Starting GCSE** in Year 9 / Revamping the timetable so that Year 9 can start their 2-year GCSE courses early
Q. I am being asked to do an amendment of the current timetable for the start of 'Term 6' – June 1st or so - to allow Year 9 to start their GCSE options before the end of the year.
A. This is sometimes called a "nine-and-a-half" timetable.
We suggest:
1. Do both an internal Backup [in the AutoBackup Library] and an external Backup [on a USB memory-stick or external drive, etc].
2. Make a Clone of your Schedule (see Section H27 of the Manual), so that you can leave one copy as it is now ...for any room changes, maternity leave alterations, etc, etc.
3. On the other "Term 6" Clone, Unassign the disappearing lessons (Y13, Y11, Y9), using the right-click Menu on the Class Timetable Screen.
4. Promote and Re-name the (old) Year 10 class names as (new) Y11 class names. See the HelpMovie on Promoting.
5. Enter the activities for the new Year 10 [or will they still be called Y9? ... in which case you can probably ignore step 4 above]
6. Then schedule them. It will be best to work interactively or semi-automatically, so that TimeTabler can't move any of the existing Y7 or Y8 or Y10/11 lessons unless you agree.
See also this article.
** GCSE is an academic qualification in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but the same ideas can be applied to other multi-year courses in other countries.
By the TimeTabler Team