cloned dataset.
Interviews/SSO/SMS Casual/Creation of new users are not supported in Daily Headstart clone dataset.

Link 1: E10 - Considerations and process for Term 4 timetables amalgamation

Link 2: Timetable Daily: Using a Cloned Timetable Daily Dataset for Headstart Programs

Type B: All years doing Headstart

Type B

Pros & Cons

Knowledge Base Documents

Using Headstart clone in Daily. Using 1 etz file. Edit the next year's timetable "etz" to become the Headstart etz.

This method is cleaner as all students doing headstart at the same time.

Summary:

Rollover the current year’s etz file and generate lines for the following year.
Attempt to get to Champagne stage, including staffing classes.
Create a copy of next year’s file. This will become the Headstart etz.
Modify staff allocations using Term 4 available staff.
Place classes onto the master grid and fix clashes.
Sync Headstart etz to Headstart clone Daily and Compass.

Pros:

Teacher and room clashes can be highlighted and solved directly in etz file.
This etz file can be synced to a cloned dataset of Timetable Daily for daily organisation activities, displaying the correct Headstart timetable.

Cons:

Daily Organisation (Timetable Daily) - not accurate reporting of absences, covers and extras. There is no dynamic link between the current and cloned datasets.
Interviews/SS/SMS Casual/Creation of new users are not supported in Headstart Daily clone dataset.

Link 1: E10 - Process for editing next year's timetable where all years are doing Headstart at the same time

Link 2: Timetable Daily: Using a Cloned Timetable Daily Dataset for Headstart Programs