Managing layouts and seating plans in My Classroom

My Classroom allows you to see attainment, attendance and behaviour data for your class directly on your seating plan. To enable you to do this, you need to create a layout for your classroom (where the seats are), and a seating plan (where the students sit).

To get started on My Classroom, you need the Classroom Management: Administer My/All Seating Arrangements permission on your Arbor profile.

You can set up more than one layout, allowing you to change the seating arrangements in your class. This is particularly useful if you change your classroom layout throughout the lesson.

Opening My Classroom for a room for the first time

When you first open My Classroom for your lesson (see how to get to My Classroom here):

• if no one else in your school has created a room layout for the classroom that you are teaching in, you need to create a layout and a seating plan
• if a room layout has already been created for this room, you can use the existing layout, and just create a seating plan 

Creating a room layout

When you first open My Classroom for your lesson, if no one else in your school has created a room layout for the classroom that you are teaching in, you will be asked to create a room layout.

Click the Ok button to set up a room layout for the room.

The classroom layout page allows you to set up the layout of the seats in your classroom. You can set up more than one layout, allowing you to change the seating arrangements in your class. This is particularly useful if you change your classroom layout throughout the lesson.

Your layouts can be used by other staff members teaching in the same room. If another teacher wants to edit your layout they would need to make a copy and edit their copy.

The menu on the right side of the classroom layout page allows you to:

• Select a room layout
• Create a new room layout
• Drag seats into place

The first dropdown allows you to select an alternate room. By default, your current room is selected.
Click the green Create new room layout button to add a new layout.

Clicking on the Add Seat square attaches a seat to your mouse cursor. Decide where you would like the first seat to be within the grid and then click again to place it.

To remove a seat, click the cross in the top-right corner of the seat.

When you are happy with the layout and have added a name, click Save new layout.

If you save a layout with no elements, it will ask you to create a new layout every time you click back into it.

To delete a layout, click Delete Layout.

Click the Edit seating plan button on the top right-hand corner of the screen to create your seating plan.

Using an existing room layout

If a room layout has already been created for this room, you will be taken to the main My Classroom page. In this example, you can see someone already created a layout for this room. I’d need to set up a seating plan for my class.

Click the three vertical dots at the top right of your page. You can then create a seating plan using this layout, or click Edit Room Layout to add a new layout.

Creating a seating plan for your class

Please note: It is not possible to randomise the allocation of seats in your seating plan.

Click the three vertical dots at the top right of your page and click Edit seating plan.

Click on any available seat to select it. A list of student’s names will appear. Select the student that you wish to sit in the seat.

If you wish to re-seat the student in a different seat, click on a different seat. Please note that it is not possible to unseat all students and start again.

To save your changes, add a name, then click the Save Seating Plan button.

To return to the My Classroom main page, click the Go to My Classroom button.

You can create multiple seating plans on one layout. Click the three vertical dots at the top right of your page and click Edit seating plan.

Click the Create new seating plan button. Make sure the names are different so you can tell them apart.

If you change the layout of your classroom in the middle of a class, for example in a drama lesson where you work in a circle then individually, you can switch the layout - just click the drop-down menu.

You can switch between your seating plans during your lesson from the My Classroom page - just click the three vertical dots.