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

Modified on Thu, 25 Sep at 2:26 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 programs 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.

Considering the complication in these options, it is highly recommended that schools consider the Type A:Option A1 approach.

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 timetable "etz" files.

Summary:

Sync the 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 the 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 the 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 feature, so some manual work must be done by confident timetablers to merge the current yr 7-9 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 the cloned dataset.
Interviews/SSO/SMS Casual/Creation of new users is not supported in the 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 are 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 the Champagne stage, including staffing classes.
Create a copy of next year’s file. This will become the Headstart etz.
Modify staff allocations using the 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 the .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 is not supported in the 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