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Forum thread: Dual-grade classes
| Tim Tuck 19 February 2011 09:43 |
Hi, Our smaller school has a number of dual grade classes. For example, we have a Year 1/2 class and a Year 6/7 class. Is there a suggested method for setting these classes up? My attempts have resulted in fudging students' year levels and having to rename classes. Cheers, Tim Tuck South Australia |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 19 February 2011 12:30 |
Dear Tim, I have to confess this is not something we've addressed before, though thinking about it, this is not an uncommon situation. This means there isn't a current (best or otherwise) suggested method, If I understand correctly, each student can be thought of as still going through year groups sequentially (ie 1, then 2, then 3 each year etc) but they'll stay in a particular class for two years and alternate being with other students either a year older or a year younger than themselves. If this is the case, the student information shouldn't need to be fudged - they can be allocated to the correct year group, and this will automatically progress from one year to the next correctly at the end of each school year. The classes would however need to be carved up each year. I can see a couple of options here (though there may be others) 1) Set up a more clever database (eg in ACCESS) to better reflect your situation, and then use the ODBC interface option of STEARsoft to automatically suck in the correct data. See http://www.stearsoft.co.uk/odbc-tutorial1/odbc-tutorial1.html as a starting point if this sounds attractive. 2) If you only have a handful of such classes it may be quicker to do the process manually. I will put a second post up with a suggested way of doing this, which may be more efficient that what you are currently doing. Yours, Marcus. |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 19 February 2011 12:37 |
To progress students manually from one class to another (so the classes are fixed in time, while the students progress through the school): - Ensure you have the latest version of STEARsoft installed (version 5.2.1) - In the teacher web interface, go to a class you want to promote some students up in to (each class 3/4). - In the 'Class details' tab for this class, near the bottom select 'Add new students to this class'. - In the new top section of the add students page, choose the class some students are moving up from (eg class 1/2). And click the 'import' button. - On the next screen change the left column to say 'Exclude' for any students you don't want to promote (ie the ones in year 1 going into 2). Then click 'Next' at the bottom. - The default option should be to use your existing student records, but to associate them with their new class. - Go to the old class (eg class 1/2), and in the 'Class details' tab click the 'remove' link next to the students that have been promoted up. I hope this helps. Yours, Marcus. |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 19 February 2011 13:14 |
PS A class identified as 'Year 1' can have students identified as 'Year 2' in it. It is just that the default prompts will be to have students from the same year. PPS If you have the full (paid for) version of STEARsoft for the iPhone, you may find the interface there for copying students from one class into another as easy or easier. PPPS For peace of mind, it is worth using the Backup feature (in the options panel on the main teacher page) before doing these processes. Marcus. |
| Tim Tuck 20 February 2011 01:51 |
Thank you so much for the fast reply - and on the weekend too! I've solved the issue using a combination of what you've said and my own observations and trials. When I first set up classes last year there was no issue as all students were imported. But the drop-down menu on the add new students screen filters to the year level set in the class information box. So if I had a Year 4/5 class and set it to level 4 I couldn't add Year 5s (and set to level 5 I couldn't add 4s). A similar situation existed for cross-age groups doing instrumental music, where a class may have students from up to three age groups. My solution, though inelegant was to simply reset the level in the class details box to reflect the students I wanted to add. I noticed the new iPhone app works better in this regard - it scrolls to the year level but I can scroll forward / back for students from other year levels. Perhaps the drop down filtered student list could have a second all-student list next to it? Cheers, Tim Tuck |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 20 February 2011 13:47 |
Dear Tim, Ah yes... What you say makes sense. Perhaps catching the web-variant up with the more recent iPhone interface in this regard would be good to do. I think this would be worth doing, so thanks for highlighting it. Yours, Marcus. |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 14 April 2011 15:53 |
Dear Tim, I'm hoping release 5.3 of STEARsoft (that was released today), gives you the required functionality to enable what you want to do easily. I'd be interested in any feedback you might have or further suggestions. Yours, Marcus. |
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