Rollover guide & FAQ

MySchool stores data on a yearly basis, at the end of a scholastic year, our schools need to configure the structure for the coming year and promote the students through the levels. It is known as a 'rollover'. If you are new to MySchool, then contact our support channel to discuss the process.

How to access the features

Before setting the new year, there are a number of configuration steps that need to be completed. Some settings can be changed during an active school year, whereas others cannot.

We need to set the Terms and Year dates for the new scholastic year. You can find these in the Administer menu, Advanced options under Term management and Year management, respectively.

Once this process is complete you can use the MySchool Rollover tool to create your classes and courses for the next year.

We appreciate that the rollover can cause concern, but rest assured that no data will be lost, and we can always help restore the years. 

Step 1: Year management

The Year Management function allows you to set the start and end date for your scholastic and financial year (if applicable). We would suggest starting your school year on the first live school day for your students.

You can change the dates during the year if needed, the system will prompt you with a popup window, asking you to confirm your choice. This may take some time to update the database if you have a large user population.

Do not set the year as current until all other steps are completed. 

You can create as many future years as you need, this is useful for application purposes. If you wish to recreate historic data then use the arrow to open create past year.

User access is controlled by the current scholastic year. So there may be some issues to consider. e.g. Parents will not have access to the upcoming year's timetables until you set it as current. Students who graduate and are not in a graduation class will lose access when you set the new year as current.

Step 2: Term Management

Open Term management, if you have terms set up then you can edit the existing setups and apply them to the newly created year. Terms are not just simple date entries, they also determine assessment periods and scheduling. 

1. Name

The name assigned to the Term Group (i.e. Kinder, Secondary etc).

2. Name (Terms)

Name given to each term (e.g. 1,2,3 or Autumn, Winter Midterm, Winter, Spring, Exam mocks, Summer). These names will be used on the term tags on assessments, course scheduling, assignments and reports. 

3. Checkboxes (Exam/Schedule)

Is Exam needs to be selected if the term requires an assessment. This will become available for the Grade report assessment grid.

Is Schedule is needed for scheduling, and assignment purposes. Have a look here for Schedule management. The Term will also be available in the Grade grid for assignments and continuous assessment. 

If you are using continuous development, or learning outcomes then the assessment terms need to cover the dates of the period you wish to assess.

In this example, the End of year assessment will cover 2.5 terms (.5 Winter, Spring, and Summer). In the Assessment grid, LOs will be included from the 1st Feb onward.

4. Add a new Term

There is no limit to the number of terms. Once data has been entered within a term then you cannot delete it.

Don't overlap 'scheduled' terms as this may affect the data in the system. Assessment terms can overlap. 

5. Apply configuration

Terms are applied to a class level (grade/year). Choose from the class levels within your school configuration.

Do not delete term data during a scholastic year, this will corrupt grade reporting, attendance, and other connected features.

Before creating the term group configuration, the system needs to have dates assigned in the Year configuration.

Step 3: Configure term dates

Note that you cannot delete terms once added. This is an intentional security feature. As historic data will be affected by the change. Create a new group if you wish to change the structure. 

1. Name

The names of the terms within the term group.

2. Is Active

Ability to activate or deactivate the term. Whether it is applicable to that year.

3. Start-End

Enter the calendar dates that the term period covers. As discussed above, be careful not to overlap scheduled terms. Make sure the year management dates align with your start date and end date.

4. Report card

Drop down a list of different report cards entered into the MySchool system. You may wish to have the half-yearly report with just grades and no comments, whereas the end of the year will have averages, exam grades and comments.

Press Save when complete.

Where to check the setup?

The Is scheduled labels will appear in course management as you will need to apply these to new courses after creation. Do this in the schedule tab for courses. Have a look at the article outlining course management.

If you had marked a Term as Is Exam then these will be shown in the Assessment grid. The courses needed to be assigned to these terms as well.

Notice in the screenshot example, Autumn & Spring terms are set to both is exam, and is scheduled. The active terms need to be applied to the courses, this can be done in the schedule tab within course management.

Step 4: Subjects

For a full explanation of subject management, then our help article gives a more in-depth view. Here we just need to outline the Rollover and subject promotion feature of MySchool.

In the Promotion & Enrolment tab for the subjects, there is the ability to promote one subject to another for the following year. Courses attached to the subject and their student population will be rolled over automatically with the tool.

Note that subjects are not rolled over on a yearly basis. if we change any subject settings, then this will affect previous and future years. If you need to change settings then we suggest you create a new subject and mark the historic one as 'archived'. Note as well that the same label can't be duplicated. Why not class the new subject as Biology (Yr 21) to make it easier to see for your new courses.

Step 5: Assessments

Please make sure you do not copy into the current years subject specifications, this will cause your assessment data to be reset. Always check the target year BEFORE selecting copy.

If you have transitioned to the new assessment module using subject specifications, you can also copy your assessment builds from one year to the next. Use the copy function and select the subjects to copy, and then select the next scholastic year. 

Subject administrators need to pay special attention when using the copy function. Ensure that the scholastic year is not set to the current year. Otherwise, you will erase the current years' assessment grades. 

A new feature is by using the Bulk learning outcome button, and selecting rollover. You can copy all subject assessments AND learning outcomes in one simple click.

As a top tip, if your Educators are using the VLE course resource module they can also copy their assignments from year to year.

Otherwise, think about introducing content and topics to your subjects to make the yearly transition as easy as possible.

Step 6: Rollover Tool to create classes

Please note the rollover tool may not fit your needs,especially if you have a non conventional promotion or naming convention. You can manually create classes in the future year and use the people picker to populate from the previous years cohort.

We can also run a class enrolment import for you. Havea look at this article for the details.

In the Administer menu header, under the advanced options, there you can find the Promotion rollover for Administrators.

The rollover wizard assists with creating classes, and courses and can help with promotion. However, you can choose which parts you wish to create and which parts you wish to handle manually.

1. Target Year & Class level

Select the target year you wish to promote to. We advise starting from the first class in your whole school if there is a logical progression from year to year. (i.e. Grade 1-> Grade 2, Grade 2->3 etc)

2. Year classes

MySchool selects the classes from the Class level selected. You can Add Classes to the promotion if you wish by pressing the Add Class button.

3. Auto-Create Classes

The Auto-create will follow the logic of your class setup, if there is an alphanumeric logic (Grade 1-2, Form A-B). The system will set up the classes on the right-hand side under the target next year heading.

When auto-creating, students will also follow the class promotion if selected. The default setting is for students to follow their class promotion.

4. Class promotion map

If you wish you can manually set the mapping for the classes using this tool.

Step 7: Rollover Tool to create courses

Please note the promotion rollover tool my not work to your system. Please open a ticket and request the support team to copy courses from one year to the next. You can then enroll students into their academic courses using the people picker.

The same process can be followed for courses, but the subjects must be mapped as explained above for the auto-creation to work correctly. MySchool will also promote the students automatically into the mapped courses for the next year. If you do not wish the students to be promoted, then simply untick the box. You can assign them courses manually.

The student promotion tab is used to gather stats on the student population from the current year to the following year. If you have auto-selected to populate the classes and courses in the previous steps, then you will not need to populate.

What about graduation?

Create a class in the new year for graduated students, then map your final class level to promote into this class. The students will continue to have access to the portal for a year if they wish to consult grade reports and transcripts.

What about schedules?

Now that the courses and the students are promoted, the rollover is complete. You can start planning your timetable and apply it to the grade levels.

After you can schedule courses individually using MySchool. Open the schedule tab and select the period.

You are now set up to start the new year, go back to step one and set the new scholastic year to be the active year.

External scheduling software

If you use aSc, then you will not need to use the MySchool promotion tool to create courses and populate them with students. You can create your new year structure directly and import the finished XML into MySchool. Please have a look at this article, the import tool feature, which explains how to do this.

Note: we also cater for Untis and KJ Timetabler schedules as well, contact your CSM for further details.