Teacher Working Schedules & Schedule Frameworks

Manage each teacher’s weekly timetable from their own employee record, and set up the bell-schedule templates (“schedule frameworks”) new teachers start from.

Required role: Department Chief or above (Department Chief, Head of Studies, Director, Administrator) can edit schedules and use the import wizard; every other role can only view their own schedule, read-only, but everyone can export a schedule to PDF.

Concepts

Schedule framework: a reusable weekly bell-schedule template (periods, breaks, coordination meetings) for a level of studies — e.g. one framework for ESO, one for BTX, one shared by the vocational-training levels. Frameworks never carry real subject assignments.
A teacher’s schedule: their own personal calendar, built from a framework and then filled in with their actual subjects/groups. It is never shared between two teachers.
Default schedule framework: the one framework automatically used to start every new teacher’s schedule.
Reinforcement group: a class group that mixes students from different regular groups (and even different studies) for a specific reinforcement class — it has no tutor or delegate, but still appears in a teacher’s schedule like any other group. See “Reinforcement Groups” below.

Access

Schedule frameworks: Configuration → Teachers → Schedule frameworks
Default framework setting: Settings → Employees → “Default schedule framework”
A teacher’s own schedule: Employees → [open the teacher] → Schedule tab

Set Up a Schedule Framework

Go to Configuration → Teachers → Schedule frameworks and create a new one (or open an existing one).
Set its Name and, if it’s specific to one level of studies, its Level.
Add its weekly periods in the attendance lines below: day, start/end time, and optionally a name. Use exact times — periods don’t need to be aligned to the hour (e.g. 10:25–11:25).
For breaks and coordination meetings, use the non-teaching field on that line (e.g. Break, Coordination Meeting) instead of leaving it blank — these are real commitments every teacher following the framework will inherit.

A framework is a template only: it never has subjects or groups assigned to its own periods.

Co-teaching

If two teachers genuinely teach the same class together (same subject, same group, same room, same hour), EMS treats it as a single shared class rather than two independent ones: both teachers are listed as holders of that period, and there is only one attendance session for it — either teacher can mark it, and both see the same result.

This is detected automatically, whether the schedule was built by hand or imported:

Editing a schedule by hand: if you assign a teacher to a period that exactly matches (same subject, group, room, day and time) a period already assigned to another teacher, EMS merges them into a shared period instead of raising a room-conflict error. If a teacher is later removed from that period while their co-teacher keeps it, the shared period simply reverts to being that co-teacher’s own.
Importing schedules: if a planner file assigns the exact same class to two teachers, importing it produces one shared period, the same as if you’d set it up by hand.

A shared period is otherwise not any different to look at: it just shows up, identically, on each holder’s own Schedule tab.

Set the Default Schedule Framework

Go to Settings → Employees.
Under Default schedule framework, pick the framework every new teacher should start from.
Save.

This field is required — the module ships with a generic default framework so it is never empty out of the box, but you should point it at the framework that matches your centre’s most common level.

Manage Non-teaching Types

The list of non-teaching reasons (Break, Guard, Coordination Meeting…) shown wherever a period isn’t a subject is configurable, so you can add a new one yourself if your centre’s external planner starts sending a code EMS doesn’t recognise yet — no developer needed.

Go to Configuration → Teachers → Non-teaching types.
Click New, set a short Code (must match exactly what the external planner uses for that activity) and a Name (what teachers and reports will show).
Optionally mark it Is a break (dropped from the weekly hours summary entirely, like the patio break) or Always a fixed-schedule commitment (always counted in the “Other fixed-schedule hours” column, like a guard duty).
Save. The new type is immediately available in the “non-teaching” dropdown when editing a schedule, and recognised the next time you import a planner file that uses its code.

A New Teacher’s Schedule

When you create a new employee of type Teacher, EMS automatically:

creates a personal working calendar for them (never shared with anyone else),
points it at the centre’s default schedule framework.

Nothing needs to be assigned yet — open their Schedule tab and use Edit to start filling in subjects, following the “Edit a Teacher’s Schedule” section below. Renaming the teacher later automatically renames their calendar to match; deleting the teacher automatically deletes their personal calendar.

View a Teacher’s Schedule

Open the teacher’s employee record.
Go to the Schedule tab.

Each block shows its exact start–end time, the subject/group or the non-teaching reason, and the classroom (taken from the group’s own default classroom). Periods that are still unassigned simply show no block — the framework’s structure (breaks, meetings) is what tells you a slot is expected there.

Below the grid, a small summary table shows the teacher’s total weekly hours in two columns:

Weekly teaching hours: one row per level of studies (e.g. CFGS, CFGM, ESO), one row per reinforcement group taught (these don’t belong to a single level), plus any non-teaching activity not listed in the other column.
Other fixed-schedule hours: guard duties (any day) and coordination meetings specifically on Wednesday.

The break is never counted in either column. A period that only partially overlaps an hour still counts as a full hour. Each column shows its own total, followed by the overall total (24 hours for a full-time teacher). This summary always reflects the saved schedule, so it disappears while you’re editing and reappears (updated) once you save.

Edit a Teacher’s Schedule

Open the teacher’s Schedule tab and click Edit.
Every row is one real weekly period (its own exact time, editable via the two time fields on the left) — pick a subject and a group for it, or a non-teaching reason, from the dropdowns in each day’s column.
To change a period’s time: edit the start or end time field directly (moving the start keeps the period’s length).
To remove a period entirely: use the trash icon next to its time.
To add a period the framework didn’t have (e.g. a teacher who mixes two levels’ bell schedules): click Add period at the bottom of the time column, set its time, and fill it in for whichever day(s) it applies to.
Click Save to apply, or Cancel to discard everything and leave the schedule untouched.

Leaving a manually-added period unassigned and saving simply drops it — only real assignments are kept. If you re-open Edit later, the framework’s own periods reappear as gaps to fill in, but a discarded manual period does not.

Import a Teacher’s Schedule from a File

If your centre already exports schedules from an external planning tool (XML), you can import one directly for a specific teacher instead of building it by hand:

Open the teacher’s Schedule tab and click Import.
Attach the XML file.
If the teacher already has a schedule, you’ll see a warning that it will be updated (not replaced from scratch) — subject assignments and attendance templates are kept in sync with the new file.
Click Import.

Import Several Teachers’ Schedules at Once

If you have several planner export files to import in one go (each file can already describe more than one teacher, matched by e-mail), use the general importer instead of the per-teacher button:

Go to Configuration → Teachers → Working schedules.
Open the ⚙️ (cog) menu above the list and choose Import: planner data.
Attach as many XML files as you need.
If any of the teachers found across those files already has a schedule, you’ll see a warning listing them — schedules are updated, not replaced from scratch.
Click Import.

Start a Teacher’s Schedule From a Framework or From Another Teacher

Use this to reset a teacher onto a different framework (e.g. they now teach a different level), or to set up a substitute with the same schedule as the teacher they’re covering for:

Open the teacher’s Schedule tab and click New.
Choose either a schedule framework (starts blank, following that framework’s periods) or another teacher (copies their real subjects/groups — ideal for substitutions).
Click Load — you’ll see the loaded schedule in edit mode.
Adjust anything needed, then click Save to apply, or Cancel to discard and keep the teacher’s previous schedule untouched.

New replaces the whole schedule — nothing from before is kept unless it also appears in what you just loaded. Cancelling before Save leaves everything exactly as it was.

Reinforcement Groups

A reinforcement group is a class group (the same “Groups” record a regular class group is) used for a support/reinforcement class that mixes students from different regular groups, and even different studies — e.g. a small maths reinforcement group with students pulled from three different first-year groups.

Go to Configuration → Students → Groups and create a new one.
Set its Group type to Reinforcement. This hides the Level/Study/Course/Acronym/Tutor/Delegate fields (a reinforcement group has none of these) and lets you type the group’s Name directly — set it to exactly match whatever your external planner exports for this group, since the schedule importer matches by exact name.
Set its Classroom, same as any other group — it’s still required for the schedule to import correctly.
On the Students tab, add the students who attend this reinforcement class, regardless of which regular group or study they belong to. This does not change each student’s own main group.
Save.

Once created, a reinforcement group is used in a teacher’s schedule exactly like any other group — assign it manually in the Schedule tab, or let the file importer resolve it by name.

Export a Teacher’s Schedule to PDF

Open the teacher’s Schedule tab and click PDF.
A printable weekly timetable is generated and downloaded — one row per period, one column per weekday, each cell showing the subject/group or non-teaching reason and the classroom.

The document opens with the teacher’s name and the current course, followed by their department (if assigned) and their role(s) — a tutor’s line also shows which group they tutor, and a department head’s line shows which department.

This is also available from the employee form’s own Print menu, in case you need to export several teachers’ schedules from a list view.

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