Class groups

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By default, the Untis standard software package optimises school timetables for schools based on class structure, i.e. where each student is assigned to one particular class and the lessons scheduled for the student are determined completely by his or her class.

 

The other extreme is a system in which students can choose their courses freely by setting up their own individual timetable (within certain legal frameworks) and classes do not exist anymore.This type of school system allows students to choose his or her own courses, which means it is no longer the class that is the focal point of the timetabling efforts, but the student. This scheduling situation is addressed by the Untis Course Scheduling module.

 

Some school systems, such as some German Realschulen, Austrian colleges of higher education and British secondary schools, use a combination of the two extremes described above. In these schools, some lessons are attended by the entire class ( core lessons, main subjects ) while others represent so-called differentiation subjects ( intensive lessons, minor subjects, options ) that are attended by a fixed group of students from different classes. Each student’s lessons are therefore determined by the student’s choice of main and minor subjects. The following section describes how to deal with this timetabling situation using class groups.

 

The following example demonstrates the general principles of class groups.

 

Class C1 consists of 20 students subdivided into two groups of 10 students each One group consists of students with an interest in modern languages, the other of the students with an interest in science. All 20 students attend the same lessons for English, PE, History and Geography. However, while one group attends German, French and Italian lessons, the other group has Physics, Chemistry and Maths, instead.

 

 

This means that German can be scheduled at the same time as Chemistry or Maths since Modern Languages students do not attend Science classes. On the other hand, German, Chemistry and Maths must not be scheduled at the same time as English or PE since these are core subjects attended by all the students of the class.

 

You can use Untis to solve this problem as follows: