What is Bromcom Options?
Secondary schools and post-16 institutions follow an annual process allowing students to choose academic or vocational courses as part of the educational progression to be delivered generally over the following one to two years. A process is put in place by the school to publish its prospectus of courses available for delivery normally Key Stage 4 (GCSES/Vocational) collected in Year 9 for Year 10 onwards or post-16 (Key stage 5) GCE/Vocational qualifications, collected when the student is in Year 11. This culminates in the collection of student choices, in accordance with the school offer.
Bromcom Options facilitates this collection of choices for both Key Stage 4 and Post-16, enabling multiple methods of collections according to fit into the school processes. Review and controls are in place for administrators to manage the choices which also includes a Clash Table for reviewing combinations of choices.
As an addition for those schools where a free choice of subjects is provided, Bromcom also has a Timetable Solution process to assist in finalising the blocks for timetabling.
Features & Benefits
- Simple to set up
- 4 methods of collection: Import, Form, Student Portal or Parent Portal (MCAS)
- Separate pathways to give smaller cohorts different choices
- Setup allows subjects in multiple groups and automatically prevents student from duplicating the choice.
- Multiple combinations of rules, including reserves
- Student cannot submit the form unless all rules are met
- Administrators can review or update choices or send reminders to students
- Exportable lists
- Clash table analysis
- Timetable Pattern Solutions
| Feature | What it does | Benifits |
| Setup | Simple stepper automatically loads a cohort of students based on year group selected Dry Run available for testing the water Multiple methods for collecting choices Simple process to add subjects and then organise them into Options subject groups Create a range of rules | Easy to create a setup Fully editable until Options window is open Dry Run Multiple subjects in groups Reserves Fixed or flexible choices Multiple setups to offer different choices to different cohorts of students Students must fulfil rules before submission |
| Forms | Multiple methods of collecting choices Form (by email) Student Portal MCAS Import a template with choices submitted on paper | Customise the process to fit school processes Reduces errors from students Simple process for students to follow Student can save for Later Submission must meet any school rules set |
| Review Choices | Review individual student choices Amend student choices Export as a table or list | Admin can manually update student choices if no form received Lists exportable for distribution to subject teachers Changes after submission deadline is passed |
| Clash Table | Set the number of students per class Set the number of expected classes for a subject Review all choices as a grid Select any combination to review who has chosen what | Quickly identify which subjects are the most popular Easy to identify if a subject poses a problem for number of places Quickly see who has chosen a subject or combination of subjects |
| Timetable Solution | Allows the user to load a setup and build a timetable solution based how many blocks and groups a school requires Create a number of different patterns for perusal View the pattern in greater detail to see the success rate of the distribution View fine details and edit student choices in the pattern | The system will generate a Timetable blocks solution Administrator will see easily how many pupils could not be assigned their choices and in which blocks Pupil editor allows administrator to adjust the selection directly within the block User can see which subjects could not be assigned |