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ManageCal
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For schools and colleges

The hall, the labs, the cover and the parents’ evening, on one calendar.

A school runs on shared rooms and shared people. ManageCal puts both on one calendar, so the office sees the whole week, each department sees its own, and nobody books the hall twice.

The problems

Three things a school diary gets wrong.

01

The hall is booked twice for the same afternoon

Assemblies, mock exams, rehearsals and visiting speakers all want the same hall, and a diary in the office only finds the clash when two groups arrive at the door.

In ManageCal the hall is a sub-calendar of its own with overlaps turned off. A second booking that collides is refused when someone tries to save it, before anyone has told a class where to go. Rooms that are happy to be shared, like the library, simply leave the setting off.

WednesdaySpaces
09:0011:0013:0015:00
Main Hall
Assembly
10:00Year 11 mock exam
11:00Drama rehearsalRefused
Science Lab
09:00Year 9 practical
13:30Chemistry club
Sports Hall
10:00Year 7 PE
15:15Netball squad

The rehearsal is refused on save. The hall does not allow overlapping events.

02

Cover is arranged in someone’s inbox

When a teacher is away, the cover is agreed by email and the staff room finds out at break. The details that matter, which room, which class, whether work has been set, end up in a reply chain nobody else can see.

Put cover on a sub-calendar and give each detail its own field. Staff see the lesson they are covering and where it is. The reason a colleague is away sits in a field only the people who can edit it see, so it is recorded without being broadcast.

Cover: Year 8 MathsTue 13 Oct · 10:00 – 11:00 · Absence and Cover
Covered By
A. Braun
Absent
J. Moreno
Where
Room 14
Work Set
Yes
Year Group
Year 8

Reason: visible only to editors

03

The weekly briefing breaks the week the timetable changes

A weekly staff briefing is one event that repeats, not forty copies. When one week is different, because of a training day or a move to the library, you change that one week and the rest of the series carries on untouched.

A club that runs until the end of term ends on a date, and one that runs for ten weeks ends after ten. Nothing has to be deleted by hand in July.

Staff briefingWeekly, Mondays
5 OctStaff briefing
12 OctStaff briefing
19 OctBriefing in LibraryChanged
26 OctSkipped
2 NovStaff briefing
9 NovStaff briefing

One week moved to the library, the half-term week skipped, and the rest unchanged.

A starting set-up

A calendar a school could start with.

One calendar for the school, with folders for spaces, staff and school life. Rename, add or remove anything: this is a starting point, not a template you are locked into.

Rooms refuse overlaps
Turned on for the halls and the lab, left off for the library, where two groups can share.
Who became Staff Lead
Every calendar starts with Who and Where fields. Rename them to fit, or retype Where into a list of your rooms.
Year Group is a choice
So the whole calendar can be filtered to one year group, across every space and every trip.
School CalendarSuggested set-up
Spaces
  • Main HallNo overlaps
  • Sports HallNo overlaps
  • Science LabNo overlaps
  • Library
Staff
  • Absence and Cover
  • Staff Meetings
  • Leadership
School Life
  • Trips and Visits
  • Parents’ Evenings
  • Exams
Custom fields
  • Staff LeadText
  • WhereText
  • Year GroupChoice
  • PupilsNumber
  • Risk AssessedCheckbox
  • ReasonText, editors only
Who sees what

The office, a teacher and a visiting coach, on the same Thursday.

Access is set per person on each sub-calendar. The office manages everything; a teacher books rooms and sees the cover they need; a visiting coach sees when the sports hall is taken and nothing else. Leadership meetings do not appear for anyone who has not been given them, not even as a locked row.

School officeAdministrator
Thu 15
09:00Sports day heats
12:00Cover: 9C English
14:30Budget review

Every calendar, every detail, and the settings.

TeacherAdd only · Read only
Thu 15
09:00Sports day heats
12:00Cover: 9C English

Books the hall and sees cover. Leadership is not shared with them.

Visiting coachRead only, no details
Thu 15
09:00Reserved

Sees when the hall is taken. Nothing else is theirs to see.

Sports HallAbsence and CoverLeadership
Questions

What schools ask before they start.

Can teachers book rooms themselves?

Yes. Give them Add only, or Modify my events, on a room’s sub-calendar. With overlaps turned off for that room, a booking that collides with another is refused when they save it, so the office no longer has to referee.

Can parents see the school calendar?

A parent can be given read-only access to a sub-calendar such as Parents’ Evenings, and signs in with a link sent to their email address. ManageCal has no public page or website embed yet, so it suits a small group of parents better than a whole school’s worth.

Is ManageCal a timetabling tool?

No. It does not build a timetable from teachers, rooms and constraints. Lessons that use a shared room can be added as weekly repeating events on that room’s calendar, which is how the room stays bookable around them.

What happens to clubs and fixtures at the end of term?

A repeating event can end on a date or after a number of times, so a club stops on the last day of term by itself. Past events stay on the calendar for reference.

How much does it cost for a whole staff?

One price per workspace, not per person: Team is $20 a month for up to 40 people and Business is $50 a month for up to 100. The Free plan covers 5 people. Prices are indicative while ManageCal is in development, and nothing is charged yet.

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Get started

Put your whole organisation on one calendar.

Set up your sub-calendars, decide who sees what, and start scheduling.

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