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Forum thread: I need to create year groups before Year 1
| Dorian Manning 18 July 2009 15:50 |
I want to use this software through all the classes in the primary school, including the Early Years, but I cannot create year groups for Foundation 2, Foundation One and Pre-foundation classes. Is there any way round this? |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 19 July 2009 17:15 |
Dear Dorian Manning, Thank you for your posting. I have to confess it's something not previously considered. The ways round this at the moment are not very nice. Redifining what year 1 etc mean so it starts at Pre-foundation would be one way - but that's nasty, and would confuse people no-end. The best option at the moment is probably to miss out the year-group information for these 3 years, though off the top of my head I'm not sure of the detailed implications of this - some of the reporting screens and filters may not be so neat. It might be just that though. However, this is clearly something that would be uesful to update STEARsoft with. It would not require a big change, as it's only a visual extension, so could even make it in to the next release which should be before September. If we were to make such a change, do you have any particular suggestions of what would be most useful? Your sincerely, Marcus Butler |
| Dorian Manning 20 July 2009 13:50 |
Hi, thanks for your quick reply, I must admit that without the requested information we probably won't be able to use the software, which would be a shame as everything else seems to be pretty much what we are looking for. I'm sure many, if not all, other schools will find it useful as most will have at least a Reception or F2 class. My suggestions would be: 1. either keep this field the same but allow the software to use the minus sign, i.e. F2 would be -1, F1 -2 and PF -3. 2. change the field to include letters so we can use PF, F1, F2, either limited to these descriptions only, or unlimited so allowing other schools to use relevant initials for their year groups (e.g. R=Reception instead of F2). I look forward to hearing that you have incorporated the change into a new release. Thank you |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 20 July 2009 14:47 |
Hello again, I've been busy at work since my reply, as I agree with all that you've said now that you've highlighted this issue. I've actually created a beta version that you can try right now. Although not fully release tested, it looks pretty good, and might end up being a release version: Point your browser at the stearsoft.co.uk main website, and then type beta.php at the end of your web-browser's address bar. It is version 4.2.1 It is based on your suggestion 1 above, simply allowing negative numbers and zero. If you want automatic year progression to work it goes from -1 to 0 then to 1. Does that mean F2 would be zero rather than -1? Would that matter? If you could try it out and let me know if it meets your needs, that would be good. It will probably also be useful for your own evaluation. Do let me know if there are other alterations or additions you'd like to see. Regards, Marcus |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 21 July 2009 15:32 |
Ooops, that wasn't good. I don't know if you tried version 4.2.1? A missing new file caused the main attendance sheet view to not work. Version 4.2.2 (new link on the beta web page) corrects this along with one or two other more minor things. I'm really sorry if you tried 4.2.1 and were puzzled by empty attendance sheets. Not the most impressive experience. Yours sincerely, Marcus Butler |
| Dorian Manning 23 July 2009 09:15 |
Hi Marcus, I didn't try 4.2.1 (fortunately!)As it's the school vacation here I'm setting this up in my own time. Just waiting for 4.2.2. to download then I'll give it a whirl - will let you know how it goes later. But thank you for acting so promptly to fix the original problem - and yes, I think using the Year 0 for F2 is fine. |
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