Calendar and planning: class schedules and the academic calendar

Two calendars, two purposes

The Calendar module has two tabs with different scopes:

• Class Planning — a per-class calendar for organising events that affect a specific class section (field trips, parent-teacher days, class activities).
• Academic Calendar — the school-wide calendar covering term dates, holidays, examinations, and key events visible across the whole school.

Class Planning

1. Go to Calendar from the main sidebar.
2. Click the Class Planning tab.
3. Select the class section from the dropdown at the top.
4. The monthly calendar grid displays existing events for that class.
5. To add an event, click a date on the calendar grid. A form appears with fields for event title, date, and any notes.
6. Save the event. It appears on the calendar for that class section.

Academic Calendar

1. Go to Calendar and click the Academic Calendar tab.
2. The default view is List View — a chronological list of all school-wide events with their dates and types.

Adding a school-wide event

1. Click Add Event.
2. Fill in the event details:
   • Event title — e.g. "First Term Begins", "Mid-Term Break", "End of Year Examinations".
   • Date (or date range for multi-day events).
   • Event type — select from: Term Start, Term End, Holiday, Examination, PTA Meeting, Break, or Other.
   • Notes (optional) — any additional context visible to staff.
3. Save. The event appears in the list view and is visible to all staff.

Exporting the academic calendar (ICS)

1. In the Academic Calendar tab, click Export ICS.
2. A .ics file is downloaded containing all academic calendar events.
3. Import this file into any calendar application (Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook) to have school dates appear alongside personal schedules.
4. Share the .ics file with staff and parents so they can subscribe to school dates in their own calendar apps.

Importing events

1. Click Import in the Academic Calendar tab.
2. Upload a .ics file. School Vault parses the events and adds them to the academic calendar.
3. Review the imported events in list view and edit any that need correction before sharing with staff.

Common mistakes

• Adding school-wide events in Class Planning instead of Academic Calendar — class planning events are scoped to a single class and are not visible to the rest of the school.
• Not exporting the ICS file after updating the academic calendar — staff who subscribed to the exported file in their personal calendar app will not see new events unless you re-export and share the updated file.
• Using vague event titles like "Meeting" — add enough detail in the title (e.g. "Nursery Parent-Teacher Meeting — Term 2") so the event is unambiguous when viewed months later in a personal calendar.