This article is designed for Primary and Secondary schools migrating from Bromcom to Arbor. This guide details the pre-migration actions in Bromcom and the post-migration actions in Arbor.
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 Bromcom migration, we transfer your data exactly as it exists in your database backup at the time the file is created. This allows you to complete key preparations—such as setting up and rolling over your new academic year in Bromcom—before the migration takes place. By generating your backup file after these steps are complete, all relevant information for the new academic year will be included in the migration.
Please note, however, that some post-migration tasks will still be required.
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.
Tasks to complete in Bromcom before your migration (Primary & Secondary Schools)
Before migrating to Arbor, we recommend completing the following tasks to help ensure a smooth and efficient transition. By carrying out these actions in Bromcom, you can significantly reduce the workload required after migration. It is also often easier to complete these steps in a system you are already familiar with, rather than learning to do them in Arbor.
Many schools find this approach particularly helpful, as access to your new Arbor site is typically provided during the summer holidays, when time and staff availability may be limited.
We advise all customers to carefully follow the end-of-year processes guide provided by Bromcom within their knowledge base for clear instructions on how to perform each of these steps.
Staff
Process your Staff leavers
Ensure that staff due to leave the school have an end date set against their contract of employment.
Set up your new starters
Set up a new staff record and complete their staff profile. Any new staff joining the school should be set up in Bromcom with a contract of employment that contains their employment start date.
Academic Structure and Timetable
Create your new academic year
Set up your new academic year, academic holidays and term dates in Bromcom, as these will migrate to Arbor and form the foundation for data relating to the new academic year. Double-check the start and end dates of your academic years and make adjustments if required.
Prepare and import your timetable (Secondary Schools only)
- Prior to migration, your school should have moved to an Arbor-compatible timetabling software such as TimeTabler or Edval. More on this here.
Your school should prepare your timetable using either TimeTabler or Edval and have this finalised prior to your school's booked migration date.
Import your timetable to Bromcom following the guidance provided within their knowledge base.
Enrolments
Create or promote your pastoral groups for the new academic year
Set up or promote your school’s year groups, registration/tutor groups, and houses for the new academic year, ensuring all students and staff are correctly enrolled.
Student report groups
Important! All students need to be added to 'Male' or 'Female' report groups on Bromcom. If this is not done and the 'Report Groups' are empty, no students will show on Arbor.
End and promote your classes for the new academic year (Secondary Schools only)
Ensure all of your teaching classes due to end have the correct end dates within the current academic year.
Promote your teaching classes to the new academic year with Bromcom's Class Promotion tool.
Process your Student leavers
Off-roll your student leavers, ensuring an end date has been set against their school enrolment. This is also a good opportunity to produce your CTFs for students moving to a new school, so that you do not need to do this later.
Admit your applicants
Admit your new academic year applicants and enrol them into their relevant year groups, registration/tutor groups, and houses for the new academic year.
We strongly recommend fully enrolling your new starters in your current MIS (including the All Male/Female Report Groups), as they will then automatically be enrolled into all their courses into Arbor and their timetable will therefore show after your final migration. For any students who do not end up attending, you can easily remove them by following this guidance.
Some schools prefer to wait until the start of the new academic year to perform this step. In this scenario, your applicants will still migrate. Ensure you allocate time after your migration to admit and enrol these students into their relevant groups and classes.
Prepare additional data
Whilst we expect your data to migrate correctly and take measures to ensure this, there is always a possibility that something may not migrate as expected, or be missing. To resolve any issues identified from post-migration quality checks, there are usually two options available.
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