The Classes Screen
A 'class', also referred to in some places as a 'section', is an instance of a course that we need to place on the timetable.
Below is a list of all the columns available in this screen. On some columns, if you hover over the column heading, you will notice a tooltip with specific help information related to that column.
Columns
Course : The most important field, what course is this class for?
Section : A short identifier to distinguish different classes of the same course. Use a 1-character identifier if possible.
Code : The course-code and section identifier are combined into this identifier. This identifier will be unique within the timetable.
Id : An internal numeric id.
ExternalId : Use this code to match the class with the SIS.
Year : What year-level is this class being offered to? In rare cases, students will be allowed to take classes in another year-level.
Faculty : What is the class's faculty? This is a read-only field because it can only be changed in the "DataEntry > Courses" screen.
Rotations : This is for when the academic year is broken up into date-ranges with students rotating between different classes in each phase. This is a read-only field because it's the Structure screen which is in charge of assigning rotations to classes.
The Structure screen is able to assign rotations in accordance with the setting "File > Settings > Number of rotations".
Spread override : This acts as an override over what's specified at the 'course' level. Why would you want one class to have a different spread to other classes of that course? Well, for example if you have a part-time teacher on it then you might want more double periods.
Periods : #Periods : This acts as an override over what's specified at the 'course' level. This field is rarely needed, in fact we recommend against its use. Sometimes, if a lesson needs to be taken off its line and placed before or after school or in a study lesson, for example, the number of periods would be changed from say, 8, to 7 + 1. An "offline" period generally refers to any period outside the white timetable periods on the grid. A lesson is also called "offline" when it is separated from its line. This lesson may be placed on a teaching period or a non - teaching period and in both cases it will be excluded from both the Mosaic screen and all related algorithms, but still appear on teacher and year timetables with a white 'o' symbol.
Teacher req : Usually you leave this field blank. This overrides the field of the same name in the 'Courses' table: what teachers are options to teach this class?
Overriding what the course says
Use a comma-separated string of teacher codes. Enclose a teacher code in brackets if it's a fallback teacher, or double brackets for 'if desperate'. For example: COB,THO,(AMB)
You can also request multiple teachers by using the '+' symbol, e.g.: LTO+TCO for two hardcoded teachers, code LTO and TCO; or + + for three teachers taken from the set specified in the Course table - given that + + should be understood as "those+those+those".
The Defined split syntax
This is if you want to pre-define a ratio for splitting the class between 2 or more teachers. This saves you the effort of setting up subclasses as rows in this table.
For example: 2:TCO | 4:LTO will give TCO 2 lessons and LTO will get 4. This uses the vertical bar character ('|') between pieces. You can also use 'D' instead of the '2' to indicate that TCO should get the double-period, e.g. D:TCO | 4:LTO . You can also specify sets of teachers to choose from, e.g.: D:TCO | 4:LTO,(MCK) means that the 4-period subclass will choose either LTO or MCK. You can also specify rotations using the slash syntax, e.g.: 6/1,2/:TCO | 6/3,4/:LTO to indicate that TCO will take rotations 1 & 2 and LTO will take rotations 3 & 4.
The 'Join to' feature
You can also indicate that one class is going to share the teacher of another class. This feature is only available if the classes are vertically linked, i.e. they share all the same periods. To link e.g. 7ENG.1 to 7ENG.2, go to 7ENG.2 and in the 'Teachers' field type join to 7ENG.1.
Room req : Usually you leave this blank. This overrides the field of the same name in the 'Courses' table: what rooms are options for this class?
We use the same syntax as explained in the help for 'Teacher Req', e.g. you can have 2 lessons in the oval and 4 lessons in a classroom using: 2:OVAL only|4:
Constraints : What specific periods is this class required to be on, or required to not be on? Obviously, the algorithm finds it easier to produce a timetable if you minimise use of this field. However, sometimes you need to put in special constraints, e.g. to get two different classes to overlap on one period a week in order to do a test. Note that if the constraint arises from the relevant teacher or room being unavailable certain periods, then this should be encoded in the teacher's (or room's) 'Unavailable' column in the relevant data-entry screen, rather than as a property on the class.
Syntax by example:
1 Make it run on period 1 for all cycle day (in addition to maybe some other periods)
Tue5 Make it run on Tuesdays period 5 (in addition to maybe some other periods)
not Tue5 Make it run on potentially any period other than Tuesdays period 5
not Wed Avoid any period on a Wednesday
not 1 Avoid any first period of a day
trynot 1 Preferably don't run it on any first period
Students : A read-only field. If we detect that class-lists for this year-level are done, then we'll display the actual number of students. Otherwise we'll display the course 'MaxStudents' field (which can only be changed in the Courses table).
Teacher : A read-only field displaying the teacher(s) assigned to this class. Occasionally we have 'split classes' which are shared between 2 or more teachers.
Priority in clash : If a student is required at two different classes at once, which one takes precedence? A higher number means higher priority. The default is 0. This affects timetable displays, the Covers module, and if you integrate with a SIS that uses this field then it could affect roll marking too.