Transitioning to the Next Academic Year

ManageBac+ School Account Transition

Transitioning Overview

Why do we need to transition our school's ManageBac+ account? You will need to transition your ManageBac+ account to configure academic terms & holidays each year, move students up a grade level, review subject or curriculum changes, add or remove faculty and maintain historical data.

How can we use this guide for our transition? We provide a range of best-practices and resources so your admin team can transition your school's account with the method that best matches your needs. 

Who should be involved in the Transition?

Who can transition a ManageBac+ account? Any admin can complete all steps in the checklist. 

Who is the best person/people to handle the transition? We would advise either your Tech Director, IB or Programme level coordinators, or a key administrator responsible for your ManageBac+ account.

Should the transition be completed by one person? Depending on the size of your school and the number of programmes and services you are using, it may make sense to have the entire process completed by 1 admin, or by 1 admin per academic programme. If for example, your DP, MYP and PYP programmes wish to transition at different dates, or perhaps your Junior & High school are on different campuses and have differing needs, steps can be completed separately by users at different times. 

Do our users need to do anything in the transition, such as move their personal account? No, there is no participation required from your wider school community. After a transition is completed, students & parents will have access to their new classes & year groups, and Teachers will find Units, Tasks & Resources available in their resource bank. Please see New Academic Year Guide for Teachers.

When is the best timing & how long does it take?

How often should we transition? A school account should be transitioned once each academic year.

When is the best time to transition? Either at the completion of your current academic year, at the start of your new academic year, or sometime in-between. A period of least usage would be ideal, so as to not confuse any users who may notice changes to their classes, year groups or permissions.

How long does a transition take? Depending on the size of your school (number of users), integrations (do you need to consider Sync with other services?), services you are using (Attendance, Reports) and the number of programmes (DP, MYP, PYP, Non-IB etc), the time it takes to transition will vary. We generally recommend setting aside a few days prior to classes starting to process the transition steps and review user permissions & class assignments once complete. 

QuickStart Checklist

Transition Checklist

Step-by-Step Guide to Transition

Step 1. Review Programme Options

1A. Add Academic Terms

Set up your new Academic Years for each programme at the school. Navigate to Settings > Academic Terms > Select your Programme > click Add Academic Year.

Set your term start & end dates, ensuring that dates do not overlap. Terms dates are used to group deadlines and grades within each class. It's recommended that these dates are set to be continuous (i.e. they should be inclusive of your school holidays in order to avoid gaps between terms).

Be sure to set up your academic term dates for each academic programme used at the school.

1. Select Programme at the top menu, ie "IB Diploma"
2. Add Academic Year

Repeat per programme.

Step 2. Review Account Access

2A. Lock Access to ManageBac+ for Students & Parents

You may wish to lock ManageBac+ for students and parents to be able to complete the remaining transition steps.

This is possible via Settings > Security & Permissions. 

Here, tick the box "Prevent access to ManageBac+ for students and parents till" and set the unlock date. Be sure to click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

If access has been prevented, students and parents will see a message indicating that their account has been temporarily locked in preparation for the next academic year. The unlock date will be indicated as to when they will be able to log back in (see above). 

2B. Archive Graduating Year Group & Move Students up a Grade Level

When handling Student grade level updates, it is recommended to transition from your top-most grade level, working your way down to your lowest grade level, to avoid mixing and matching students.

Thus, you may wish to begin by archiving your graduating year group first. If you are still looking to permit say your DP2's to access their ManageBac+ account, you can skip archiving the year group at this stage.

I. Transition IB DP, CP & MYP Year Groups

Navigate to Year Groups > Transition Years Groups.

Transition the year groups for each programme, starting with the highest programme (e.g. IB Diploma). Archive the graduating year groups who are leaving the school and move lower year groups up a year level.

1. Select the programme
2. Archive the graduating year group
3. Move lower-year groups up a grade level
4. Customise the Year Group name (optional)
5. Click Save Changes to transition.

Note: only archive graduating year groups who are not returning. MYP year groups moving into Diploma (e.g. MYP5 to DP1) should be moved up a year level via IB Middle Years (see below):

Important Note:

The above steps to transition year groups will move the entire year group up a grade level, along with students & year group resources (i.e. messages, files, events & deadlines posted to the year group calendar). If you wish to only move students up a grade level, while keeping resources in the same grade level as they were in the previous year, please see guidance in III. Transition other Programme year groups below. 
Archived year groups can be found via Year Groups > Show Archived Year Groups and these contain all Service Learning & Project-based Learning data of archived students:

II. Transition IB PYP Year Groups

Create the new Year Group in the academic programme above PYP (e.g. IB MYP) via Year Groups >  Add Year Group:

Next, move the graduating PYP students into the newly created MYP year group via Settings > School Directory > Memberships. On this page, you can also move the remaining PYP students up a year level (see below).

To do this, select students by grade level from the 'Available Students' column on the left, and move students to the correct year group on the right. You can move students into multiple year groups at once, click Confirm Assignments to confirm.

III. Transition all other Programme year groups

Students in all other academic programmes can be moved up a grade level via Settings > School Directory > Memberships.

This page shows two columns: 'Available Students' (on the left) is where you can select students by grade level or Homeroom advisor. 'Manage your Students' (on the right) is where you can add or remove students from Year Groups, Classes or Groups.

To move students up a year level here, first  In the screenshot below, for example, here students are being moved up from IGCSE Year 10 into Diploma Year 1.

Step 3. Configure Class Requirements

3A. Review Subjects, Phases & Levels

Via Subjects, you can enable your subjects as well as add any additional/customised subjects that your school may offer. Add New Subject Group allows you to create a subject category where multiple subjects can be added under. For example Subject Group = Science, Subjects = Biology, Chemistry, Physics. 

Add New Subject enables you to add any customised subjects you wish. 
After selecting/adding subjects, make sure to click Save Changes at the bottom of the page. Note: You will only be able to create classes in those subjects which are enabled on your account.

IB PYP Subject Strands

For IB PYP, via Subject click Edit, specify the subject strands, whether they are configured by phases or years, and each phase or year level they should be enabled for.

IB MYP Subject Levels

IB DP Subject Options & Levels

Navigate to Settings > IB Diploma > Subjects > Options & Levels, to specify the options (e.g. ab initio) and levels (e.g. SL) for your subjects.

Note: If your school offers the IB Diploma in more than one working language, you can also specify the languages for individual subjects.

Click on Extended Essay Subjects to enable the EE subjects that your students can select via their Extended Essay worksheets.

Curriculum First (US, UK, Non-IB)

Via Options & Levels, specify the options (e.g. Core) and levels (e.g. Extended) for your subjects.

3B. Review Standards & Scope & Sequence

You can adjust the standards (and Scope & Sequence in IB PYP) configured on your school at any time of the year, however, during your transition is often a good time to consider this, especially if you are considering a major rework for the new academic year.

You can directly import sets of standards from the Faria database (featuring more than 600 standards sets) or request a custom import via Settings > Select a Programme > Curriculum > Standards. For further details, see Adding Standards as an Administrator

3C. Transition or Archive existing Classes

This option can be used to bulk archive classes and recreate classes from scratch.

Scenarios where you may wish to bulk archive all classes and start from fresh:

• If you want to have a clean slate every year.
• If you do not want messages, files or student rosters to be the same next year, and you already have a list of new classes you wish to add from another student information system.
• If you wish to change the subjects or number of classes offered.

Navigate to Classes > See all classes > Manage Classes:

1. Select the academic programme
2. Archive individual classes or select the Archive checkbox at the top to archive all.
3. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page to process.

Repeat steps 1-3 with the next academic programme.

After archiving classes, new classes will need to be created via Classes > Show all Classes > Import Classes. See our tutorial here on creating classes via Bulk Import:

• Create Classes via Bulk Import
  
  

Option 2: Archive and duplicate classes into next grade

This option archives existing classes to preserve historical data, and creates a new version of each class one grade level higher. This option is best used for Non-DP and Non-IGCSE classes that will continue with the same students next year.

Example: A two-year High School Biology class may choose to duplicate messages, files, and class settings from Year 1 to Year 2. Archiving and duplicating into the next grade will archive all Year 1 class data and create a new class of the same subject a grade level higher, with the option to carry over messages, files & students from the Year 1 to Year 2 class.

First archive the highest level classes of the programme via Classes > See all Classes > Manage Classes.

1. Select your programme
2. Filter for the highest year level
3. Archive all
4. Save Changes
   
   

Next, transition lower level classes by navigating to Classes > See all Classes > Classes Manager > Transition Classes:

1. Select the programme
2. Select Archive & duplicate into next grade
3. Confirm the Start and End Academic Terms for the newly created classes. DP classes can span up to two years, while all other classes can only span up to one.
4. Add a unique Class ID for each class (this is strongly recommended as it will allow you to later bulk assign students to classes)
5. Tick the Messages checkboxes if you would like to re-use the messages from the current class in the newly created class.
6. Tick the Files checkboxes if you would like to re-use the files from the current class in the newly created class.
7. Tick the Students checkboxes to use the same student roster from the current classes.
8. If the teacher assigned will be different in the new class, select a new teacher from the Teacher dropdown.

Repeat these steps for each subject within the programme.

Option 3: Archive and duplicate classes into existing grade

This option archives your existing classes to preserve historical data, and creates a new version of each class in the same grade level. This is the quickest way to copy this year's classes into next year and is best used for programmes where the classes offered in each year level are roughly the same every year.

Example: If last year's MYP Design Grade 9 classes are offered again in Grade 9 next year, archiving and duplicating the class will allow you to archive the old class & create a copy keeping the messages, files and class settings the same.

In this option, you do not have to create any new classes if you are happy with your current class structure, since all selected classes will be duplicated into their existing grade levels.

Navigate to Classes > See all Classes > Classes Manager > Transition Classes.

1. Select the programme
2. Select Archive and duplicate into existing grade
3. Select the subject
4. Select the classes you wish to transition
5. Confirm the Start and End Academic Terms for the newly created classes.
6. Add a unique Class ID for each class (this is strongly recommended as it will allow you to later bulk assign students to classes)
7. Tick the Messages check-box if you wish to copy the messages into next year's class.
8. Tick the Files checkboxes if you wish to copy the files into next year's class.

Repeat these steps for each subject via the Subject dropdown 

Option 4: Transition classes to the next year (for 2-year classes)

This option is for two-year classes, where class rosters remain the same from year 1 to year 2, which is often the case for Diploma & IGCSE Year 1 classes transitioning into Year 2.

Example: If DP English Language & Literature is a two-year course, the class should not be archived after the first year. Use 'Transition Classes to the Next Year' to move classes up a year level, ensuring all student work & class data stay with the class as it moves.

Instructions:

1. Archive previous Year-2 classes
2. Export previous Year-1 classes to CSV template & Save
3. Transition Year-1 classes to Year-2
4. Create new Year 1 classes using the Excel export

I. Archive Previous Year-2 Classes  

4A. Configure Holidays

Navigate to Settings > Attendance & Calendar > Programme-Level to configure the attendance settings for each of your school's programmes.

1. Select the Programme 
2. Select the Academic Year
3. Set attendance schedule to either Weekdays or custom Rotation cycle (e.g. 10 days)
   • Optionally choose to count Holidays in your Rotation
4. Select Categories that teachers can select from including Late, Health, Dress Code, etc.
5. Customise Categories to change colours and labels.
6. Holidays are also configured by programme 
   • Click on the dates within the calendar to configure your school holidays
   • To remove a holiday, click the date again 
   • Holidays and days off are marked in yellow and not counted in the attendance total
   • Teachers will not be able to take attendance on these days

Adjust the First Day of the Rotation Cycle

Schools running a rotation cycle can click on the red number on the first day of each academic term. 

Once clicked, you will be able to select the rotation cycle start number that the term will start on.

Tip: Remember to adjust your Term Dates via Settings > Terms first, and then configure your holiday calendar and rotation according to the days in the session. 

4B. Setup Periods

Via Attendance & Calendar > Periods > the programme, customise the number and duration of Periods for the academic year. 

1. Select the Academic Year. 
2. Select if you want to Customise attendance periods by day or rotation cycle.
3. Indicate if you want to Start the period count from 0.
4. Enable Differentiate periods by Grade level if you want the period's configuration to be specific to each grade level. Once enabled, you can then select the Grade to configure the attendance for each grade level.
5. Select the number of Periods for each day and set the times for those periods. Tick Custom Periods for blocks of time in the schedule where no classes are taught. Names for Custom Periods are free to set as text and can have a background image from a preset list of images. 
6. You can also Copy Period Configurations from days in the week or rotation cycles. The Green checkmarks will indicate the days where Period Configurations have been saved after Saving Changes. 
7. You can also Copy Period configurations from previous academic years per academic programme.

4C. Import Timetables

Class Attendance timetables can be set up manually (class-by-class) or via bulk import.

Note that class timetables do not need to be set up for programmes where you are only tracking Homeroom Attendance. For example, if you are taking class attendance in your secondary school, but homeroom attendance only in primary school, you can skip this step for primary school. 

Manually

To set up class attendance timetables manually, navigate to each class Attendance tab. Select the Days, Periods & enter a class location. Click Save Changes and repeat for all classes.

Bulk import

Bulk import is the fastest method to set up class timetables and can be done via Classes > Classes Manager > Import Timetable.

 

 

1. Download our CSV template
2. Add required fields to the template: Class ID, Rotation Day Number & Period Number (Room location is optional).
   • ManageBac+ does not support direct integration with any third-party timetabling systems. If your school uses another timetabling system with an export to XLS or CSV function, it's best to match the class IDs on ManageBac+ with your timetabling system. This will make it easier to export data from your timetabling system and add it to our CSV timetable template, using class ID as the common unique identifier across both systems.
   • Rotation days & periods for each programme are set via your Settings > Attendance.
   • If your programme runs on a 5-day (weekday) cycle, then Monday is rotation day 1, Tuesday is rotation day 2, and so on.
3. Save the file in CSV format, upload and click Next.

If you need any assistance with any of the above imports or have any questions about the best transition options for your school, please email us at support@ManageBac.com and we will be happy to help.

4D. Add Year Group Deadlines

The IB Deadlines repository allows admins to add recommended Year Group-wide IB deadlines to student calendars. To do so, admins can navigate to Year Group > Calendar > Import Example Deadlines:

The repository contains default IB deadlines and these can be filtered by Category and Exam Years. You can select a deadline via the checkbox and select Add Resources to import the deadline. You can also click Add New Deadline in the right-hand menu to create a new, custom deadline, which will be stored within the IB Deadline repository. We will cover this in greater depth later in the tutorial. 

5A. Adding Students to Classes

Add Students Manually

Navigate to each class individually and add students via the Members tab (see below)

Students are organised by the year level & programme of their year group (see below).  It's possible to add students from multiple year levels & programmes to the class if needed.

Add Students in Bulk

Navigate to Classes > Browse All Classes > click Bulk Assign Students

Download our CSV template and fill it out with the required fields to assign students to classes:

• Student ID or Email
• Class ID

Save the file in CSV format and upload it. Then choose to either Bulk assign, adding students to existing rosters, or Bulk assign and remove, replacing any existing class rosters.

When transitioning to the next year, the most common option is to Bulk assign as you are adding students to newly created classes for the new year.

5B. Assign Homeroom Advisors to Students

Assign Homeroom Advisors to students via Year Groups > Bulk Assign Students.

This step is necessary if Homeroom advisors for students have changed from last year to this year, or if there are students who are not yet assigned to a Homeroom Advisor.

 

Download our CSV template and complete the required fields to assign students to Homeroom Advisors:

• Student ID or E-mail
• Homeroom Advisor E-mail

Save the file in CSV format and upload by clicking Bulk assign. This will bulk assign Homeroom Advisors to students, allowing them to easily keep track of their students via the Homeroom tab. See here for further guidance.

5C. Assign Teachers to Classes

Teachers can be added to classes manually or in bulk. 

Allow Teachers to Join a Class

If classes are not locked, teachers can find classes under Classes > Browse All Classes, and filtering for the relevant Programme, Grade Levels or Subject Groups. Here they can click Join or Leave. If a class is locked for Teachers, the teacher will not be able to leave or join it. 

Adding Teachers to a Class

Navigate to each class individually and add teachers via the Members tab. Here you can Add Teachers, remove teachers, and configure which show on Report cards. 

Add Teachers to Multiple Classes

Navigate to Classes > Browse all classes > Manage Classes, where you can review class lists by Programme and Grade Level.

Via the Teacher dropdown, teachers can be swiftly added to or removed from classes. Remember to Save Changes to process. 

Add Teachers in Bulk

Navigate to Classes > Browse All Classes > click Bulk Assign Teachers

Download our CSV template and fill it out with the required fields to assign students to classes:

• Teacher E-mail
• Class ID

Save the file in CSV format and upload it. Then choose to either Bulk assign, adding teachers to classes. Please note, this acts as a Bulk assign and remove, replacing any existing teacher memberships. 

5D. Generate Timetables

Timetables will be visible to students, parents and teachers on ManageBac+ automatically after students and teachers have been assigned to their classes. However, you may wish to further provide generated PDFs for them, such as in print in any opening day event. 

Generate PDF Timetables for students via Classes > Classes Manager > Generate Timetables.

This will create a ZIP file stored on the right-hand side. You can download and share PDFs with Students via email or message.
The ZIP will be organised according to Grade Level and Student Name.

Alternatively, Students can directly find their own live or PDF timetable when logged in to ManageBac+.

 

Step 6. Opening to your Community!

6A. Unlock ManageBac+

Don't forget to remove the restriction for Students & Parents, if you added it in step 2A. (This will automatically unlock at 00:00 GMT on the date selected, in case you forget!)

6B. Send Welcome Emails

Re-sending to all users who have not yet logged in

Via Settings > School Directory > Roster, select Send Welcome E-mails.

Choose the user type you would like to send the welcome emails to. If you select students, you can also specify a Year Group. After you confirm your selection, the welcome e-mails will be sent out.

You've completed your transition!

Account Review

If you wish to have your account manager review your school's account, please navigate to Settings > Services Manager, where you will find your account manager details on the right-hand side.

Transition Questions

For any questions, feel free to submit a ManageBac+ support request.

New User Training Options

Admins can book 1-1 trainings on handling your account or arrange for group teacher training sessions to become familiar with ManageBac+. Training sessions are available to book within 24hr notice. 

• ManageBac - New Academic Year Checklist.pdf300 KB