Electives
The Electives module lets a school offer optional subjects that students pick beyond their core timetable — a second language, an art, a science elective, a sport. It handles the whole lifecycle: how choices are grouped, the rule students must follow, which subjects are on the menu, the actual teaching groups, and who ends up in each one. Electives can be shared across sections and even across grades.
You’ll find it under Electives in the school sidebar (Sections & Scheduling). Everything on the page is scoped to one grade level and the active academic year — switch the grade at the top to configure a different cohort.
Key concepts
Section titled “Key concepts”| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Area | An optional bucket that electives fall under — e.g. Humanities, Sciences, Arts & Sports. Areas power rules like “choose 3 from at least 2 areas”. |
| Offering | A subject placed on the elective menu for a grade. An offering is Fixed (one grade) or Combined (shared across several grades). |
| Group | A real teaching section of an offering, with its own teacher, room and seat cap (cupo). One offering can have several groups. |
| Enrollment | A student placed into a specific group. This is what makes them “take” that elective. |
| Selection rule (policy) | Per grade: how many electives a student must choose, and from how many areas. Optionally enforced. |
The flow at a glance
Section titled “The flow at a glance”-
Setup — create areas and the selection rule for the grade.
-
Offerings — put subjects on the menu (Fixed or Combined).
-
Groups — create the teaching groups, each with a teacher, room and seat cap.
-
Enrollment — students choose from the portal (or an admin assigns them), following the rule.
Step 1 — Setup
Section titled “Step 1 — Setup”Open the Setup tab first. It defines how electives work for the grade before you offer anything.
Areas are optional groupings for your electives. Click Starter set to create a ready-made set (Humanities / Sciences / Arts & Sports), or Add your own with a name, short code, and color. Areas are shared across the whole school; the selection rule below references them.
Selection rules
Section titled “Selection rules”Set the rule students must follow for this grade:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Electives to choose | How many electives each student must pick (e.g. 3). |
| From at least (areas) | The minimum number of distinct areas those choices must span (e.g. 2), so a student can’t take everything from one bucket. |
| Enforce | When on, choices that break the rule are blocked. A coordinator with override permission can still place a student manually. |
Set up with AI
Section titled “Set up with AI”Short on time? Click Suggest with AI. It reads your subject catalog and proposes areas, a set of electives to offer, and a sensible selection rule for the grade. You review and edit everything before anything is saved.
Step 2 — Offerings
Section titled “Step 2 — Offerings”An offering is a subject on the elective menu. On the Offerings tab, click Add electives, pick subjects from your catalog, choose who can take them, and tag each with an area.
Fixed vs Combined
Section titled “Fixed vs Combined”| Type | Use it when… |
|---|---|
| Fixed — one grade | The elective is only for a single grade (e.g. a Grade IX-only robotics elective). |
| Combined — shared across grades | Students from several grades sit the same elective together in one group and are graded together — common for level-based courses like “Spanish 1”. The offering’s primary grade drives its grading scheme. |
The Grades column on the offerings table shows each offering’s reach. Use Edit grades on a row to change it later.
Step 3 — Groups
Section titled “Step 3 — Groups”A group is the actual class students sit in. On the Groups tab, click New group, choose the offering, and set:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Group name | e.g. Group 1, Morning batch. Distinguishes multiple groups of the same offering. |
| Teacher | Who teaches this group. Optional — can be assigned later. |
| Room | Where it meets. Optional. |
| Seat cap | The maximum number of students (cupo). Leave blank for no limit. A full group can’t be over-filled. |
One offering can have several groups (e.g. two Photography sections at different times). A Combined offering pulls students from all its grades into the same group. Use Manage on any group row to open its roster and add or move students.
Step 4 — Enrollment
Section titled “Step 4 — Enrollment”The Enrollment tab is the control room. It lists every student in the grade with how many electives they’ve chosen, how many areas those span, and whether they meet the selection rule. From here an admin can assign students to groups, move them between groups, and see who still hasn’t finished choosing.
Student & parent self-selection
Section titled “Student & parent self-selection”Students (and their parents) can choose their own electives from the portal under My Electives. The flow is rule-driven and final once submitted.
-
The student opens My Electives and sees the offerings available to their grade, grouped by area, each with its groups and remaining seats.
-
They pick electives until the selection rule is satisfied (the required count, spanning the required number of areas). A live checklist shows what’s still needed. Full groups can’t be chosen.
-
Once the rule is met, Submit becomes available. Submitting records the choices for approval.
-
After submitting, the selection is locked — the student can no longer change it.
Electives in exams & report cards
Section titled “Electives in exams & report cards”Electives flow through the normal exam and grading pipeline. When you schedule exam papers, you can add an elective paper — its grading (roster, report-card inclusion, progress and publish counts) is scoped to the enrolled students of that offering, not the whole grade.
| Behaviour | How it works |
|---|---|
| Who gets graded | Only students enrolled in the elective — including students from other grades in a combined elective. |
| Report cards | An elective appears on a student’s report card only if they’re enrolled in it; classmates who didn’t take it never see it. |
| Entering marks | On the Enter Marks screen an elective’s roster is everyone enrolled across sections; each student is tagged with their home section. |
See Assessments for the full exam workflow.
Permissions
Section titled “Permissions”| Action | Who |
|---|---|
| View electives | Owners, managers, and teachers with the electives permission. |
| Create / edit areas, offerings, groups; set rules | Owners, managers, coordinators with edit permission. |
| Enroll students / override a rule | Coordinators with enroll (or override) permission. |
| Unlock a submitted student selection | Admins only — students and parents must request it. |