Before You Begin
Essential Setup Requirements
For Music Tutors Creating Their Own Schedules: Admin users must first enable the Extra Staff User Access Option: 'Create and manage Sessions for themselves for this Activity'. Without this setting, Staff users cannot create Rotating Schedules.
Recommended Pre-Setup Steps:
Create Fixed Sessions first - Rotating Schedules will automatically work around existing Fixed Sessions for the same staff and students
Set up Staff Unavailability - Define when staff are not available for lessons
Configure Student Pre-Explained Absences - Record known student absences from school
Set Student Unavailabilities: - Specify recurring times when individual students cannot attend lessons
Confirm Public Holidays: - Ensure your Clipboard Admin sets these to avoid scheduling conflicts
Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Access the Rotating Schedule Creator
Navigate to Schedule (left sidebar)
Click Create Session
Select Create Rotating Schedule
Step 2: Configure Rotation Parameters
Set your basic rotation structure:
Activity: Select the relevant Activity
Rotation Period: The period of time your schedule will rotate for
Rotation Mode: This defines how your sessions will be spaced out.
Session Frequency: How often you want your students to rotate throughout the schedule.
Click Next when complete.
Step 3: Set Staff Parameters
Configure staff availability and scheduling:
Add Staff: The Staff member(s) for the rotating sessions. Note: if you add multiple Staff, they will be scheduled together for all sessions in this rotation.
Break Time: Sessions will be scheduled with specified breaks in between.
Week A/B Availability: Set different staff availabilities for week A and B
Create Time Blocks: Select days and set time periods of teaching availability. Note: if your availabilities for one day are separated by breaks, create these as separate blocks e.g. an am block and a pm block.
Click Next to continue.
Step 4: Add Students
Choose how to add students to your Rotating Schedule:
Option A: Add from Existing Team
Type the Team name and check the box to add all Team members.
If the extra staff permissions have been enabled for Tutors to schedule, all the teams for the relevant Activity will pull through. You can read more about best practices for team naming conventions from music tuition here.
Option B: Add Individual Students
Select students individually from the dropdown
For Group Lessons:
Add multiple students to the same row
Next, specify the number of Sessions within your rotation frequency and set each Session's length.
Click Next when student selection is complete.
Step 5: Review and Adjust the Generated Schedule
Clipboard will automatically create your Rotating Schedule based on your parameters. You can:
View Sessions by day, week, or month
Edit Session placements by dragging and dropping (works best on desktop)
Resolve conflicts using the clash detection modal
Important: If you drag a Session to a time with existing staff or student conflicts, a modal will alert you to these clashes.
Click Populate Spreadsheet when satisfied with the layout.
Student and Staff Clashes: This feature helps identify conflicts when students and staff are already linked to existing Clipboard Sessions and cannot be scheduled for a lesson.
Step 6: Customise the Schedule Spreadsheet
Before creating your Sessions, you can:
Add Locations for each Session
Include Staff Notes for internal reference
Add Student/Parent Notes for additional context
Export the schedule if needed for external use
Need to modify rotation parameters? Click Edit Rotation (top right) to return to earlier steps.
Step 7: Create and Publish Sessions
When you're satisfied with the spreadsheet:
Click Create
Choose whether to notify Staff, Students, and Guardians of the new Sessions.
Click Publish
Your Rotating Schedule Sessions will now appear in the Schedule tab.
Managing Your Rotating Schedule
Making Changes After Publication
To edit an existing Rotating Schedule:
Click on any Session in the Schedule
Select Actions
Choose Edit Rotation
This returns you to the Rotating Schedule flow, where you can adjust.
If you have already published your Rotating Schedule and drag and drop Sessions to new times, a modal will warn you about existing clashes at the new Session time.