End of year rollover –
What do you need to do to prepare for the new academic year?
DB Primary – Pupil accounts
Schools with MIS integration
If your school has MIS integration then it means that your DB Primary accounts sync directly from your MIS. Any changes made in your MIS will then be reflected on DB Primary.
At the end of the year you will mark your year 6s (or year 2s if you are an infant school) as leavers in your MIS. Their leave date will arrive (e.g. July 23rd) and then in the early hours of July 23rd DB Primary will sync with your MIS and mark all those accounts as leavers.
The rest of the children will all move into their new class groups the day after this happens in your MIS and new children will be created on DB Primary the day after their start date in your MIS.
Schools without MIS integration
If your school does not have MIS integration, then you will need to complete the steps below:
Step 1: Manually mark any users who have left the school as ‘Leavers’.
- Access the school administration area via the Admin toolbox on your DB Primary homepage.
- Find any users listed under the ‘Accounts’ tab who have left the school and tick the box beside their name.
- Now click either ‘Leave’ or ‘Delete’ depending on your preference.
Leaver accounts will be deactivated and moved to a special Leavers folder.
Step 2: Move pupils into their new group (class) folders.
- Ensure all leavers have been removed and then delete the empty group folder(s). Click on [Actions] beside the folder and choose ‘Delete’ from the menu.
- Now rename the remaining groups starting with the oldest year group and work your way backwards. Click on [Actions] beside the folder and choose ‘Rename’ to give the group a new name.
Step 3: Create new accounts for your new pupils.
Once your existing pupils' have been moved into their new groups, you can create accounts for your new intake.
This can be done in bulk by using the spreadsheet below.
Note: DB Primary will auto generate usernames and passwords if the cells are left blank. Admissions numbers are not compulsory and cells in this column can also be left blank.
There are a number of age specific homepage themes for pupils: Early Years is best suited for Nursery/Reception, Starter for KS1
and Improver for KS2.
Once you have completed a spreadsheet, enter school Administration via the Admin tool box on your homepage.
Click on the 'Import' button along the top, and follow the instructions.
DB Primary - Community Pages
There are a few different options when it comes to your DB Primary community pages for the new academic year. Read below to decide which is right for your school:
Option 1: Starting afresh
If you wish to start fresh communities for the next academic year then please archive your old communities by logging in with the superadmin user and then following these steps:
- Enter the admin area
- Click the 'Communities' tab
- Tick the box next to any communities you wish to archive
- Click the 'Archive' button
- Tick the 'Remove members' box
- Click the 'Archive Communities' button
You can then let us know via an email to educationsupport@neweratech.co.uk that you would like to have new communities created based on the new class groups.
Option 2: Creating a copy
If the teachers have done a lot of work on their class community pages and they wish to keep them for their next class to use then the best option is to create a copy of those communities. You can do this by logging in with the superadmin user and then following these steps:
1) Enter the admin area
2) Click the 'Communities' tab
3) Tick the box next to any communities you wish to archive
4) Click the 'Archive' button
5) Tick the 'Remove members' box
6) Tick the 'Rollover' box
7) Click the 'Archive Communities' button
This will archive the old copy of community and create a new copy ready for the new members. You can then go into the new copy of the community and remove any forum topics and blog posts from the previous class (click the cog icon in the top right of the blog or forum page to then be able to delete entries).
Option 3: Passing it up to the next teacher
If the children have done a lot of work on their community page and the teacher wishes to pass the community page up to the class' next teacher, then once the rollover has happened in your MIS and the children are all in their new class groups, you can go onto the community page, click the cog icon in the top right corner and then use the 'Manage membership' button to add in the correct children plus their new teacher as a leader of the community.
To rename the community click the cog icon in the top right corner of the community page and in the top left corner of the next screen you will see a pencil icon next to the community name. If you click this then you can rename the community.
Having work done on your server or having a new server installed?
Your MIS integration service with DB Primary is reliant on an application called Groupcall Xporter.
There may be occasions when data in DB Primary stops syncing with your MIS. This interruption may occur if any of the following are true:
- Your MIS server has undergone maintenance
- You have had a new MIS server installed
- The MIS software you use has been updated
- Your MIS server has been shut down
- There have been changes to your network configuration e.g. anti-virus, firewalls, proxy, port or hostname/IP changes
- Username/password details for the MIS account specified in the Xporter software has been changed, or the account has been removed in your MIS
- The Groupcall Xporter application or service has stopped running on your server
- The Groupcall Xporter application has been uninstalled from your MIS server.
What to do if your MIS integration service has been disrupted
In the first instance, please contact your IT/MIS support team to establish if any of these scenarios are true.
If you have had work done on your server or you have had a new server installed then please follow this guide (provided by Groupcall) to help you get Xporter migrated from your old MIS server to your new one.
If this does not fix the integration issue you are having, or you are unsure about how to proceed, then please contact Groupcall Support here. They can then contact you directly and will help you get the Xporter software working again.