E10 - ADMIN Settings: Teachers

Modified on Tue, 24 Mar at 8:56 PM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Number of Periods teachers can be overloaded.
Splits normally expected
Duties count towards load
Teacher spreads- Period pairs to avoid
Import unavailability’s from other .etz files

Preamble

This screen relates to settings on teacher loads and teaching spreads. Take note of the stage in the timetabling process where each setting applies. Some settings influence auto-staffing and Ctrl-Q checks while others affect construction in the master grid.

1. Number of Periods teachers can be overloaded.

This is not the value teachers are expected to work above their normal load. This is the allowed overloading for initial timetable construction. It allows more optimal splits to be determined post-solution, where the splits are better able to solve hard clashes. It is also often used for balancing loads to 'no' or rare cases of overloading only. This parameter is solely applied for auto-staffing so is not managed in any ongoing way, such as preventing overloading with manual changes.

2. Splits normally expected

Refer to an estimated number of split classes for the year. Generally, the number of split classes should be estimated based on past files. This is solely used by Ctrl-Q checks, which will allow staffing to be classified as valid, even if a few classes are left unstaffed.

3. Duties count towards load

Enable this setting if you want the yard duties to be included in teachers' load calculations. Please note that this option requires the "Be aware of the actual length of each lesson" setting to be enabled in Setup > School info which also impacts load calculation.

Most schools will NOT use this setting, as teachers are allocated a standard number of yard duties, and not counted towards the load. Variations in the amount of yard duties are managed in Teachers > Duty rosters > Duty loads.

4. Teacher spreads- Period pairs to avoid

When constructing a timetable, the user can nominate that a teacher should be free on a certain period if they are occupied on another. For example if the school has a staggered lunch, with some teachers taking lunch in period 5 and others in period 6, then "5&6" should be entered. If they should have either first period or last period off, in addition to 5&6, then the entry would be, "5&6, 1&8". These period pairs are taken into account in the Optimise algorithms (found in the Master Grid screen), but they are treated as soft constraints, so attention needs to be paid to the relevant scoring weight.

5. Import unavailability’s from other .etz files

This clever feature allows the user to manage multiple timetables, each having different bell times or grid structures.

If you use Import unavailability’s from other .etz files option and then attempt to sync to the Edval web server, an error will occur as shown in the screenshot below. To fix this issue you will need to remove the import etz file in the Import unavailability’s from other .etz files option, then sync to Edval web server. After the sync is done, re-import your .etz file.