In this guide we will look at some examples of how to set up a Period Structure for Split Lunches within Bromcom.
For Split Lunches when using wTimetable see here.
IMPORTANT THINGS TO CONSIDER
A school can only have one Period Structure in place and the times cannot overlap.
The Set Split Lunch Period toggle in the Period Structure is only for use when using wTimetable.
IMPORTANT: Wedo not recommend making any changes to your Period Structure part way through an Academic Year. Making any changes to Teaching Periods will result in the loss of your current Timetable and Cover data and may also cause losses to Attendance and Behaviour data as well as Calendar Entries.
If you would like to make changes to your Period Structure in the middle of an academic year, please contact Bromcom Support in the first instance to discuss your proposed changes and avoid any unexpected data loss.
Access: The Minimum permissions to edit Period Structures can be found in the Curriculum Module within Config > Setup > Roles & Permissions.
For further guidance see How to Create a new Period Structure and Changing your Period Structure Mid Year
Configurations
Once the school have decided on the structure for the new year, they need to set up the configurations in Config>Curriculum>Configurations.
Updating this information will have no impact on the current period structure, it is just used for creating a new structure.
Things to consider
- If you have a different schedule on one day to the rest of the week and your PM period is at a different time, you will need to initially save the period structure with the PM period in the same place as the rest of the days or you will get an warning message because the PM time does not match with the time specified on the first page of the creation process.
- Once saved, you can then edit the structure to move the PM to the correct time.
- When you create the academic year, you can select this new period structure
Example Split Lunch Setup
The example below is for a school that has two lunch sittings.
- One half of the school takes lunch 12:20 – 13:00, then goes to P4 13:00 – 14:00.
- The other half of the school go to P4 12:20 – 13:20 then go to lunch 13:20 – 14:00
Below are three common solutions to this issue:
Option 1
Students will be in a double lesson in 4a & 4b then at lunch during 4c
OR
Students will be at lunch during 4a and then in a double lesson 4b & 4c.
- This will allow you to manage duties (in the example you have staff lunch duties) and staff cannot miss a lunchbreak because they cannot take a class in 4a & 4b PLUS a class in 4b& 4c.
- However, your Timetabler will have to take careful note of loadings of teachers, as anything that falls into the “lunch” area will look like they are teaching 2 periods when they are only teaching 1 hour, the same as all other periods, but it will be counted as two periods.
- This will also have an impact on the number of lessons each subject is taught for and will require constant updating throughout the scheduling process as the Timetabler will not know at the start of the process, which lessons will happen to fall in the lunch area and be deemed to be a double lesson even though they remain at the same time length as every other period.
Option 2
This is a workaround where the times on the timetable are not completely accurate but bells ring (or staff and students know where they should be)
- You will need to add in Non-Contact Codes to blank out lunch for staff so that they are not timetabled for both “periods” because it looks as if they are free at a time when they are actually teaching.
- Lessons are only single lessons which makes the Timetable easier to manage.
- You can assign staff lunch duties. A duty in 4a will only be from 12:20 – 13:00 and a duty in 4b will only be from 13:20 and 14:00, to match when students are at lunch, regardless of the what the period structure shows.
- You may need to put Non-Contact Codes in rooms to block them out for the other half of the lunch period as it will appear as if they are free in 4a or 4b, but of course, there is an overlap that means the room is not free for the complete period.
- There is 20 minutes where both 4a and 4b are running between 13:00 and 13:20 so rooms need the same protection as teachers if you regularly book rooms out for meetings etc.
Option 3
This is similar to Option 2.
- Everybody has a lesson in P4, the students & staff know which groups are on early lunch and which are on late lunch.
- There are no timetable implications, registers are there, the attendance officer just needs to be aware that only half the registers will be marked at the start of P4 and the rest marked when the early lunches start their P4 at 13:00.
- The only issue you will have is staff duties as there is no way of indicating if this is a late lunch duty or an early lunch duty so the school will need to keep and maintain this information outside of Bromcom.