What to consider when migrating over a holiday or a weekend

The article is designed for primary and secondary schools who are onboarding to Arbor. 

It details the necessary steps to prepare for the migration, including data backup, training, and manual data entry for attendance and behaviour incidents during the transition period. Completing these tasks is crucial for census compliance.

Finding your migration date

Your 'booked migration date' is the agreed date that we will transfer your data from your current system onto Arbor. Anything added onto your current system after this date will not transfer onto Arbor. Your Partnership Manager should have already told you when your booked migration date is. This date will also be listed on your initial email from us at the start of your Onboarding. If you need any support finding your booked migration date, please contact your Onboarding Manager or the team at myonboarding@arbor-education.com. 

Migrating over weekends vs holidays

Primary Schools can chose to migrate to Arbor either over a weekend or a holiday. Most Secondary schools will migrate over a holiday due to the following:

1. There is a larger data set which takes longer to migrate than a standard primary school.
2. More time needed to set up key modules before schools can take attendance. 

When you get access to your Arbor site, the tasks you need to consider differ depending on if you migrate over a holiday or a weekend.

If you are migrating over a weekend

If you are migrating over a weekend your booked migration date will be on a Thursday. You should upload your data backup to us on this date. Please make sure to request a backup from Bromcom in advance, and be aware that anything added to your Bromcom site after the backup is generated will not migrate to Arbor.

We aim to release the site to you before your registers on Wednesday morning. This means we will aim to release the site to you by Tuesday at the latest. 

We recommend having paper registers handy for Friday, Monday and Tuesday and a plan to ensure any key information added to your existing system is manually transferred once you get access to your Arbor site.

If you are migrating over a Holiday

If you are migrating over a holiday your booked migration date will be on your last day of term. This will typically be on a Friday but could be earlier depending on your school's academic calendar. Please make sure to request a backup from Bromcom in advance, and be aware that anything added to your Bromcom site after the backup is generated will not migrate to Arbor. 

We aim to release the site to you with enough time to set up your key processes before you take registers on your first day back. For any further guidance or support, please contact your Arbor Onboarding Manager or the Onboarding Team.  

What is a cutover?

When you migrate over a weekend, you will upload your data to us on the Thursday before your allocated weekend. We will then begin migrating your data to Arbor and release your Arbor site the following week, as soon as the migration has finished. We will aim to release primary schools ready for your first attendance on the Wednesday following your migration. 

This means there will be data such as attendance that you will need to collect over the Friday and into the next week, you will need to enter manually into your new Arbor MIS the following week.

Note: Migrating over a weekend is a complex task for a Secondary school. These schools will be enrolled on an Arbor Training Hub course called "Cutover Period - Weekend Migrations". This course is a series of short videos designed to show you how to enter census necessary data into your live Arbor site to cover the days you will have without a "live MIS".

What guidance can help schools prepare for cutover?

The following guidance is designed to help schools complete all necessary cutover tasks:

• Complete unopened/incomplete register for the days without an MIS
• Bulk Editing Attendance Marks
• Backfilling behaviour incidents
• Checking Behaviour Types & Adjusting Severities
• Changing student data
• Staff Business Roles & Permissions
• Staff Absence & Cover
• Staff Data

Why should schools complete cutover tasks?

The data you are asked to input manually following the release of your live site is necessary for the census, so it’s really important that you complete the work ASAP to ensure your MIS is census compliant.

How to plan for your cutover

It is really important that all schools prepare for their cutover. The following instructions should be used as a guide however please contact your onboarding manager or onboarding team for additional support or guidance:

• Hold an internal meeting with key stakeholders to agree how you will manage the cutover as a school, who will be responsible for entering this data following the live migrations
• Download Paper Registers for all Lessons including Clubs & Trips (for Friday, Monday & Tuesday) & Consider how the Attendance Officer will have access to these registers
• Ensure you have a plan for logging your Behaviour
• Make staff aware Bromcom will be Read Only during cutover week (consider if this is all staff - do you want to keep for certain Admin Staff?)
• Create a log to manage staff absence and cover and notify cover staff appropriately
• Consider advising guardians about the change in MIS as they may not have up-to-date information during the crossover
• Add your attendance data into Arbor once you have access to your live Arbor site.
• Add your Behaviour Incidents into Arbor once you have access to your live Arbor site.
• Add any Record Changes into Arbor once you have access to your live Arbor site. 

What if you need help?

For Primaries, the Onboarding Team is available throughout this process to talk to if you get stuck. You can email them at myonboarding@arbor-education.com. If you would prefer them to call you back, please mention that in the email and leave the best number to contact you on. 

Secondaries should contact their Customer Onboarding Manager.