Two half period classes in a grid (with 2 x assembly periods, or 'short' periods)

Modified on Thu, 14 Aug at 12:53 AM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preamble
- STEP 1 (Construct the timetable as if the period was not split)
- STEP 2 (Expand the split period classes, into an additional lesson and schedule)

Preamble

Some schools run Assembly for half a period, as you may not need the full duration of a period to complete the Assembly activities. Rather than have one full teaching period on Monday week A P3, and a full Assembly period on Monday week B P3 - They divide this period into two halves. The teaching lesson occurs in the first or second half of both periods, and so does the assembly period.

This has the effect of providing greater contact time for the class that is split across two half periods.

It also provides a more appropriate (shorter) duration for the assembly… on both weeks.

While it is possible to segregate the period within the grid itself, because it is an exception that only occurs perhaps on two days out of ten, it is best to use this as an exception workaround, and not within the grid.

STEP 1 (Construct the timetable as if the period was not split)

Initially assume (and code) the assembly period as 100% occupied to the full period in week A (of the period to be split). This leaves the other period to be split as capable of taking any class whatsoever - without leaving a gap.
You may use the F6 class data screen > Periods cell ... To artificially block or encourage specific classes that you may want to especially run across the split period. An example of this may be languages, where you want increased contact frequency, as opposed to a practical subject with a reduced duration may be inappropriate.

STEP 2 (Expand the split period classes, into an additional lesson and schedule)

Once the timetable has been fully constructed, without the complexity/overhead of thinking about split periods at the initial outset, we now find Assembly in one period, and a range of teaching classes (suitable to be split) in the corresponding period of the other week.
Go through each of the classes which has been assigned to this period, and increase the #Per value by one, to reflect that one period is actually becoming two. Then reduce the load assigned to this class by one, to reflect that two of these periods are half load, equating to just one. For example a class of allocation seven periods normally, would have #Per=8(7). This means the class will occupy eight cells on the grid, to which other split period, but the teacher gets credited for seven periods… Which is correct for the total teaching time of this class in minutes.
Using the Period cell, place an entry such as Mon3 against all classes which are running in the split period. This is a requirement which will both flag these classes as different from others, but also assist in keeping the split periods in their correct location on both weeks. You may also manually schedule these classes to the period, in cases where this does not happen automatically. In certain situations it will, but there is a technical difference between a requirement of what should occur, as opposed to an assignment of what has occurred.
The staffing may follow for the additional period, depending on which state you generate the staffing. If not, simply manually assign the additional period of each class to the appropriate teachers which have the remainder.
Run Rooms > Auto room (if the timetable has not been distributed), or Rooms > Fix clashes + missing rooms (if you have gone against best practice and spent hours manually rooming!… Or already distributed the timetable to end users, and want to reduce disruption on room changes)

At this point, the timetable has no assembly as the class spread over both short periods looks like any other on the grid. This is quite normal, and we discourage users from trying to build in that Assembly or other administrative class within the grid. As these admin classes generally don't require scheduling consideration, such as whole school activities, the focus should lie in managing both split periods for the academic class.

In most cases students and teachers alike will readily understand assembly occurs either before or after the short split period on the same time each week, and there is no strong reason to included on timetables. Such whole school activities are obvious to end users, and timetables are primarily designed to reflect assignment of classes and rooms that change relative to the timetable.

Assembly periods are a static assignment for the school, so students generally don't need to see the word Assembly on their timetables every time they look at them. If you particularly wanted to see the word assembly shown on timetables in the relevant place on the grid, you would simply insert an additional period row in File > Grid structure, then Mark out this period on every other day, except for the Assembly period. This is strongly discouraged, as the structure looks very confusing to end users… The marginal benefit of showing them an assembly exists on a certain day every timetable cycle across the year.

Note that when covering classes by Daily, it is possible to vary the credit for the class on a case-by-case basis. The split periods should have a reduced duration, so will appear as a 0.5 cover, however different schools may vary this amount according to their own policy - but this must be done manually every time a cover is made of a "short" period.