Preference - Creating a Container

Creating a Container is the first step in setting up your activity programme in SchoolsBuddy. The container acts as the framework for your sign-up period, bringing together all related activity groups under one set of rules and timelines.

In this article, we’ll guide you through the process of creating a container, including key settings like activity dates, sign-up windows, and selection options — everything you need to get started with a Preference sign-up.

To create a new Preference-based container, follow the steps below:

1. On your SchoolsBuddy Homepage, Click on the 'Menu Icon' in the top-left corner
2. Select 'Activities & Clubs Admin' tab in the Menu Panel, or click on the 'Activities & Clubs Admin' icon on the homepage directly.
3. Click the 'After School Clubs (Preference Based)' tab (Please note, this may be labelled differently depending on your school settings).
4. Click the 'Add' button on the top right corner.

Fill in the following details for the activity program:

1. Sign Up Title: Name of the program, eg "After School Activity - Term 3 2024/2025"
2. Description: Description of the program, and any information for the parents, eg "Welcome to the ASA program, each student can select three preference a day, and the system will allocate students based on your preference."
3. Selection type: Select Preferences
4. Preference Selection Scope: Decide whether students should select their preferences per day or per week:

   • Daily – Students can choose their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd preferences for each day of the week.

   • Weekly – Students select 1st, 2nd, and 3rd preferences across the entire week.

   • Ignore Day of the Week: Tick this box only if the day of the week is not relevant — for example, a school trip with dates yet to be confirmed, where students can still rank their preferences.
5. Number of Daily Preferences: Set how many activity preferences students can rank per day or per week, depending on your selection scope. By default, this is set to 5, but you can lower the number if needed.
6. Minimum Weekly Student Selections: This is the minimum number of choices that students or parents must select. Set this to 0 if you do not require a minimum number of preferences.

7. Activities Start Date: The first day your program is scheduled to begin.

8. Activities End Date: The last day of this program.

9. Activity Default Start Time: Set the default start time for all activities in this container — for example, 3pm for after-school clubs. This time will apply unless overridden at the group level.
10. Activity Default End Time: Set the default end time for the activities in this container. This time will apply unless overridden at the group level.
11. Event type: Select the type of events or program name, e.g. After School Club, ECA, CCA, etc.
    

12. Booking Confirmations include linked person(s): Tick this box to send confirmation emails to all parents linked to the student, rather than just the parent who made the selections.
13. Responsibility for Confirmation: Choose who can make selections in this container
    

    • Parents Only

    • Students Only

    • Either Parents or Students

14. Sign Up Open and Close: The dates during which parents/students can sign up for activities. It’s recommended to close sign-up a few days before the first activity to allow for allocations and manual changes.
15. Allow parent/student re-submission of selections: If checked, parents/students can change their selections after submission within the signup window. 
16. Allow post allocation join requests: This setting is only relevant after sign-up is closed and students are allocated. Only enable it if you want to allow students to request joining activities with remaining spaces.
17. Use Organisation Block Dates: Keep this option ticked to prevent events from being created during block dates, unless the activities in this container are still scheduled to occur during those dates.
18. Terms & Conditions: Add your sign-up Terms and Conditions in the provided box, or link to them using the "Terms Additional Info (URL)" field.
19. Booking data form: If you need to collect extra information, you can add a Booking Data Form for parents/students to complete when submitting their choices. To set this up, please contact help@schoolsbuddy.com..
20. Transport Timeslot: If you have the Transport Module enabled, you can choose to link the container to a Transport Timeslot.
21. Once all the relevant details have been entered, click the green Save button.

Once saved, you’ll be taken directly into the container. To return to the main page, click the Back button in the top-left corner—your container will be listed there.

• Click the Manage tab to open the container.
• Click the Edit tab to update any of the settings above, if needed.

⚠️ Important Note:

1. In a Preference container, students can only be allocated to one activity per day.
   Therefore, if your different programs take place at different time in a single day (e.g. morning, lunchtime, after school), you’ll need to create a separate container for each time slot. 
2. Once the sign-up opens to parents, container settings should not be changed, as this can affect the selection process. However, certain fields — such as the Container Title, Description, and Sign-up Window — can be adjusted at any time.

Now, you will need to create groups/activities within the container - please use our guide here for more information: Adding Activities to your Container