After much talk of time-based rather than period-based timetabling in SchoolBase® for some months, we are pleased to announce the first stage is ready for you to use! Music lessons, activities etc. can now be time planned. The process starts in Staff Category Types, in which you decide which categories of staff (e.g. peripatetic) have their time planned. You then assign subjects to staff in that category using SCTInfo form and create groups using SCTGroups. Both of these forms can be assigned to appropriate staff for just the area they manage.The groups then have weekly instances, in which the times and pupils can be varied as you wish, including automatic tools for copying groups and rotating time slots. Full help for this new area is on the help website.

We are also trying a new ‘look and feel’ for Access forms in this area, so please feel free to give us your feedback.