When you first start using Smartgrade at the Secondary phase, you'll need to make sure we understand which subject codes you use in your MIS, and how they map to Smartgrade subjects. We also need to "activate" subjects you're using Smartgrade for, as this controls which teacher accounts show up on the School Users tab.
To map and activate subjects, go through these steps:
- Click on the three horizontal yellow bars in the top right of the screen, and select Configuration.
- Select the Subject mapping tab from the left hand menu.
- Select the school whose subjects you wish to map from the dropdown at the top of the screen.
- You'll see a column of every subject configured in your MIS on the left hand side, with two further columns called Activate? and Linked Smartgrade subjects.
- Tick the Activate? column for every MIS subject you plan to use within Smartgrade.
- Ensure that every MIS subject that is activated has the correct subject mapped to it in the Linked Smartgrade subjects dropdown, as per the example below:
- Once a school's subjects are mapped, click SAVE to save the changes. Users for all activated subjects will now be generated the next time we sync with your MIS. There is a scheduled sync overnight, however you can do an immediate sync:
- Click on the 3 yellow lines on the top right of the screen and select Configuration.
- Select Connected schools from the menu on the left-hand side.
- Click SYNC for the required school/schools.
- Your subjects should be available after approximately 15 minutes.
Tips and tricks
- We map common MIS subjects and Smartgrade subjects by default, so you may not need to change anything in the Linked Smartgrade subjects column. However, it is still important you check the mappings to ensure they are set up as expected!
- If your school uses multiple subject codes for a single subject, you may need to map each one separately. For example, if you use "MA" for Mathematics at KS3 and MA(G9) for Mathematics at KS4, and you want both to appear in Smartgrade, you'll need to map and activate each one to the Smartgrade subject of Mathematics.
- If your school has one MIS subject that it wants to apply to multiple Smartgrade subjects, you can map all of them at once. The Smartgrade subject dropdown is multi-select, so you can map one MIS subject (e.g. "Science" to multiple Smartgrade subjects (e.g. "Biology", "Chemistry", "Physics"). Doing so will mean that classes associated with the MIS subject are created for each Smartgrade subject. So to continue with the previous Science example, if you have a MIS class of 7/Sc1, in Smartgrade that would become 7/Sc1 (Bi), 7/Sc1 (Ch) and 7/Sc1 (Ph).
- Think carefully about which subjects you plan to use in Smartgrade! Not all choices are obvious: for example, there are Smartgrade subjects for English Literature, English Language and English. You can use any and all of those - but it's important that you get the mappings right during configuration to avoid confusion when setting assessments.