Preference - Manually Allocating Students in SchoolsBuddy

You can manually allocate students to activities either before or after running the auto-allocation.

It’s particularly helpful to do manual allocation before running auto-allocation if you want to:

• Control who gets allocated to a particular group (activity), or

• Ensure a specific student gets into a specific activity.

To manually allocate students, follow these steps:

Manually allocate a particular group:

1. Click the Groups/Clubs tab in the container.

   

2. A list of the groups/activities which are in the sign-up will appear. Depending on what stage you are in the allocation process, this will dictate the status of the group/activity.
   The possible statuses are:
   
   • Available for Signup: No allocation has been done
   • Auto-Complete: Auto-allocation process has filled the group
   • Complete: A group has been allocated and marked as complete manually
   • Partial: A group is currently in the process of being allocated
   • On Hold: The group has not met the minimum place requirements.

   

3. To manually allocate the group/activity, click the Allocate tab next to the group/activity.

   

4. The group/activity allocation page has two columns: Requested and Allocated.

   • Requested shows students who selected the activity as a preference but haven’t been allocated yet.

   • Allocated shows students who have been placed in the activity.

   To allocate a student, click the ➕ Add button next to their name in the Requested column.

   To remove a student, click the ➖ Minus button in the Allocated column.

   You may also see icons next to student names:

   • P1/P2/P3... – The preference ranking given by the student/parent.

   • ✅ Green tick – The student has confirmed their selection.

   • ≡ Orange bars – The student has selected other activities on the same day.

   • 🔺 Red triangle – The student is already allocated to another activity on this day (you may need to remove them from the other group).

   • ℹ️ Green info bubble – Click to view the student’s profile.

   As an admin, you can override the place limit when manually adding students, so please be mindful of the group’s capacity.
   

    

   

5. After manually allocating the student(s):

   • Click Save if you have only partially allocated the group and want auto-allocation to fill the remaining spaces.

   • Click Complete if you have finalised the allocation for this group.

   
6. To see which other groups the student has been assigned to, click on the student's name.
   The student allocation overview will appear on the right side of the screen.

Manually allocate a specific student:

1. Click the Student Allocation Overview tab in the container.
2. Select a student's profile and you'll find both their selected and allocated activities on the right-hand side.
   

   

3. To remove them from their allocated groups/activities, click on the red minus symbol to remove them from that group/activity.
4. To allocate a student to additional groups/activities that they had selected, click the green plus symbol to add them to the group/activity.
5. This can be done either before or after auto-allocation, and it's useful if you want to guarantee a student gets into a specific activity before the system runs the rest of the allocation.

⚠️ Important Note: While you can manually allocate all students, we don’t recommend doing this extensively, as it can be very time-consuming. It’s more efficient to manually allocate only where necessary, then run the auto-allocation feature to complete the process.