Clipboard's Activity Selection Clash Prevention feature allows you to automatically prevent students and guardians from selecting activities that conflict with their existing commitments. Rather than manually resolving scheduling conflicts after selections close, you can now block conflicting selections before they happen!
What is Clash Prevention?
Clash Prevention proactively blocks students from selecting activities that overlap with their existing team commitments or other activities within the same Selection Group. When enabled, conflicting activities appear disabled in the Portal with a clear explanation, preventing selection errors before they occur.
This feature saves significant administrative time by eliminating the need to manually identify and resolve scheduling conflicts after Activity Selection closes.
View the video below to see how Activity Selection Clash Prevention works!
What are the benefits?
Time Savings
Eliminates hours of manual work identifying and resolving scheduling conflicts after selections close. Schools no longer need to move students between activities or contact families about double bookings.
Better Parent and Student Experience
Families receive immediate, clear feedback about scheduling conflicts upfront, rather than discovering issues after submitting their selections. This creates a fairer and more transparent selection process.
Accurate Scheduling
Ensures students are only enrolled in activities they can actually attend, reducing no-shows and improving participation rates across your extracurricular programme.
Support for Complex Programmes
Particularly valuable for schools with preferential selection systems, rolling enrolment programmes (like music tuition), or extensive co-curricular offerings where manual conflict checking becomes impractical.
How does Clash Prevention work?
The system checks for scheduling conflicts by:
Comparing Session times of assigned Teams within the activity being selected
Cross-referencing existing team memberships with scheduled Sessions
Checking against already-selected activities within the same Selection Group
Respecting your configured Clash Calendar date range.
Important: Clash Prevention only works within the same Activity Selection Group. Activities in different Selection Groups won't trigger conflict detection, so organise your Selection Groups strategically.
Team Status Considerations
Clash Prevention only checks against teams with Current status. Teams marked as Planned won't trigger conflict detection. This means you should move teams from Planned to Current status before opening Activity Selection.
What Students and Guardians See
When Clash Prevention is enabled, conflicting activities appear differently in the Portal.
For multi-option activities: A conflict warning appears, and the specific conflicting option is disabled.
For single-option activities: The entire activity shows as unavailable with the message: "You are already enrolled in an activity that conflicts with this selection"
Students can still view the activity details and Session calendar, but cannot select it until the conflict is resolved.
How to set up Clash Prevention
Prerequisites:
Admin or Manager User access, once your school has contacted support to enable this feature
Activities must have Teams assigned with scheduled Sessions
The assigned Teams for the Activity must be Current Teams.
Clash Calendar date range must be configured.
Step-by-step setup:
Navigate to Activities in the left sidebar
Click Activity Selection
Open the Setup tab
Select the Activity Selection Group you want to configure
Click on the specific activity
Basic Details > turn the Conflict Calendar 'on' and set the dates you want potential clashes to be flagged for, ie. the Time Period of the Activity> click Save
Scroll to the Selection Details section
Locate Assigned Team Settings
Check the box "Block conflicting selections for assigned teams"
Ensure Assigned Teams are added in the Teams section
Click Save.
The feature will now actively prevent students from selecting this activity if they have scheduling conflicts with their existing commitments.
Understanding the Clash Calendar
The Clash Calendar defines the date range used for conflict detection. Clipboard only checks for Session overlaps within this configured period.
Best practice: Set your Clash Calendar to cover the entire term or programme period for which you're running Activity Selection. This ensures conflicts are detected across the full duration of activities.
Common scenarios
Scenario 1: Student already in a committed team
Situation: Sam is on Basketball Team A, which has Sessions every Monday 3-4pm. Sam tries to select Chess Club, which also runs Monday 3-4pm.
Result: Chess Club appears disabled in the Portal with an error message explaining the conflict. Sam cannot select Chess Club unless they're removed from Basketball Team A.
Scenario 2: Activities in different Selection Groups
Situation: Jordan is in "Basketball" (Selection Group: "Winter Sports 2025", Monday 3pm). Jordan tries to select "Drama Club" (Selection Group: "Co-Curricular 2025", Monday 3pm).
Result: No clash is detected because the activities are in different Selection Groups. Jordan can select both activities.
Impact: Organise your Selection Groups strategically to ensure appropriate conflict checking occurs.
Scenario 3: Planned vs Current teams
Situation: Alex is on Football Team A with 'Planned' status, which has Sessions Wednesday 3-4pm. Alex tries to select Drama Club, also Wednesday 3-4pm.
Result: No clash is detected because the team status is Planned, not Current or Confirmed.
Impact: Always move teams from Planned to Current status before opening Activity Selection to ensure proper conflict detection.
Scenario 4: Multiple conflicts
Situation: Taylor has already selected three activities in the same Selection Group. A fourth activity conflicts with all three existing selections.
Result: The fourth activity appears disabled, and the conflict message references the first detected clash.
Troubleshooting common issues
"Students can still select conflicting activities"
Solution: Check that you've toggled on "Block conflicting selections for assigned teams" in the Selection Details section. Also verify that:
Teams are properly assigned to the activities
Teams have scheduled Sessions during the Clash Calendar period
Your Clash Calendar date range is correctly configured
Teams are in Current or Confirmed status (not Planned).
"Clash Prevention isn't detecting obvious conflicts"
Solution: Verify that both activities are within the same Activity Selection Group. Clash Prevention only works within a single Selection Group. Also check that:
Both activities have Teams assigned with scheduled Sessions
Session times actually overlap (check for time zone issues)
Your Clash Calendar covers the period when Sessions occur
"I want to prevent clashes across different Selection Groups"
Solution: Currently, Clash Prevention only works within a single Activity Selection Group. Consider restructuring your Selection Groups to include all activities that should be checked for conflicts, or manage cross-group conflicts manually.
"Students are locked out of activities they should be able to select"
Solution: Review the student's existing team memberships and already-selected activities. The system may be detecting legitimate conflicts you weren't aware of. Check:
Student's current Teams with scheduled Sessions
Previously selected activities in the same Selection Group
Whether Session times actually overlap.
If the conflict is incorrect, you may need to adjust Session times or temporarily disable Clash Prevention for that activity.
Pro tips for Schools
Plan your Selection Groups strategically: Since Clash Prevention only works within the same Selection Group, organise activities that could potentially conflict into the same group. For example, all Monday afternoon activities should be in one Selection Group.
Move teams to Current status early: Since Planned teams don't trigger conflict detection, update team statuses before opening Activity Selection to ensure accurate clash prevention.
Configure Clash Calendars carefully: Set date ranges that cover the entire period when activities run. A Clash Calendar that's too narrow may miss legitimate conflicts.
Test before opening selections: Create test student accounts and verify that Clash Prevention works as expected before opening Activity Selection to your school community.
Communicate clearly with families: Let parents and guardians know that clash prevention is enabled, so they understand why certain activities appear disabled. Consider adding a note in your Activity Selection communications.
Use alongside preferential selection: Clash Prevention works particularly well with preferential Activity Selection systems, ensuring students only list preferences they can actually fulfil.
For additional support, contact support@clipboard.app