Substitution Planner in the Schedule

The schedule generator allows us to plan and record substitutions or absences that affect the schedule.

Index

1. Basic configuration
2. Recording a teacher’s absence
3. Recording a group’s absence
4. Recording a classroom’s absence

---

The substitution planner in the schedule generator allows you to plan and record absences at the level of teachers, groups, or classrooms that affect the schedule.

It is especially useful for recording schedule disruptions and indicating the substitutions or changes that need to be made.

To access the substitution planner, click on the option in the left-hand menu within the schedule.

Once inside the planner, you can register absences for teachers, groups, or classrooms.

 

Basic configuration

Before you start registering absences and planning substitutions, we recommend that you check the Configuration section, so that everything is correct. To access, hover over ‘Substitution planner’ without clicking, and you will see 3 options: Absence management, Timeline and Settings.

• Absence management: Here you will create new absences, manage them, and you will be able to have a history of all absences.
• Timeline: Here you can see the changes that have been made, per week.
• Settings: Here you can change the settings of the substitution planner.

Entering this last section, you will have 2 sections:

1. Reasons: You can activate that a reason is required when creating an absence (recommended). You can also activate that the reasons are shown in a list (if not activated, it will be an open text).

 

2. Suggestions: These are parameters about how the system makes suggestions. Although we recommend following the system's default settings, you can modify them if you wish.

You can choose whether to ignore cases, allow them, or prohibit them. In the example below, we see that collisions are forbidden, and therefore the system will not suggest collisions.

You can also set the preference for alternative teachers to be teachers of the same subject and/or group.

 

Recording a teacher’s absence

This is usually the most common case. Let's imagine that a teacher is on sick leave for a week and we want to register this absence and see which lessons are affected, and how we are going to reassign these lessons.

The first step to register the absence is to click on the + New absence button at the bottom right.

Once the button is clicked, we must indicate that it affects Teachers, indicate which specific teacher it affects (drop-down Absences) and indicate the Reason for the absence (which will be a drop-down if we have configured it in the Configuration section).

Finally, with the calendar icon, we must indicate which days the teacher will be absent. We can also configure specific hours (for example, if a teacher is only absent for half a day).

We can now click on the Create button. We can also add more than one absence at a time using the Add one more button.

Once created, the registered absence will appear in a list next to all the absences. We notice that at the top there is a search engine and a filter icon, which will help us to better search for specific absences.

In the list, we will see that the new absence is in pending status. Now we will have to manage it to see how to solve it. To do so, click on ‘Handle’.

By doing so, we will enter our working environment. We will see the background in a different colour on the days when the teacher is not there. So, we can make changes in the classes he/she has.

To make changes, click on a class, and make the relevant changes. We have several options:

• Cancel lesson: To cancel the lesson so that it does not appear in the calendar.
• Classrooms: To change the classroom if we wish.
• Teachers: To choose a new teacher to teach the class. The teachers that appear with a coloured line on the left side are not available to teach the class.

• Groups
• Comment: to add any comments regarding the substitution.

 

When we have made the changes, we mark as handled in the top left tick. In the list of absences, this will appear as ‘Completed’.

Once the changes have been made, they will be reflected both in the Substitution planner > Timeline section and in the public timetable that is shared.

 

 

Recording a group’s absence

The process for recording a group’s absence is the same as described in the previous section, but selecting the group instead.

For example, if the group is going on an end-of-year trip and we want to record their absence and the lessons affected, this option would be ideal.

Click the “+ New absence” button to create the absence, then select Groups, and from the Absentees dropdown, choose the group, and then the reason.

Finally, select the absence dates and click Create.

 

 

Recording a classroom’s absence

The process for recording a classroom’s absence is the same as the previous points, with the only difference being that we will select the Classroom section.

This case is usually used when a classroom is out of service for a few days, allowing us to see which lessons will be affected in that classroom (and to record the necessary changes at the classroom level).

Select Rooms in the first dropdown, then choose the classroom, the reason, and the absence dates. Click Create to confirm.

Once the absence is created, you will be able to see which lessons are affected for each of the days and record the necessary changes for each one.