E10 - Preparing data for the new year (WA Government schools)

Modified on Thu, 14 Aug at 12:54 AM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preamble

Preamble

This document outlines how Government schools in Western Australia may manage the rollover process.

Edval is primarily used in these schools to gather student preferences, generate lines and build a timetable for the following year. Timetable management and student class list management is not usually done in Edval from this point; rather it is managed in Integris (SIS).

This results in the Edval timetable file becoming out-of-sync with the up-to-date data in Integris. There comes a time when it is likely that the Edval file needs to be updated to prepare for the following year's timetable build, particularly in the area of Student data.

This document offers a suggested process.

Suggested process:

Step 1 - Rollover the Edval file

Step 2 - Extract Student data from Integris

Step 3 - Import updated Student data into Edval

Step 4 - Proceed with Subject selection, Line generation and Timetable construction

Step 1 - Rollover the Edval file

The Edval file rollover will clear this year's timetable from the grid, clear staff allocations, and move the students up a year level.

There are options to promote students class enrolments to those of the following year, for example, Year 11 student's classes will be altered to become the Year 12 classes. Given that class list changes have been occurring in Integris throughout the year, but not duplicated into Edval, the class lists in the Edval file will not likely reflect the correct class enrolments as per Integris. Therefore, it may be better to first delete all class enrolment data in Edval, extract the correct information from Integris, and import this into Edval.

Perform the rollover, without promoting any classes. The timetable grid and staff allocations will be cleared, and students moved up a year level with no class enrolments for the new year.
Note that the option does exist to promote Year 11 classes into Year 12 classes if the file does already contain the correct Year 11 student class enrolments.
Save the file with an appropriate name to continue to work in for the new year timetable build.

Refer to E10 - Rollover to Create Next Year's File for the detailed rollover guide.

Step 2 - Extract student data from Integris

Extract the updated student data from Integris.
Fields that may be exported/imported include:
1. Student Code (required)
2. Student Name: Can be either Full name, or separated into Surname and First name fields (required)
3. Year level (required)
4. WASN (optional)
5. Gender (optional)
6. Letter and/or Number group (optional)
7. House (optional)
8. Email address (optional)
9. Class enrolment codes (optional) - see note below
Save as an Excel spreadsheet

The spreadsheet may look similar to the image below. It does not matter in which order the columns display, nor does it matter what the titles of each column are called, as Edval has a drag and drop heading method during the import process.

Multiple year levels can be imported at the same time, or the data can be prepared for each year level separately, and the data extracted accordingly.

Note on Class enrolments

Class codes are only required in certain circumstances. The most common situation would be that the Year 11 students moving into Year 12 will retain their current classes. They can be 'promoted' in Integris so that the Year 11 codes are converted to the appropriate Year 12 codes prior to extracting the data.

If class codes on the spreadsheet differ from existing class codes already in the Edval file, then the option presents to 'Create' or 'Skip' these classes. The user may like to first manually check that the class codes existing in the spreadsheet already exist in Edval, and if not, add them manually prior to the import. This is not necessary, but is worth noting, as any classes that are created during the import process may be missing some information in the Class data screen, such as class name, number of periods etc, and must be 'tidied up' at some point. Redundant classes must be manually deleted.

Step 3 - Import updated student data into Edval

Go to:
File > Import data > Student data > All year levels, one row per student (where the spreadsheet contains multiple year levels)
File > Import data > Student data > One year level, one row per student (where the spreadsheet contains a single year level only)
Follow the prompts to select the spreadsheet extracted from Integris

Refer to E10: Import Student data and class lists from a spreadsheet for the detailed Import guide.

Step 4 - Proceed with Subject Selection, Line Generation and Timetable Construction

Once the updated student data is contained in the file, the timetable construction process for the following year can proceed.

Other notes:

Multiple imports
Student data can be repeatedly imported as information changes. There is an option at import time to select 'Merge', which merges in new or altered information, or 'Clear and Overwrite' which will replace all existing student data for the selected year level to match what is contained on the import spreadsheet.
Reprocess lines
Edval has a feature titled 'Reprocess lines', which takes the current student class enrolments and blocking solution, and investigates whether an alternate solution can be found. Schools typically use this feature when exploring if the number of classes that will run for the following year can be reduced from the number of classes that ran in the current year, without greatly affecting student's class enrolments.

Example: in this year's file there may have been two classes of Psychology running, but perhaps due to a reduction in the number of students continuing on with this course, only one class is required. As the two Psychology classes are currently on different lines, simply removing one of the classes is likely to result in clashes for students with their remaining subjects. The Reprocess lines function looks at shuffling all classes across the lines to try to maintain students' subjects.

Refer to E10 - Elective data > Courses Action: Reprocess Lines for a detailed guide.