End of Year Rollover Process(Student and Academic)

Owned by David Rogers
Last updated: Feb 20, 2024 by Chris Steel
18 min read



Please click this link to access the recording from the most recent webinar: Webinar Recording November 2022


Introduction

Each school's end of year process is tailored to their specific requirements, but generally they include: 

  • Creating the new Academic year and term
  • Rolling Current Students to the next year level
  • Transferring Future Students to Current Students
  • Transferring graduated students to Past Students
  • Copying timetable definitions across to the next year

Some school's may also require:: 

  • Creation of a new General Ledger Year
  • Copying subject assessment areas and results

The attached video, resources and FAQ below will assist with the EOY process at your school:

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Creating new academic years (Next Year Process)

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The articles below area also helpful to troubleshoot common post-rollover issues:

/wiki/spaces/SUT/pages/2289488468

/wiki/spaces/SUT/pages/2289468466

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FAQs


Below are the answers to frequently asked questions on the End of Year Rollover Process.

Q1. Is there a checklist for the Rollover process?

There is a checklist available on the User Hub:

Creating new academic years (Next Year Process)

Creating new academic years (Next Year Process)

Note that Step 7: Finalise the current term should only be carried out when Assessments have been finalised, and reports have been printed with no need to further change anything.

The other pages that are useful are:

Next Year Process

https://wiki.synergetic.net.au/display/SYNMAIN/Next+year+process

 Creating next term details (Next Year Process)

Creating next term details (Next Year Process)


Q2. What happens to a Future Student application with a status of ‘Waitlist’ when a rollover is processed?

The waitlisted application will remain on the student’s record in Future Student maintenance. If the student has multiple waitlist applications recorded, the default application can move to the next application according to enrolment year if you roll future students.  

Note that there is a Configuration Setting that must be set to True for the roll to happen for multiple applications.  The setting is in System->Configuration File Maintenance. Search for the configuration key FutureStudents|Status|Applications|Rollup.

For example, an application for 2018 will remain in the records and the 2019 application will become the default. Any ranking that is allocated to an application will remain according to the date of the application, and other configuration options you might have set.


Q3. When a current student transitions into a past student, what affect does this have on any outstanding debts?

There is no effect as debts are maintained with the student’s Debtor account.  If the Debtor account has outstanding debts, it will appear under the Debtor account.  The only change is that where previously you could find a Debtor associated with a student by going to the Student’s Debtor tab, you will instead need to find the debtor through Debtor Maintenance, or go to the Student’s Past Student record, and into their Student->Debtor tab to find their associated debtor if you didn’t know their Debtor’s name.


Q4. Does the Leaving status of a Current Student require updating to 'Left' to ensure the student’s record is transferred to Past Students when the rollover is processed? 

If a student exits the school before their final year, then the Status of the student has to be changed to either Leaving or Left, AND a Leaving Date has to be specified.   Both the status of Leaving and Left have the same Synergy Meaning of Leaving so there is no reason to change every ‘Leaving’ to ‘Left’.

 NOTE: If a student exits the school after their final year, for example, after Year 12 in a high school, their status does not need to be changed.

 When a new term is created, students who have left will not appear in the newly created term; however, they are not automatically transferred to Past Students.  The program “Transfer Students to Past Students” has to be run to ensure that these students aren’t transferred to Past Students.


Q5. Under what circumstances would the next semester rules for StudentClasses, SubjectClasses, TimetableDefinitions and Timetable be created?

These rules are created to copy each of these components (eg StudentClasses, SubjectClasses, TimetableDefinition etc) from one term/semester to the other, as opposed to you having to manually set them up for each new term/semester.  Therefore, you will only set up the rules for the term/semesters you need any of the components transferred to.  If something has changes from one Term/Semester to another, you can still create and apply the rollover rules, then after rollover, make the changes in the new Term/Semester. For example, if bell times will change in the new term/semester, then firstly rollover the previous Timetable Definition and secondly change the bell times in the new term/semester. 


Also note, that if your school uses Synergetic for Assessment and Reporting, Subject Assessment Areas will be attached to Subject Classes.  Hence if you do not roll over Subject Classes, you will need to manually re-attach Subject Assessment Areas to each class again in the new Term/Semester. 


Q6. We use Timetabler so with StudentClasses we only have the rules setup for the file types that are not academic. Is there any reason why we should have StudentClasses rules setup for academic? 

If you use an external timetabling package from which the timetable gets imported into Synergetic, eg Timetabler or Edval, there is no reason to rollover your StudentClasses from one term/semester to the other, and hence no reason to have a rule for to rollover student classes for the Academic file type.  The main reason for having a rollover rule for StudentClasses in these circumstance will be that you don’t start with a clean slate at the beginning of the year.  Your Timetabler (or other Timetabling package) import will over-ride the StudentClasses rolled over anyways.

 Also note, that if your school uses Synergetic for Assessment and Reporting, Subject Assessment Areas will be attached to Subject Classes.  Hence if you do not roll over Subject Classes, you will need to manually re-attach Subject Assessment Areas to each class again in the new Term/Semester. 


Q7. If a school is using TimeTabler should I presume that StudentClasses and SubjectClasses should not be included in the rules?

See Q6 above.


Q8. If we have classes manually created and want them to be kept on the timetable import, is it enough to have them 'never clear on the TT import'? 

If you have classes manually created, i.e., classes that are not created and imported with a Timetable import, you will need to roll them from one term/semester to the next, otherwise they will not appear in the term/semester you have rolled to.  The best way to do this is to create a filetype for these classes to roll them over.

 The “Never clear on Timetable Import” checkbox is used if you want to retain students and staff who are taking the class.  A timetable import does not delete classes that exist in the term/semester, but will clear students and staff in a class if the Timetable imported doesn’t have any students assigned to that class.  Ticking this checkbox will ensure that the students and staff aren’t cleared.


Q9. If we use an external timetable package, do we need to do these rollovers?

Yes. You need a rollover to create the new Semester/Term/Year and move students from one Semester/Term/Year to another.  If no rules are specified, it creates a new term and “transfers” Current Students from one term to the other. If your new term is in the next year, it moves Current Students up a year level depending on what you have specified in the lookup table luYearLevels.

All the other rules determine what other components, apart from students, get copied over.

If using an external timetable package, you still need a TimetableDefinition in the new Semester/Term even if you are using an external timetable package.   


Q10. What is the difference between StudentClasses and SubjectClasses?


StudentClass contains which student is enrolled in which Class; SubjectClass contains the definitions of the Class. 

 See Student File Semester Maintenance - Next Semester Creation Rules tab (Next Year Process) for further details.


Q11. If we are using Timetabler for student classes and timetables. Does this information need to be in Synergetic for the rollover process to work correctly?

Timetable information is not required for the rollover process to work correctly.  However, timetable information is required if you want your Timetable import to work correctly.  You will need to have the Timetable Definition set up in Timetable Maintenance, and details for the import in the Timetable Maintenance (if you are using Direct Integration) -> Timetable Config tab.  The Timetable Definition can be rolled over from semester to semester using the rollover rules, but the Timetable Configuration will need to be copy using the “Copy Schedule” button after your new semester is created.

Q12. Does Campus need to be specified in the rollover rules for TimeTable definition if the definition applies to all campuses?

No, you do not need to specify individual campuses if the rule applies to all campuses.


Q13. For Term One 2019 we are changing the structure of our day and bell times. Do I need to set rules in Synergetic if we use Timetabler to timetable?

It is still a good idea to rollover the current Timetable Definition, then modify the definitions for the new Semester to reflect new bell times.  Even if you use Timetabler, you still need to specify a Timetable Definition in Synergetic to match the definition being imported through Timetabler.


Q14. Can you please point me to the direction as to how to use Subject Assessment Other Definition Maintenance?


Subject Assessment Other Definition Maintenance is used to setup the curriculum Framework into Synergetic.  These frameworks include AUSVELS, EALAV, RE, REN and VICCURRIC.  Click on the Add/Load button to create more Frameworks.  Synergetic is loaded with the standard setup to easily load but also allows schools to modify or create their own if this is necessary.  For the roll over process the frameworks you have are stored each year.  This means at the beginning of each year you will need to copy (and modify if necessary) these frameworks to suit the needs of the new year being created.  

See https://wiki.synergetic.net.au/display/SYNMAIN/Copying+subject+assessment+definitions for more information.


Q15. Where does the Finalise Term option come in? Do we need to do anything with that?

"Finalise Term" is really only necessary when your school does assessments and reporting through Synergetic.  It marks the selected semester and year as having reports printed and deletes any unused result and comment records.  It also (optionally) changes the default file semester and year for all users to the new one.  It is recommended a Term only be finalised when all Assessment Reports are finalised.  This program does not affect any other area of the Rollover process.  See Finalising terms (Next Year Process) for further information.


Q16. Can you please explain how 'Rpts Printed' effects anything

When the ‘Rprts Printd’ checkbox is ticked for a particular Year and Semester, the student assessment results cannot be edited, even by the System Admin, for that Year and Semester.  This checkbox is also ticked as a result of running the “Finalise Term” program – see previous question.


Q17. If a Future Student has a House assigned to him/her, will that house transfer to current?

Yes, any Form, Tutor Group, or House assigned to a Future Student transfers to their Current Student records.


Q18. I have students in houses eg 7 Blue who will go into 8 Blue. How/where do I set this up?

This is set up in luYearLevel. There are columns called ClearFormFlag, ClearHouseFlag, and ClearTutorFlag that determine whether the Form, House and Tutor values respectively will be cleared on a rollover.  This will allow you to repopulate the data field for the following year and the ‘Bulk Set Active Field Value’ could make this process much faster.  If you wish to retain house information, you should uncheck the ClearHouseFlag for each year.


Q19. If you use the status withdrawn how do you handle those during rollover?

If this status is for Current Students, there is no Synergetic status of “Withdrawn”.  If you have a status called “Withdrawn” at your school, you need to check the lookup table luStudentStatus to see what SynergyMeaning is associated with it.  That will determine the behaviour of the status.

For Future Students, the application status will need to be created for Withdrawn and a Synergy meaning of Cancelled.  This would tell the system how to process the application.  For a roll over this would mean the next time there is a roll over, the student’s record would be archived as they do not want to go to the school.  If they only want to withdraw for the one enrol year, another application will need to be created on the student’s record where it would be changed to the default.  This would keep records of the withdrawn application as well as keep them in the system for the following enrol year they are choosing. 


Q20. Once we have created 2019 and rolled over, if we make changes to current student contact details in 2017 term 4 does this automatically update term 1 2018?

Yes, Contact and Relations are changed across all terms/semesters.


Q21. What happens if status changes occur after rollover?  Will the 2019 database be updated?

Status changes only occur in the term/semester they are done in, so if you do it in the term/semester after you have done a rollover, you will need to do in the subsequent term/semester.   The system will show an information message to that effect as well:

 


Q22. What happens if the status changes after the rollover for Current Students either repeating or leaving at the end of year?

If a Current Students status changes in the term before the term they were rolled into, you will need to make the change manually in the rolled over term/semester. 

For example, if you are currently in Term 4 2018 and the roll over has been completed (ie Term 1 2019 had been created), then if you change a Current Student’s status to Leaving in Term 4 2018, their status will not be updated for Term 1 2019.  Depending on when the student is Leaving, you will need to move them to Past Students manually or in the bulk transfer students to past.  When a Current Student is moved to Past Student, they do not appear as a Current Student, regardless of when they were moved to Past Students.


Q23. If a student enrols and commences now, will they appear in next years' database, if rollover is already done?


No.  Future Students transferred to a term will only appear in the term/semester they have been transferred into and thereafter in terms/semesters that are rolled over to.  For example, if you are currently in Term 4 2018 and have rolled over to the next term/year (ie Term 1 2019), then if you transfer a Future Student to Current Student in Term 4 2018, that Future student will not appear as a Current Student in the rolled over term/year (ie Term 1 2019). 

As a general rule we recommend doing one final roll over at the end of the school year after all changes have been made for students enrolling in the school.  


Q24. If the rollover has already been completed and the family changes their mind about enrolling the student at the school, or the student doesn’t show up next year, what should schools do?

This is now a problem where the student is appearing in Current Students but will never come for that year.  If this is a student who has been to the school, you will need to click on the student record and then click on File menu item in the top right.  The option of ‘Delete From This year’ (if you are in the newly created year) or ‘Delete From Next Year’ (if you are in the current year) will be available to select.  This will allow the school to keep all the information about the student record for the years they have been at the school but will remove the data on the record for that new year that has been created. 

If the student has come from Future Students and will never come to the school the process is the same but you would select ‘Delete’.  This will remove them all together from the Current Student record (current and previous years).

NOTE: Some schools use the Transfer to Past Student functionality to move them out of Current Students.  If the student never attended the school this would create a past student record and hence then impact on the Alumni records.  We recommend deleting them from current students since they never came, then updating their future student application accordingly.  


Q25. How can we delete a Current Student?

To manually remove a Current Student, right click on the student’s name in the data selector grid and select Delete.  You will be given a warning and prompted to type the word “DELETE” to complete this action.  Deleting a Current student record in this manner will delete their entire student record for all years they have been at the school, so a better option will be to either "Delete from This Year" or "Delete from Next Year".   Further information on these options is provided on the following links:

Handling exceptions after the next year has been created (Next Year Process) 

Processing a student leaving after the new year has been created (Next Year Process)

Removing a confirmed future student who cancels after the new year is created (Next Year Process)


Q26. What eventually happens to Year 13 students and when do they roll into past students?

The rollover process works from the Next Year Campus and Next Year Level values in the lookup table luYearLevel.  Each Year Level for lower years will indicate where those students should roll into next; for the final year level, these Next values are required to be values that do not actually exist in the lookup table as their own record so that the rollover process will correctly skip them.  If the final year of schooling for your school is Year 12, this will often mean that the Next Year Level value is 13 (but it can equally be another non-existing value such as 99).  When the rollover process is run, any students whose 'Next Year' values are one of these deliberately non-existent sets, will be skipped as they do not have a valid destination Campus and Year Level to roll into.  Thus Year 12 students in this example, would not roll to Year 13 or anywhere else but would be left as is, ready for the later process of transferring to the Past Students area.


Q27. Do you need to update status to "Complete Year 12" for all year 12 students?

No, final year students do not require their status to be updated unless they are leaving earlier than the end of year. During the end of year rollover process, all final year Current students who have no valid next year destination will be skipped in the rollover, leaving them alone.  For example, if your school’s final year is Year 12 then all Year 12 Current students will be skipped from rolling to the next File Year; if your school’s final year is Year 6, then all Year 6 students will be skipped and left as is.  This progression rule is set in the lookup table luYearLevel, using the Next Year Campus and Next Year Level values.  These students who were skipped and not rolled over, will then be moved to Past Students at a later time when you transfer them to Past Students using the bulk process of Students->Transfer Students to Past Students.


Q28. If you flag a student as Repeating do you then have to change the status to Normal in the new year?

In the current year, their Next Year status will be “Repeating”.  In the new year, their Next Year status will be cleared and their current status will be set to “Repeating”.  You can change their status to Normal if you wish to, but this may have implications on Reports if you the reports uses Student status; Also that status change will only be available in their "Maint" tab.


Q29. Do we need to do any SQL backup prior to this roll over?

We recommend you back up prior to the roll over just in case this is needed to roll back.  Another, and better option, is to copy your LIVE database across to your TEST instance, then run the roll over on your TEST instance.  If you are happy with the result then do this in the LIVE database.  If you are not then make the changes in the LIVE database and repeat until you are satisfied.  


Q30. With the future students search criteria what is the difference between entering the Enrol Year and Status under Future Student and entering it under Application.  You end up with a different number of students.

A Future Student can have multiple applications, only one of which is the Default application.  The Default application is the current one and is marked in bold in the Applications tab for the student.  In the Search Screen, a search in Applications searches all Applications, while a search in the Top area searches Default Applications only.  If you are searching for the default application there will be one per record whilst searching all applications could have a lot more. 


Q31. We do our reporting through Synergetic and have them displayed on the community portal, does it matter when we do the rollover? I generally always wait until after reports have gone out but I was thinking for debtors it may be easier for them to do it earlier.  Does it affect anything?

The important part of roll over for this question is the Community Portal Current tick box in file term maintenance.  This shows what file term/semester the parents see in the Community Portal.  When you do the roll over parents can be still in the previous Term/semester to easily access things like the report until the school is ready for them to move to another term/semester. 


Q32. Year Level Coordinator - where can that be used?  Crystal?

Yes, it would mainly be used in Crystal reports for assessment reports and any other required report.  It can also be used if a school is using the Pastoral Care module available with Current Students in Synergetic. 


Q33. When can we update the luForm teachers name as part of the roll over process? What's best practice?

When the school is ready to update the luForm teachers name is the best process.  This is going to be different from school to school.  For the beginning for the year we would recommend in January as the school may need it for reports and pastoral care prior to that. 


Q34. We have found our Y7 students still have a status of New rather than Normal. Is there a reason for this, how can we ensure Y7 are set to Normal?

All students will have the status of ‘New’ for the first time they are entered into Synergetic.  This will last until their record has had the first end of year roll over.  This allows schools to easily filter all students across the whole school who are new to the school, for example, to invite them to special evenings or pass on specific information. 


Q35. At what stage do you tick 'Set as current year and term'?

For the end of year roll over, schools will want to do this last day of school or first day back.  If you do it too early then there will be staff working in 2019 when they still need to be in 2018.  If a mistake is made it can be easily moved back to another default.  Staff can change their own current term and year in their preferences which is useful for finances preparing billing for the following year.  Those staff members will be alerted that they are not in the default year and term to ensure work being completed is in the correct year and term.


Q36. We have families of current students that take international or interstate postings for up to 3 years and pay a holding fee to guarantee an agreed return date to the school. We have tried to use ‘Leave of Absence’ but this leaves the students in the current student population. Ideally we would like to transfer departing students to the waiting list. Can this be automatically set at rollover? How do we administrate a student departing the current year who maybe returning in a future year.

 The most effective way to handle these cases is as follows:

  • Create a Future Student application in Future Student Maintenance using the Current Student’s ID and their Primary Contact’s ID. Enter the agreed return date to the school in the ‘Enrol For Date’ fields and the applicable status (eg. Finalised or Accepted) in the ‘Status’ field.  
  • Update the Current Student record by entering a status of ‘Left’ or ‘Leaving’ in the ‘Status’ field and the relevant date in the ‘Leaving Date’ field. The Current Student record will rollover to Past Students when the rollover is processed at the end of that year.
  • If the student doesn’t return to the school you are able to cancel the future application by altering the status in the ‘Status’ field. Alternatively, if the student has already been transferred to current students with their agreed re-enrolment date but then decides not proceed for that year, you will need to delete the current student record in Current Student Maintenance using "Delete from Next Year" or "Delete from This Year" depending on which year you are viewing the student in.  For further details, see Handling exceptions after the next year has been created (Next Year Process)  


Q37. Under what circumstances would you use the ‘NXT Yr Status’ field in the School tab in Current Student Maintenance?

An example of when the ‘NXT Yr Status’ field may be used is if a student was enrolled towards the end of the school year as a current student and their status would therefore be 'NEW' for the remainder of that year.  The school may therefore decide that they also want to treat the student's status as 'NEW' for the following year and this status would therefore be the entered in the ‘NXT Yr Status’ field.

This field can also be used to mark students who are repeating a particular year level in the next year.  For example, in 2018, if you change an Year 10 student's Nxt Yr Status to "RPT" or "Repeating", when the rollover is done, they will remain in Year 10 in 2019, but their Status in 2019 will be "RPT" or "Repeating".  In 2019, their Nxt Yr Status will be cleared. 








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