Goodbye 2011!
There are lots of reasons to be jolly; your end of year reports are done and dusted, invites to Christmas parties are multiplying by the hour and your summer holidays are just a stone's throw away. Before you pack your bags for some fun in the sun, or perhaps a white Christmas in a winter wonderland, have a look at some handy hints that will help you ease into 2012 with minimal stress.
In this edition we focus on helping you get organised for 2012, covering the following areas;
- Using Student Custom Properties
- Understanding your Academic cycle requirements
- Locking an Academic Cycle
- Configuring new school settings in Accelerus
- Archiving Reports
Simple Preparation For 2012...
Student Custom Properties
Student custom properties can be used to store a wide variety of information pertaining to students. The values stored within a student's custom properties can be printed on reports or analysed using Analysis. Examples of custom properties could include NAPLAN results, campus number or name, language spoken at home, email address, quantity of printed reports required, etc.
When defining the custom properties for use at your school, you must assign each custom property to an academic cycle category. Consider how often the information for that custom property changes and whether you need to keep historical data that can be referenced when you analyse or look at data from a previous cycle.
The values to be stored within a Custom property can either be added manually to a student's record, or imported using a student CSV file.
Academic Cycle Set Up
Not sure whether to take full advantage of the Academic Cycles available in Accelerus? If you have thought about setting up academic cycles other than the Annual cycle, e.g. semester cycles, but are not sure if you have considered everything in preparation for changeover, here are some handy hints. When trying to work out what academic cycles best suit your school's requirements, consider how you would answer the following questions:
- How long do your subjects run? (e.g. annual, semester, term). By this we mean, how long are students in the same class, with the same teacher?
- When do your cohort memberships change? For example, how long are students a member of a year level or home group, or other cohorts set up in your database?
- When do student custom property values change? For example, have you added specific student custom properties, which must be updated regularly?
- Do you have different subject descriptions each semester?
If this sounds like you, call the 'Help Desk' to discuss your school's setup. We would be happy to advise you on setting up Accelerus in the best way for your school.
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