Guide to a New School Year: How to Get Started with Scheduling in Docendo
This guide explains in Part 1 how to get started with the basics, covering:
Creating a new school year
Creating grades/groups
Creating subjects
Assigning work and teaching hours
Introduction to teacher-subject hours
Part 2 goes over additional steps you can take to prepare before scheduling, including:
Creating other calendars (staff meetings, etc.)
Working hours
Rooms
Holiday calendar
Tips for scheduling
Start by creating the new school year:
Click on settings ⚙️ in the upper right corner > "School Year"
Click the plus icon to create a new school year and set start and end dates.
Now, you can create grades/groups for the new school year:
Go to "Grades/group" in the left menu.
Select the newly created school year and click "Create Grade/group"
You can create multiple grades/groups at once.
After setting up grades/groups, go to "Subjects" under "Planning" to create subjects (or modify existing ones).
Click the blue "Create Subject" button in the top right corner to add new subjects.
Click the plus icon in a grade/group column to add an existing subject.
If you add a subject to another grade/group, the subject color remains consistent across grades/groups.
For all subjects, you can click on them to:
Adjust the number of yearly hours.
Change duration or subject type.
Assign teachers and/or rooms.
Find "Assign Hours" under "Planning."
This feature allows you to:
Set each teacher’s total work and teaching hours for the school year.
Track assigned teaching hours in Teacher-subject Allocations (see step 5).
Only the "Assigned" column for work hours, teaching hours, tasks, preparations, and substitute hours can be edited.
Use tags to view a specific group of staff members. You can create groups of staff members under settings ⚙️ > “Groups”, such as “Art Teachers”, “Math Teachers” etc.
Now, you're ready to use “Teacher-subject Allocation” in Docendo, found under "Planning."
This tool can be used by school administrators or individual staff members. As an administrator, you control access under "Permissions" in the settings ⚙️.
The left side displays a list of staff members with their total assigned subjects and teaching hours.
Click on a staff member to see detailed allocations and compare their assigned hours with the teaching hours set in step 4.
The center of the page shows all grades/groups and their subjects.
How to assign a teacher to a subject:
Click a subject.
Assign a teacher and (optionally) a room.
Click "Update subject"
The assigned teacher’s workload updates immediately in the left panel.
To simplify the overview, you can:
Filter to show only subjects without assigned teachers.
Use grade or group filters to focus on specific sections.
✅TIP: This is especially useful for departments managing their own subject and teaching hours.
Each subject also includes an activity log, allowing you to see who last modified it. Click on the subject and select the "History" tab.
To add staff meetings or similar events in Docendo, create additional calendars under "Other Calendars" in the left menu.
For example, you can create a "Staff Meetings" calendar under "Other Tasks" and assign relevant employees.
✅ Why? Shaded blocks indicate when staff members are busy, helping prevent scheduling conflicts when assigning teachers and rooms.
Setting up working hours before scheduling makes it easier to allocate subjects and resources when teachers are available.
Working hours appear as blue backgrounds and overlap with scheduled activities like teaching, meetings, and duties.
They also help with substitute teacher management by indicating availability.
To set working hours:
Open a user’s calendar and click "Working Hours"
Enter working hours and copy it to multiple weeks
Find a summary of working hours under "Assignment Overview" in their schedule.
To set work hours for multiple staff members:
Click on settings ⚙️ > "Calendars" > "Add Working Hours"
Select multiple users (e.g., all full-time teachers).
Use tags to quickly filter by groups
A good starting point for scheduling is assigning limited resources like gyms or art rooms.
Create rooms under "Rooms" in the left menu.
Assign rooms to subjects under "Subjects” or “Teacher-Subject Allocation”
Plan directly in the room’s calendar
🚨 Important: If a room calendar is scheduled before grade/group scheduling, it cannot be moved later in the grade/group calendar. All activities must be moved and/or removed in the calendar it was originally scheduled in.
It’s recommended to define school holidays before scheduling.
Go to "Planning" > "Holiday Calendar"
Select the school year and mark holiday/break dates.
⏩ When schedules are later copied across weeks, no subjects will be scheduled on holidays.
With all the previous steps completed, you're ready to start scheduling. Here are some key tips:
✅ Use a shared "base week" for scheduling across grades/groups and calendars.
✅ As subjects and resources are added, shaded areas indicate when teachers/rooms are busy.
✅ Consider opening multiple tabs in your browser (e.g., 1st grade in one tab, 2nd grade in another) to quickly switch between schedules.
✅ Once all schedules are set for the base week, copy them to the rest of the school year:
Click "Copy" in the scheduled week.
Select the weeks to apply it to.
Click "Paste"
Creating a new school year
Creating grades/groups
Creating subjects
Assigning work and teaching hours
Introduction to teacher-subject hours
Part 2 goes over additional steps you can take to prepare before scheduling, including:
Creating other calendars (staff meetings, etc.)
Working hours
Rooms
Holiday calendar
Tips for scheduling
Part 1:
1) Create a School Year
Start by creating the new school year:
Click on settings ⚙️ in the upper right corner > "School Year"
Click the plus icon to create a new school year and set start and end dates.
2) Create Grades/group
Now, you can create grades/groups for the new school year:
Go to "Grades/group" in the left menu.
Select the newly created school year and click "Create Grade/group"
You can create multiple grades/groups at once.
3) Create Subjects
After setting up grades/groups, go to "Subjects" under "Planning" to create subjects (or modify existing ones).
Click the blue "Create Subject" button in the top right corner to add new subjects.
Click the plus icon in a grade/group column to add an existing subject.
If you add a subject to another grade/group, the subject color remains consistent across grades/groups.
For all subjects, you can click on them to:
Adjust the number of yearly hours.
Change duration or subject type.
Assign teachers and/or rooms.
4) Assigning Work and Teaching Hours
Find "Assign Hours" under "Planning."
This feature allows you to:
Set each teacher’s total work and teaching hours for the school year.
Track assigned teaching hours in Teacher-subject Allocations (see step 5).
Only the "Assigned" column for work hours, teaching hours, tasks, preparations, and substitute hours can be edited.
Use tags to view a specific group of staff members. You can create groups of staff members under settings ⚙️ > “Groups”, such as “Art Teachers”, “Math Teachers” etc.
5) Introduction to Subject and Teacher Allocation
Now, you're ready to use “Teacher-subject Allocation” in Docendo, found under "Planning."
This tool can be used by school administrators or individual staff members. As an administrator, you control access under "Permissions" in the settings ⚙️.
The left side displays a list of staff members with their total assigned subjects and teaching hours.
Click on a staff member to see detailed allocations and compare their assigned hours with the teaching hours set in step 4.
The center of the page shows all grades/groups and their subjects.
How to assign a teacher to a subject:
Click a subject.
Assign a teacher and (optionally) a room.
Click "Update subject"
The assigned teacher’s workload updates immediately in the left panel.
To simplify the overview, you can:
Filter to show only subjects without assigned teachers.
Use grade or group filters to focus on specific sections.
✅TIP: This is especially useful for departments managing their own subject and teaching hours.
Each subject also includes an activity log, allowing you to see who last modified it. Click on the subject and select the "History" tab.
Part 2:
6) Create Other Calendars
To add staff meetings or similar events in Docendo, create additional calendars under "Other Calendars" in the left menu.
For example, you can create a "Staff Meetings" calendar under "Other Tasks" and assign relevant employees.
✅ Why? Shaded blocks indicate when staff members are busy, helping prevent scheduling conflicts when assigning teachers and rooms.
7) Working Hours
Setting up working hours before scheduling makes it easier to allocate subjects and resources when teachers are available.
Working hours appear as blue backgrounds and overlap with scheduled activities like teaching, meetings, and duties.
They also help with substitute teacher management by indicating availability.
To set working hours:
Open a user’s calendar and click "Working Hours"
Enter working hours and copy it to multiple weeks
Find a summary of working hours under "Assignment Overview" in their schedule.
To set work hours for multiple staff members:
Click on settings ⚙️ > "Calendars" > "Add Working Hours"
Select multiple users (e.g., all full-time teachers).
Use tags to quickly filter by groups
8) Rooms
A good starting point for scheduling is assigning limited resources like gyms or art rooms.
Create rooms under "Rooms" in the left menu.
Assign rooms to subjects under "Subjects” or “Teacher-Subject Allocation”
Plan directly in the room’s calendar
🚨 Important: If a room calendar is scheduled before grade/group scheduling, it cannot be moved later in the grade/group calendar. All activities must be moved and/or removed in the calendar it was originally scheduled in.
9) Holiday calendar
It’s recommended to define school holidays before scheduling.
Go to "Planning" > "Holiday Calendar"
Select the school year and mark holiday/break dates.
⏩ When schedules are later copied across weeks, no subjects will be scheduled on holidays.
10) Tips for Scheduling
With all the previous steps completed, you're ready to start scheduling. Here are some key tips:
✅ Use a shared "base week" for scheduling across grades/groups and calendars.
✅ As subjects and resources are added, shaded areas indicate when teachers/rooms are busy.
✅ Consider opening multiple tabs in your browser (e.g., 1st grade in one tab, 2nd grade in another) to quickly switch between schedules.
✅ Once all schedules are set for the base week, copy them to the rest of the school year:
Click "Copy" in the scheduled week.
Select the weeks to apply it to.
Click "Paste"
Updated on: 19/02/2025