Set up your timetable and course structure in Arbor

This article examines the process of manually building a course hierarchy in Arbor. You'll need to do this if either:

• You are setting up a new set of courses from scratch
• You have already migrated to Arbor with some courses that don't fit into an existing course structure. For more details on the timetable migration process, see this article: Migrating your Timetable

In this guidance, we'll refer to the different levels as top-level, mid-level and bottom-level courses. Each level is a 'module' or 'component of' the level above it. For more details, please see our Timetabling Glossary. 

Top Tip: This guidance is aimed at schools with complex structures, such as Secondaries, All-throughs and Post-16 providers. If you're a Primary School, you would usually only set up registration form lessons, as shown here: Registration forms

Permissions

• Academic structure: View - See your school's courses
• Academic structure: View - Edit your school's courses

Setting up your whole timetable and course hierarchy

From scratch in one of our timetabling partners' systems to import

Please follow our guidance here:

• TimeTabler
• Edval

It isn't possible to import a timetable from other timetabling software providers, so you would need to use Arbor, TimeTabler or Edval.

For the next academic year

You won't need to set up from scratch. Follow our New School Year Setup process to copy over your courses from this year into next year: New School Year Setup guide
 

Building one new course from scratch

This process can be used to add new courses to your existing structure, such as if you begin running a course in the Spring term.

To start building your course structure:

• Go to School > Programmes > Courses (the Courses & Classes Overview page)
• Select the desired Academic Year using the grey drop-down in the top-right corner

Step 1 - Add the top-level course

Typically, you will have a three-level course hierarchy, with your subject being the top level, year groups in the middle and specific classes at the bottom. 

The first step to creating a structure like this is to create the top-level course. To do this:

• Click the green Add button on the Courses & Classes Overview page
• On the slide-over menu, set a Course name

• (Optional) Set the Subject for the top-level course. If you do this at this point, it will be reflected in any mid- and bottom-level courses that are created.
• Click Add Course to create the course.

The top-level course will then be created, and you'll be taken into the course's Overview page.

Step 2 - Add a mid-level course

Now it's time to add your mid-level course. Do this from the top-level course's Overview page. If you are not on this page already, you can also get here by going to School > Programmes > Courses and clicking the top-level course.

Once on the overview page:

• Scroll down and click +Add in the Modules section

• On the slide over, add in your mid-level course's details. For example, you might set 'Year 10' in both the Module Name and Year group fields. If you set the Year Group for the mid-level course at this point, it will be reflected in the bottom-level courses we create under Year 10.
• Click Add Module.

You'll then be taken into the mid-level course's Overview page

Step 3 - Add a bottom-level course

Now that you have a mid-level setup, you can start adding bottom-level modules from the mid-level's Overview page. If you are not on this page already, you can also get here by going to School > Programmes > Courses, clicking the + next to the top-level course name to expand the list, and clicking the mid-level course.

On the Overview page:

• Scroll down and click Add in Modules section

• On the slide, enter your bottom-level course details - this will be the actual class where students will have their registers taken.
  • Make sure to enter a Module name (the name of the class)
  • Add the Academic Lead, the main teacher for the class
• Click Add Module

You'll be taken to the bottom-level course overview.

Step 4 - Create all bottom-level courses within the mid-level course 

Once the class has been created, return to the mid-level course. Either:

• Click Component of > More Information
• Go to School > Programmes > Courses, click the + next to the course name, and select the mid-level course.

Repeat Step 3 to create all the bottom-level courses that sit under the mid-level course.

You can check your structure from School > Programmes > Courses by clicking the + next to the top-level course name.

Step 5 - Create all mid-level courses within the top-level course

Once you've created all bottom-level courses under the mid-level course, return to the top-level course. Go to School > Programmes > Courses and select the top-level course.

Repeat the previous steps to create another set of mid and bottom-level courses.

You can check your structure from School > Programmes > Courses by clicking the + next to the top-level course name.

Scheduling registers and adding students

To be able to take attendance for courses and do other things, such as record behaviour and assessments, you need to make sure you have also added timetable slots and students.

Schedule your registers:

• You can import these from TimeTabler or Edval.
• Alternatively, you can see how to do this in Arbor here: Classes and Lessons

Enrol your students on this class, so they will appear on the registers:

• You can import enrolments from TimeTabler’s Options area following these instructions: Importing Options from TimeTabler
• If you don’t use TimeTabler or don't use their Options feature, we recommend using our bulk enrolment page by going to Students > Enrolment > Courses > Bulk Enrolment. You can see how to enrol students into their registers from here, following this guide: Bulk enrol students into lesson registers

Moving existing bottom-level courses into a new course structure

If you've migrated to Arbor with some bottom-level courses that exist outside of a course structure, you'll need to follow a different set of steps to set up the structure and move the courses into it. To get started:

• Go to School > Programmes > Courses (the Courses & Classes Overview page)
• Select the desired Academic Year using the grey dropdown in the top-right corner.

Step 1 - Add the top-level course

On the Courses & Classes Overview page:

• Click the green +Add button
• On the slide-over menu, give your course a name (usually the name of the subject for a top-level course)

• (Optional) Set the Subject for the top-level course at this point. This will then be reflected in any mid- and bottom-level courses that are created.
• Click Add Course to create the course

• The top-level course will then be created, and you'll be taken to the Overview page for the top-level course.
• You can also get here by going to School > Programmes > Courses, and selecting the top-level course

Step 2 - Add a mid-level course

On the top-level courses overview page:

• Scroll down and click Add in the Modules section

• On the slide over, add in your mid-level course's details. For example, you might set 'Year 10' in both the Module Name and Year group fields. If you set the Year Group for the mid-level course at this point, it will be reflected in the bottom-level courses we create under Year 10.
• Click Add Module.

You'll then be taken into the mid-level course's Overview page

Step 3 - Repeat step 2

Click Component of > More Information to return to the top-level course.

Repeat step 2 until all required mid-level courses are created. Do not create any bottom-level courses.

Step 4 - Move your existing bottom-level courses

To move an existing course to an(other) top or mid-level course:

• Go back to School > Programmes > Courses, then click into one of your bottom-level courses that you want to move into the newly created hierarchy
• Click on Component of: Nothing - top-level component in the Admin section at the top
• On the slide over, use the drop-down menu to select the required mid-level course as a parent, and then click 'Move to New Parent Component'.
• Go back to School > Programmes > Courses and repeat for each bottom-level course that needs to be moved into the hierarchy.