End of year reminders

What schools need to do on SOLAR to get their systems ready for the new academic year.

There are a few tasks that schools need to complete to get their SOLAR ready for the new academic year.

1. Term Dates

Schools need to ensure that they have added their term dates for the next academic year BEFORE they return in September.  If you do not do this users will get an error message when they login and will not be able to use SOLAR.

It it very important that term dates are added correctly.

1. Go to Admin>Lists>Terms and click 'Add Term' and add the term name.

Terms need to be added sequentially so the first term would be 'Autumn Term'.

Note: Terms must contain the word 'Term' so cannot just be Autumn, Spring, Summer. If your school uses 6 terms then these should be named Autumn Term 1, Autumn Term 2 etc.

2. Choose the correct academic year from the drop-down list

3. Click into the 'Start Date' box and change the year if necessary by clicking on the Month Header

Then use the direction arrows to change the year.

Then select the correct month and date.

Repeat these steps for the term end date.

***Important*** Term dates cannot overlap or end and then start on the same date.

2. Classes

If you are using new classes in the new academic year these need to be created on SOLAR before you can move your pupils into them.

What are the important things to know before creating new 'classes' on SOLAR?

On SOLAR there are 3 group (class) types.

1. Tutor Groups - These are the most commonly used as all pupils must be in a Tutor Group in order for all of the features on SOLAR to function. 

The tutor group is attached to the pupil record. 

To create your new Tutor Groups go to Amin>Lists>Classes>Add Class and select Tutor Group from the Group Type drop-down list and click Save.

Once you have created the new Tutor Groups you then go to Admin>Pupils and click edit beside each pupil that needs to be moved to a new Tutor Group.

Then select the pupil's new Tutor Group from the drop-down menu and click save. Please note that only Tutor Groups display in the drop-down within the pupil record. Teaching Groups and Ad-Hoc groups as covered below do not display in the drop-down. If you are updating a tutor group for a pupil you must do this in the pupil record.

2. Teaching Groups - These are used when you have a teacher who may teach a subject to children who are in different tutor groups. An example of this would be an after school maths class. The teacher may teach maths to 1 pupil from Blue tutor group, 2 pupils from Red tutor group and 1 pupil from Green tutor group. This teacher would not need to access all of the pupils from Blue, Red and Green tutor group so you would set up a Teaching Group called 'After School Maths' and add the 4 pupils into it by typing their names into the pupil box. You would then allocate only the subject the teacher is teaching, in this case Maths by typing it into the Subjects box.

3. Ad-Hoc Teaching Group - If you have pupils that take swimming lessons but this only happens in Summer then you could create an Ad-Hoc group. As with a Teaching Group you could add pupils from multiple Tutor Groups into this and add the Subject 'Swimming' by typing it into the subject box.

3. Pupils

a. Going to Admin>Pupils and manually change them using the edit button. Note: If you click the down arrow to the right of edit you get the option to archive the pupil.

b.  You can run the Pupil report in Reporting for all pupils and download into Excel.  You can then update the spreadsheet with the pupils new classes and add any new pupils at the bottom of the list.

PLEASE NOTE – Do NOT remove or move any of the columns or add any new ones as we will not be able to upload your data if you do so.  Dates etc must be in the same format and every pupil must have a different UPN.

Send your updated file to support@solarforschools.org.uk and the Helpdesk can then "bulk" update the changes for you.  Please note - you will still have to "Archive" the pupils who have left the school.

It is important that the automatic updating of year groups and key stages do not overlap with you sending a pupil output to the Helpdesk.  When you send in you file can you please add the date that the download was created on SOLAR.

3. Users

You need to archive any teachers that have left the school so that they no longer have access to SOLAR.  Go to Admin>Users and click the down arrow to the right of the users name and click "Archive".

4. Reporting