Calendar Setup

Overview

As part of the school setup, each school has a calendar that specifies the school days throughout the school year. The calendar is used to determine when classes are expected to be taught, and whether or not a student is expected to attend school.

Before making changes to the school’s calendar, please check that the correct number of semesters, terms, and days in cycle are setup for the school (see Semester/term/day/period setup for more information).

The following information is defined in the calendar:

• Semester start and end dates (if school has more than 1 semester)
• Term start and end dates (if school has more than 1 term per semester)
• Days in the week students attend school (Monday to Friday typically)
• Non-school days where students are not expected to attend school
• Exam days (if applicable to all students in the school)
• Cycle day (e.g., day 1, day 2) for normal school days
• Alternate day for half time students attending alternate days (if applicable)
• Daily events that are shared with staff

Every day in the calendar has attributes that indicate whether it is a normal school day or a non-school day.  Non-school days are flagged as either Holiday (e.g., a statutory holiday), Special (professional activity/development day where students do not attend school), Board Day (a non-school day affecting all schools in the board such as March/Spring Break), or Grant Day (an unexpected closure such as weather or no heat in the school).  Secondary schools can also flag days as Exam days where exam day attendance can be taken rather than regular daily attendance.

Each normal school day can have a daily cycle assigned to it (e.g., a 2-day cycle would have some normal days flagged as day 1, and other days flagged as day 2).  The daily cycle is important in those schools where classes are taught in different periods on different days, or classes are not taught on every day of the cycle.   For example, if a class is taught in period 1 on day 1, and in period 2 on day 2, the calendar is used to determine what class the student is expected to attend in period 1.

Schools that have half time students attending full days but not every day, can flag each date as a specific alternate day (e.g., full day kindergarten where students attend Monday, Wednesday, and every other Friday would flag these dates in the calendar as Alternate Day 1 while Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every other Friday is flagged as Alternate Day 2).

A new calendar is automatically created each new school year during the year end roll over process (transfer to current using the school year start and end dates provided during this process.  Private schools define their own dates, however schools that are part of a board/division will have the dates defined by their board/division.

Every school will have a calendar that may be edited to match the school’s needs. Calendars are typically set up before the start of a new school year. There are many protections in place to prevent changes to the calendar for days in the past, so it is important to make sure that it is set up accurately before school starts.

Depending on your access point you will use School or Board > Setup from the menu. This will take you to the Calendar section of the Board or School page.

 Calendar

Choose Setup > Board or Setup > School and click GO on the Calendar card.

If accessing the calendar setup from central office, the main app bar will contain the Select school icon if you have access to other schools.

The select schools icon allows you to change the view to show a different school.

The calendar card will default the monthly view of the current school date (based on the school calendar not the system date). Change the month using the arrows located to the right and left of the current year and month. The year arrows will advance to the first month in the year, while the month arrows move one month at a time.

Each date in the calendar is represent by a block under the corresponding week day. Each date is given a day type, with the day type “Normal” representing a date where students are expected to attend school. Each normal date has a block showing the day in the month on the first line, with the day in the school’s cycle and the alternate school day (if applicable), on the second line.

In this example, the 4th day of the month is day 3 in the school’s cycle. This school has half time students attending alternate days, and this is alternate day 4.

When the date is a non-school date, the block will appear grey and the reason for the non-school day will appear.

The following day types are considered non-school days:

Holiday: a statutory holiday

Special: professional activity/development day where students do not attend school

Board: a non-school day affecting all schools in the board such as March/Spring Break

Grant: an unexpected closure such as weather or no heat in the school

Secondary schools can also flag days as Exam days where exam day attendance can be taken rather than regular daily attendance. This day type should only be used when the whole school is on an exam date.

Edit calendar

Just after the roll over to the new year process (transfer to current), each school needs to edit the calendar to match the new school year.

This is our recommended series of steps, and if changes are needed after the fact, you can make most of them by selecting the date that is wrong and then changing the day type (e.g., change from a Normal day type to a Grant Day type due to a winter storm closing down the school), or change the cycle day or alternate day to the correct day.

1. Semester/term dates

Each new year, you'll create a new school calendar based on the first and last date provided during the year end roll over process (transfer to current). If the school’s setup indicates more than 1 semester, the dates are equally divided between the semesters. If the school’s setup indicates more than 1 term, each semester is equally divided between the terms. This automatic division of semesters and terms will rarely be accurate so the first step is to properly define the school’s semester/term dates.

To access the semester/term dates, select the more menu in the right corner of the calendar card, then select Semester/term dates from the menu.

Edit each date appropriately, noting that all dates must be in chronological order. Here is an example of a school with 2 semesters.

• If dates are missing from the start or the end of the calendar, see Add a date.
• If too many dates have been added to the start or the end of the calendar, see Remove a date.
• If the number of semesters or terms is incorrect, see Semester/term/day/period setup.

2. Calendar options

Next, check that the school’s calendar options are setup correctly. To access these options, select Calendar options from the more menu.

There are 3 main setup options: daily cycle, days displayed and alternate days, as shown below.

Daily cycle

The school’s setup defines the number of days in the cycle (if this is incorrect, see Semester/term/day/period setup). There are 3 options for defining how a school rotates through their cycle days. Select the option applicable for your school.

Daily rotation:  Select this option if each cycle day rotates one after the other. For example, if the school has 2 days in its cycle, the first date would be day 1, the next date would be day 2, the next date would be day 1, etc.

Weekly rotation:  This setup is not very common. Some schools have the same school day for the whole week followed by the next sequential day for all of the following week, i.e., week 1 set to cycle day 1, week 2 set to cycle day 2 and so forth.

Custom Rotation:  Use the Edit icon to set a custom rotation. There are 2 possible custom rotations as shown here:

Custom order: Use this to enter any order. For example, a 4-day cycle may have a custom order of 1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4. The calendar dates will repeat this custom order so that 16 normal school days would be assigned these cycles days: 1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4.

Corresponding to weekdays: Only use this option for schools with 5 cycle days. Mondays will always be assigned day 1, Tuesdays will be assigned day 2, Wednesdays will be assigned day 3, Thursdays will be assigned day 4, and Fridays will be assigned day 5.

Days displayed

There are 3 options to define what days in the week to show on the calendar. Select the option that best suits the school’s situation.

All days: Sets Sunday through Saturday.

Monday to Friday: Sets Monday through Friday only.

Custom: Use the Edit icon to select the days that you want.

Alternate days

Every student is assigned an attendance type such as full time, part time, half time. Half time is available for pre-grade 1 (kindergarten) programs. Some schools have half time students come to school for the whole day, but not every day. Choose Calendar options from the more menu on the main calendar screen and select the “Students attending alternate days” check box.

Students with this attendance type will belong to one of four possible alternate day schedule groups (e.g., Half Time Alt. Days 1, Half Time Alt. Days 2, Half Time Alt. Days 3, or Half Time Alt. Days 4). The school’s calendar is set up to indicate which school days the students with Alternate schedule number 1 attend, which days the students with alternate schedule number 2 attend, etc. For example, the students with schedule 1 may attend every Monday, Wednesday and alternate Fridays, while the schedule 2 students attend every Tuesday, Thursday, and the opposite Fridays.

If your school is in this situation, check the “Students attending alternate days” box.

Select the edit icon to set the alternate day rotation. There are 3 possible rotations as shown here:

Custom order: Use this to enter any order. For example, a school has 2 alternate day schedules where the students in schedule 1 attend Monday/Wednesday and alternate Fridays, and schedule 2 attends Tuesday/Thursday, and the opposite Fridays. Over the course of 2 weeks, the rotation would be 1,2,1,2,1,1,2,1,2,2.

Weekdays: Use this option if students attend only specific days of the week. For each day in the week, enter the alternate day schedule assigned to the students who attend that week day. For example, if alternate schedule 1 students attend school on Mondays and Tuesdays only, enter 1 under those week days.

Daily cycle: Use this if the alternate day students attend school on specific days in the school’s cycle. For each day in the school’s cycle, specify the alternate day schedule assigned to students who attend that cycle day. For example, if alternate schedule 1 students attend on days 1 and 3 only, enter 1 under day 1 and 3.

3. Change Day type

All non-school days need to be defined in the school’s calendar. By default, every day in a new calendar will be set to the normal day type. Normal day types are those days where students are expected to attend the classes in their timetable. To set up dates where the schools are not attended, select the date in the calendar. The day will appear to the right in a Details card.

Select edit on the details card.

The following day types are available:

Day type

Normal: students are expected to attend school today.

Holiday: a statutory holiday.

Special: professional activity/development day where students do not attend school.

Board: a non-school day affecting all schools in the board such as March/Spring Break.

Grant: an unexpected closure such as weather or no heat in the school.

Exam: (secondary schools only) exam day for the whole school. Regular period class attendance is disabled for these dates; however, exam day attendance is available to record am/pm attendance.

New cycle day

If the day type is anything other than normal, the new cycle day and new alternate day fields will be disabled. Non-school days will appear as day 0 or alternate day 0.

Event

If the day has an event enter information in the English and or French note areas. See Events for information on the optional event notes.

4. Change cycle day and alternate day

The cycle day and the alternate day currently assigned to each date is displayed in the block corresponding to that date. If you want, you may view the blocks colour coded based on their cycle day or their alternate day. See Calendar view for more information.

Find the first day that has the wrong cycle day, advancing through the months if necessary. When a date has the wrong cycle day, select that date to edit it and enter the correct cycle day number into the “New cycle day” field.

If the alternate day is incorrect, enter the correct number into the “New alternate day” field.

Select the SAVE button when the numbers are corrected. This will trigger some messages that will ask you whether you want the other dates after this date to be automatically updated.

If you opt to update the subsequent dates, it will use the rotations defined in Calendar options. 

Proceed checking the remaining days and repeat the above steps for each date that needs to be corrected.

Calendar view

The days in the month will be colour-coded based on the Calendar view option. Depending upon the school, up to 3 different calendar view options are available: Days of cycle, Alternate days, or Semesters/terms.

In the example below, the option is set to Days of cycle, and the legend found below the calendar explains the colours. Each day in the cycle is colour coded. This option is only available if the school has more than 1 day in their cycle. See Define semester/terms/days/periods for more information on setting the number of days in the school’s cycle. Select a date to enter a new cycle day if it needs to be corrected.

Schools with half-time alternate day students, will have a calendar view option for alternate days as shown below, where the dates are colour coded based on the alternate day assigned to the date.  See Calendar options for more information on this feature, as well as the indicator as to whether or not this feature is required.  Select a date to enter a new alternate day if it needs to be corrected.

Schools with more than 1 semester or term will have a calendar view option for semester/terms as shown below, where the dates are colour coded based on the semester and term assigned to each date. See Semester/term dates if this information is not correct.

Print calendar

To access the print feature, select the Menu icon in the right corner of the calendar card, then select Print calendar from the menu.

Selecting Print will download a copy of the calendar. At this point Opening or Saving before printing will act differently depending on your browser.  If you are using Chrome the pdf may open in Adobe PDF reader or you may have the Chrome PDF plugin enabled. For more details on printing see Common features, Print.

Use the Print icon or choose File > Print to print a copy.

Note: The day type summary at the bottom of the report provides the number of days of each school type.

Add a date

There may be times when the school’s calendar requires additional dates to be added, such as a situation where the school year needs to be extended due to excessive bad weather days where the school had to close. To access this feature, select Add a new date from the more menu in the right corner of the calendar card.

Select the date (or date range) of the date(s) to be added then click SAVE.

Each newly added date will default as a normal day, so you may have to change the day type or change the cycle/alternate day.

Remove a date

Occasionally you may have to remove a day from the calendar, for example when the school year needs to be reduced because the wrong end date was originally provided. This feature is rarely required as most calendars have non-school days at the start and end of the calendar, so the actual dates where the students are attending classes are not impacted by these extra non-school dates.

To access this feature, select the date to be removed on the main Calendar. The date will be displayed in the Details card on the right.

Select edit on the details card.

Select the delete icon. A confirmation message will ask you if you want to proceed.

Semester/term/day/period setup

While working on the calendar, if you discover that the wrong number of semesters, terms per semester, days in cycle, or periods per day has been defined for the school, it is possible to go directly to the setup area for these parameters by selecting the Menu icon in the right corner of the calendar card, then select Semester/term/day/period setup from the menu.

This will open the setup application. See Class, semesters, terms, days and periods setup for information on this setup area.

Events

Each date in the school’s calendar can have a note recorded that may be shared with all staff in the school. The notes may be used to remind staff of special activities, events, or meetings scheduled for that date, as they are prominently displayed on the dashboard for each school.

Event language

You can write event notes in English or French, and then choose to have English or French descriptions display. Event notes are recorded by selecting a calendar date and selecting edit, then adding an event note. See Change day type.  Use the more menu on the Details card and select Show English descriptions or Show French descriptions. Only one language will display at a time. Note: If a note exists in one language only, it will display in that language even if it does not match the user’s selected language.

Print all events

To print all calendar events choose Print all events from the more menu in the Details card.

Discard all events

The event notes are cleared automatically with the start of each new school. If you need to clear out all the notes at another time in the year, choose Delete all events from the more menu in the Details card. A confirmation message will ask you if you want to proceed. Note: This will clear all events in all languages.