This article is designed for secondary schools migrating from SIMs to Arbor via GroupCall, using Xporter on Demand. This guide details the pre-migration actions in SIMS and the post-migration actions in Arbor, set up their future school year setup and future timetable from their Edval file after their migration.
Due to the reliance on third party software and SIMS API fields, this guide is subject to change during the summer migration period (May to September). Changes to this guide will be highlighted below and communications will be sent out to migrating customers via our onboarding team.
Why is this process important?
During a GroupCall migration, only the most recently imported and active timetable model can be migrated. The data available through the API is determined by SIMS, which controls which datasets are accessible to third parties. Due to limitations in the timetable data made available, only the most recently imported timetable model can be extracted via the API. In addition, the timetable model must also be active/current on the day of the migration, preventing any future timetables from being migrated to Arbor.
We strongly recommend reading this guidance in full before your migration takes place. Doing so will help you plan sufficient time after migration to complete all required actions confidently within a new and unfamiliar system.
What will be imported?
The list below shows you what currently syncs between Arbor and Edval, and in which direction this syncs.
From Arbor to Edval
- Courses and classes (groups that students are taught in, but not the enrolments into those groups)
- Staff members
- Rooms
- Subjects
From Edval to Arbor
Timetable slots:
- Start time
- End time
- Day of week/cycle
- Frequency (week/cycle) - day of cycle or day or week (depending on 1 or 2 week timetable)
- Effective date, but not the End date
- Timetabled Object (whether it is a class or event)
Top Tip: Any double lessons set up in Edval will come into Arbor as one single long lesson. This will not impact cover negatively as you can schedule partial cover, but will mean you can't put the class in a separate room for the second half of the double.
Timetable slot staff:
- Timetable Slot (for the record to be linked to)
- Staff member
- No start or end date
Timetable slot rooms:
- Timetable Slot (for the record to be linked to)
- Location (Room)
- No start or end date
Tasks to complete in SIMS before your migration
Before migrating from SIMS to Arbor via GroupCall, complete the following tasks to ensure a smooth transition. These will help when importing your Edval timetable into Arbor.
⚠️ Important: Please ensure all of the processes below are completed at least 72 hours before your booked migration date. This allows sufficient time for the data to cache within GroupCall’s API and be ready for migration.
Create your new academic year
Set up your new academic year and term dates in SIMs as these will migrate to Arbor.
⚠️ Important: Academic holidays do not migrate.
Although your academic year and term dates will transfer, academic holidays (including half-terms, bank holidays, and INSET days) do NOT migrate. This is a quick and simple steps to complete manually in Arbor after migration via the Academic Year setup.
Create your groups for the new academic year
Set up your school’s year groups, registration/tutor groups, and houses for the new academic year, ensuring all students and staff are correctly enrolled with start dates that fall within the new academic year.
⚠️ Important: Any group enrolments that started in a previous academic year will not migrate as continuing enrolments into the new academic year.
Some schools choose to keep students in the same tutor group or house throughout their time at the school, creating a single group enrolment that spans multiple academic years. However, group memberships can only be migrated for the academic year in which they begin. To ensure accurate migration, a new group enrolment must be created for each academic year, even if the group itself remains unchanged. Failure to do so will result in missing group memberships after migration.
📘 Example:
Student A joins the school in September 2024 as a Year 7 student and is enrolled in tutor group SJP, which they will remain in until completing Year 11. Their tutor group enrolment starts on 1 September 2024 and is set to end on 20 July 2029.
When the data is migrated, only the tutor group enrolment for Year 7 (the academic year in which the enrolment began) will migrate successfully. Student A will not have a tutor group membership for subsequent academic years unless new enrolments are created.
✅ Correct approach:
- End the existing tutor group enrolment at the end of each academic year.
- Create a new enrolment in each group with a start date at the beginning of each new academic year.
This ensures the student’s tutor group membership migrates correctly each year.
Accept your applicants
Ensure all of your schools future academic year applicants have an application status of 'accepted' as these will migrate to Arbor
⚠️ Important: Applicant group memberships do not migrate and must be added post migration.
Prepare your timetable
Prior to migration, your school should have moved to an Arbor-compatible timetabling software such as TimeTabler or Edval, if you were not already using either software to produce your timetable in SIMS.
Your school should prepare your timetable using either TimeTabler or Edval and have this finalised prior to your schools booked migration date. You will import your timetable once your final migration is complete and you have completed all of your post-migration checks.
Prepare additional data
Whilst we expect your data to migrate correctly and take measures to ensure this, there is always a possibility something may not migrate as expect, or be missing. To resolve any issues identified from post-migration quality checks, there are usually two options available.
Timetable preparation tasks in Arbor
Before importing the Edval file into Arbor, you must complete the following steps.
Set the timetable cycle
Set your timetable periods and cycle before the school year setup. Access it via School > Timetable > Timetable Administration > Timetable Settings. Arbor automatically defaults to a 1-week timetable.
If your school uses a 2-week timetable:
- Select 2026/2027 from the Academic Year dropdown.
- Click "Click here to set up a two-week timetable cycle for 2026/2027" to configure different periods for each week.
⚠️ Important: If your teaching weeks still show as 'Vacation', your 26/27 academic calendar has not migrated your school's term dates. To correct this, set up your terms by following this guidance, and then come back to these instructions and try again.
⚠️ Important: Only one or two-week timetables are supported in Arbor.
⚠️ Important: If you set up the wrong timetable cycle, please contact our support team for assistance.
⚠️ Important: Please note that changes to your timetable cycle cannot be made between 8am and 10am, or between 12.30pm and 1.30pm.
Set the timetable week pattern
- Select the correct weeks for your academic calendar by clicking on the corresponding date.
- Select the correct timetable week by choosing week A or B from the dropdown and click 'Save Changes'.
- Check the timetable week pattern is correct throughout the academic year and then click 'Save Timetable Cycle'.
Set the timetable periods
Timetable periods can be used to help align your attendance marks into set groups. We usually recommend secondaries use this feature in conjunction with their timetables.
- To define timetable periods, click "Add" in the Timetable Periods section.
- Choose the name of the period and the start and end time. This will define the start and end times for each period created for each day. Then click "Add".
- The timetable periods will then be automatically created for each day. You can amend a slot by clicking it. For example, if lunch is at a different time on a specific day.
- Repeat this process for every timetable period you want to create.
Set up your courses and course structure
Courses for the current academic year will migrate from SIMS to Arbor as part of your migration. However, we strongly recommend reviewing and, where necessary, amending your course structure in Arbor before starting any new academic year setup or timetabling tasks.
Due to differences in how courses are structured in Arbor compared to SIMS, customers achieve the best outcomes from their Arbor MIS by ensuring the course structure is clear, appropriate, and meets their school’s needs before proceeding with new academic year setup and timetable imports.
Use this guide to help decide on your course structure.
This process focuses on setting up your courses for the new academic year. There are two approaches you can take, depending on how much change you are planning.
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Option 1: Update and copy your existing course structure
Amend your current academic year’s course structure and then copy it forward during the new school year setup (see the Registers section below). This approach is best suited to schools making minimal changes to their course structure or course offerings year on year. You will also have the opportunity to create additional courses during the new school year setup if required. -
Option 2: Create courses from scratch for the new academic year
Set up all courses for the new academic year as part of a fresh build. This option is typically best for schools undertaking significant changes, such as revising course structures, updating naming conventions, or introducing new course offerings.
We advise schools to perform this task before setting up your new academic year and importing your timetable, however this process can be completed during the school year setup if needed. Additional information on this process can be found here.
⚠️ Important: This can be a time-consuming process and you should allow yourself enough time to perform these actions after your migration.
Setup and connect the Edval API
When it comes to importing your Edval timetable, you will need to perform this task from the Edval software, rather than in Arbor. You'll need to connect Edval to Arbor using their API integration. Guidance on how to do this can be found on the Edval support portal or via their customer support team. Guidance on how to manage third-party integrations in Arbor can be found here.
School Year Setup
Once your school has migrated to Arbor and you have completed all post-migration checks and the timetable preparation tasks, you will need to complete your academic year setup and import your timetable. The easiest way to achieve this is by using Arbor’s School Year Setup wizard.
To access this, go to: School > School Structure > School Year Setup. This will take you to a checklist with each of the school year setup stages.
Create the new academic calendar
To set up the School Year and import the timetable, complete the new academic year information. When migrating from SIMS to Arbor via the GroupCall API, the academic year and term dates will migrate automatically if set up in SIMS beforehand.
⚠️ Important: Academic Holidays do not migrate to Arbor and must be set up as instructed below.
- Click on "Academic Calendar" from the new school year setup wizard.
If your new academic year hasn't migrated, follow the steps below. Otherwise, skip to Step 6.
- Input the academic year name and start/end dates, ensuring they cover the full year, including Summer Holidays.
⚠️ Important: Academic years in Arbor must be continuous with no gaps. The new year starts the day after the previous one ends. E.g. if the previous year ends on 31/08/2026, the new year starts on 01/09/2026 and ends on 31/08/2027.
- Click "Create Academic Year" to save.
⚠️ Important: Once created, the academic year cannot be deleted.
- Next, click "Add" next to "Terms" to add term dates.
- Enter the term name, short name, and dates, then click "Add Term" to save. Repeat for all terms. Proceed to step 7 once done.
⚠️ Important: You can set terms for any dates, either as full terms or split into halves. Holidays are recorded separately.
- For migrated academic years only: Verify the name and dates are correct. Amend them by clicking the arrow next to the record.
- Finally, create academic holidays by clicking "Add" next to Holidays. Enter the holiday name, type, and dates, covering only the teaching days. Repeat for each half-term, holiday, bank holiday, and INSET day.
⚠️ Important: Every academic day must be accounted for in Arbor, included in a term or holiday. Check the "Days Unaccounted For" list on the Academic Year Overview page.
- Once all academic days are accounted for, press "Mark Calendar as Complete" to finalize the Academic Year setup. This can be reversed if needed.
Off-Roll leavers
Click on "2. Off-Roll Leavers" from the new school year setup wizard.
If you off-rolled leavers prior to your migration, simply check you are satisfied that all students have been off-rolled. If you did not off-roll leavers prior to your migration, you will only see leavers that have already left the school, typically in-year leavers.
For additional guidance on this stage, including a digital tutorial, go to this link.
- To off-roll students, click on "1. Off-Roll Leavers".
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Select a year group from the list to off-roll students from.
- Choose the student from the list that you would like to off-roll by ensuring there is a tick next to their name.
- Select a leaving date and a leaving reason, and then click "Process Leavers". This step can be repeated multiple times if you need to enter a different leaving reason or date for different groups of students.
- When you have finished selecting all of the leavers you would like to off-roll, you can begin to assign their future destinations. From the list of students under the "Review Leavers" list, select all of the students who share the same destination institution and then click on "Bulk Action" and "Set Destination School".
- From the dropdown, select the Destination School and Expected Entry Date, then click "Set Destination School".
- You can now choose to create a CTF for these students using the "Leaver Destinations" list.
- Finally, click "Mark as Complete" to move onto the next stage.
Set up Year Groups and Registration Forms
Click on '3. Year Groups and Registration Forms' from the new school year setup wizard.
When migrating to Arbor via GroupCall, Year Groups, Registration Forms, and Applicants will be migrated. Student enrolments from SIMS for the next academic year will also transfer, except for Applicant memberships, which must be added manually after the School Year Setup.
We do not recommend that you complete the step "3d. Enrol Applicants", as this should be completed later in the process.
If your Year Groups and Registration Forms have migrated, view them in the "Review" lists. If students are allocated to these groups, you can see the total enrolments. Click on each group for a list of enrolled students, including those without enrolments.
⚠️ Important: Applicants cannot be migrated with group memberships and must be added at the end of the School Year Setup process. This means that Year 7 groups will not show as having any members.
If all groups are present and students are correctly enrolled, no copying or promoting is needed.
You still need to enrol your applicants. Follow the tutorial from step 4: Enrol Applicants in this link.
To modify group information, assign form tutors, promote students, or adjust enrolments, follow this guide, which includes a digital tutorial.
After completing this step, click "Mark as Complete".
Set up Custom Groups (Optional)
Click on "4. Custom Groups".
We do not migrate custom groups via GroupCall. To set up custom groups, follow this guide.
Once you have completed this step, click "Mark as Complete".
Set up Houses (Optional)
Click on "5. Houses".
When migrating to Arbor via GroupCall, Houses will be migrated along with student enrolments from SIMS for the next academic year, except for Applicant memberships, which must be added manually after the School Year Setup.
If your Houses have migrated, view them in the "Review" lists. You can see the total students enrolled in each group by clicking on them.
⚠️ Important: Applicants cannot be migrated with group memberships and must be added after the School Year Setup. They will not appear with House memberships.
If all your Houses are present, no need to copy them.
Even if all Houses and enrolments have migrated, you must enrol your applicants. Follow the tutorial in this link from the "Editing the houses" step.
To set up or modify your Houses, assign staff, amend students, or review them, follow this guide, which includes a digital tutorial.
After completing this step, click "Mark as Complete".
Registers
- Click on "6. Registers".
- Choose option B: Setup and promote Courses, Classes, Teaching Groups and Timetable.
- Select step 2: Copy Course Containers.
- Within step 2, tick the courses you'd like to copy over to the new academic year, then use the bulk actions to bulk copy these over. For convenience, we'd recommend selecting all courses by ticking the checkbox in the top-left of the table, then running through the list and unticking any courses you don't want to copy over.
- Once you have copied your courses over to the next academic year, you'll then be ready to import your Arbor courses into Edval - this step ensures that the timetable in Edval is written in against the appropriate courses in Arbor.
If new courses are being timetabled in Edval which aren't part of your current course structure on Arbor yet, you'll need to create these courses in Arbor before importing. This process isn't essential but will reduce the amount of manual work required after syncing your timetable into Arbor.
- Head to School > Programmes and choose (next academic year) Courses.
- Click the + icon next to the top-level course under which you need to add a new course - for example, KS3 German.
- Once the underlying Year Group courses are shown, click into the Year Group that you need add a course to - for example, Year 7.
- When viewing the course, click the +Add button next to Modules to create a new sub-module.
- On the Add New Module slide over, set your the class name as the Module Name - other details such as the Subject and Year Group should be set automatically. Click Add Module to create the new course.
- Once you've added the course, you can head back to School > Programmes > (next academic year) Courses and repeat the above steps for any new courses.
When importing your timetable, we won't automatically enrol students into classes and registers.
Because you create your course structure in Arbor prior to importing your timetable from Edval, we also recommend enrolling students in your classes before importing from Edval.
You can use our bulk enrolment page by going to Students > Enrolment > Courses > Bulk Enrolment. You can see how to enrol students into their registers by following this guide: Bulk enrol students into lesson registers
Meals (Optional)
Click on "7. Meals".
Meals do not migrate to Arbor when migrating via GroupCall. To add meals, including meal provisions and prices, meal sittings and meal choices, follow this guidance.
This step can be skipped and completed later by clicking "Skip for now". You can complete this step at a later date by going to School > Meals and choosing "2026/2027".
Interventions (Optional)
Click on "8. Interventions".
At this stage, interventions can only be copied from the previous year. If you do not have interventions to copy, this step can be marked as complete, and interventions can be set up separately once the school year setup has been completed. A guide is linked at the end of this document.
Importing your timetable
No action is required in Arbor to begin the import from the timetabling software, other than the usual approval of the API integration (see above).
Follow the steps within this linked guide to import your Edval timetable to Arbor.
⚠️ Important: You must update to the latest version of the Edval software in order to do this.
Steps to take after an Edval import
Set Academic Leads
Edval's current importer cannot set Academic Leads for courses in Arbor. To input your Academic Leads for courses in bulk, you can either:
- copy them from the timetable slot staff you already have: Copy Academic Leads from timetable slot staff
- manually set them in bulk: Bulk updating Academic Leads or Form Tutors
Delete any no longer required courses
If you have copied your course structure over from the previous Academic Year, you may have some courses that are no longer being run and require removing. You can delete these by clicking into the course, and clicking the red Delete button on the right-hand side of the page.
Check student enrolments
When importing your timetable, we won't automatically enrol students into classes and registers.
If you didn't enrol your students into classes before importing the timetable, you can use our bulk enrolment page by going to Students > Enrolment > Courses > Bulk Enrolment. You can see how to enrol students into their registers by following this guide: Bulk enrol students into lesson registers
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