How do I open a new academic year and add its grades and sections?

Everything in the schools module hangs off the academic year: grades, sections, contracts, buses and attendance. Start there.

The academic year

1. Open Schools → Academic years — Figure 1 — then a new year.
2. Enter the name, the start date and the end date.
3. Turn on registration open when you start accepting applications, and close it once you are full.
4. Set the default year to the current one — Figure 2 — and it is suggested automatically on every new contract.

Grades and sections

1. From the academic year go into Grades and add each grade with its Arabic and English name and its order.
2. From the grade go into Sections — Figure 3 — and add a section with its capacity.
3. Capacity is not decorative; it is how you know when to open a third section instead of discovering the crowding on day one.

Notes

• Open the new year well before the registration season; contracts cannot be written without a year, a grade and a section.
• Do not delete last year; it holds contracts, instalments and attendance you will need.
• Standardise grade and section naming from the start — “Grade 1 / Section A” — because changing it after a hundred contracts is painful.
• Close registration once the sections fill; the form keeps accepting while it is open.