Music departments run very differently from other areas of the school — and often differently between schools too. This guide walks you through the most common scenarios for setting up Activity Selection for music, helping you find the approaches that work best for your department.
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We also recommend sitting down with your dedicated School Success Manager before you get started. They'll take the time to understand how your school currently manages music selections and recommend the best setup in Clipboard for you.
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🎬 Watch the webinar recording here!
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There are two common approaches schools take when collecting tuition selections.
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In this setup, students or parents choose the instrument they want to study. Music admins can then place them with a specific tutor afterwards.
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How this works in Clipboard:

When selections come through, a banner will appear at the top of your Teams area alerting you that students have selected an instrument but aren't yet in a team. From there, you can:

3. Add each student to the appropriate tutor's team

This gives you full flexibility to place students wherever is most suitable, regardless of what they may have indicated in their Custom Field responses:
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In this setup, students or parents choose both the instrument and the tutor they'd like to have lessons with. Clipboard can automatically assign them to the correct team as soon as a selection is made.
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How to set this up:

Once this is set up, students will be automatically added to their tutor's team the moment a selection is made — no manual placement required.
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Tip: Consider adding a "No preference" label option for students who are new to the school and don't know the tutors yet.

Here are three common scenarios for ensemble selections that Activity Selection is used for:
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Use this approach when places in an ensemble are competitive and require an audition first.

Best practice: Create a separate Activity Selection Group specifically for expressions of interest in joining the ensemble, with a short open and close window that aligns with your audition period.

​Recommended workflow:

5. Use the email feature in the Teams area to notify successful students and their parents or guardians

6. Email the remaining students in the audition team to let them know the outcome.

Use this approach when any student in specific year groups can join an ensemble — for example, a Middle School Choir open to all Year 7–9 students.
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How to set this up:

In the Activity Selection setup, add eligibility requirements to each option. For example:

Students and parents will only see the options they're eligible for, keeping the selection experience clean and straightforward.
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Tip: Link these Choir Options to update your existing Assigned Choir Teams, and add your rehearsal Sessions to the Schedule in advance. When students make a selection, they'll automatically be added to the Team, the Session Roll, and the rehearsal will appear in their Clipboard Calendar.

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Use this approach when you want to restrict who can see and select a particular ensemble — for example, a string quartet with only four positions.
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How to set this up:

3. Attach Tags to Students or Bulk attach the Tag to each student you want to invite.

Only students with that Tag will see the ensemble as a selectable option. Their siblings or other students won't see it at all.

Music departments often need to accept new selections throughout the year, not just at the start of a term or semester. However, students who have already made selections need to be protected from self-withdrawal, as there are specific school guidelines to follow when withdrawing from, e.g. instrument lessons instead. Here's how to manage this effectively.
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We strongly recommend turning on Locked Selections for music activities. It means students and parents can make new selections while the Activity Selection Group is open, but they cannot remove a selection themselves.
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To turn this on, go into the Activity Selection Group setup and enable the locking option for each relevant Activity:

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When new selections are made, but do not automatically place students in their Assigned Team, they need to be checked manually in your Teams area. Keep an eye on the banner at the top of your Teams page — it will flag any students who have made a selection but haven't yet been placed in a team.

You will also see the new Activity Selections listed on the Selections List.
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Tip: Use the email feature in the Teams area to quickly notify a tutor when a new student has been added to their group.
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A new feature is coming soon that will send a daily summary of new selections to the Department Admin. This will make it easier to stay across new enrolments as they come in.

Rather than allowing students or parents to deselect an activity themselves, many music departments prefer a formal withdrawal process. You can also set up a separate Activity Selection group to manage this.

Recommended setup:

Once the withdrawal window closes:

You can hyperlink to your school's terms and conditions within the Activity Description or Custom Fields. Note that the document needs to be hosted on a website (not a PDF) for this to work.

For additional support, contact support@clipboard.app.