The Periods Settings module is where the school defines the actual shape of the school day for each grade — how many periods there are, how long each one lasts, where the break falls, and what time the day starts. Every other scheduling feature, including the Timetable Generator and Teacher Setup, relies on what's configured here.
SDM
Periods Settings
Overview
Business Use Case
Different grades often need different daily rhythms — younger grades might have shorter periods and an earlier break, while older grades run longer sessions. Rather than hard-coding a single schedule for the whole school, this module lets administrators tailor the day structure per grade (and even per timetable category, for schools running more than one kind of schedule, such as a bilingual track alongside a standard one), while still offering quick bulk tools so nobody has to set every single period by hand.
Who uses it?
System Administrators / Academic Coordinators
Define and adjust each grade's daily period structure, breaks, and the two school-wide scheduling settings.
Prerequisites
- Grades must already exist.
- Timetable Categories for the current school year must be set up if the school uses more than one scheduling track; the system automatically treats one of them as the active default.
- Days of the week are pulled in automatically, excluding any marked as holidays.
Timetable Categories
If the school has more than one timetable category configured for the year (for example, a general track and a special program), they appear as tabs at the top of the page. Switching tabs reloads the schedule for whichever grade is currently selected, scoped to that category — so each category can have its own independent period structure for the same grade.
Setting Up a Grade's Daily Periods
1. Choose a Grade
Selecting a grade under Grade (Target) loads its current period structure into the table below, along with its existing break position and any grade-level defaults (default period length, default break position) to pre-fill the bulk tools.
2. The Periods Table
The table lists one row per school day and one column per period. Each cell is an editable duration field (in hours and minutes) for that day's period. Under each cell, a small live preview shows the actual clock time range for that period (e.g., "08:00 - 08:45"), calculated automatically from the school's start time and every period/break duration leading up to it — this is just a preview to help you plan and isn't a separate setting you need to fill in yourself.
If a day has fewer periods than others (for example, a shorter Friday), the extra columns for that day appear disabled rather than editable, since there's nothing to configure there.
3. Break Position
The Break After Period field controls which period number the break comes after. Once set, a distinct Break column appears in the table right after that period, with its own editable duration, styled differently from the regular period columns so it's easy to spot. Changing this value reloads the table so the break column moves to the correct position.
4. Live Time Preview
As you edit any period or break duration, every time-range preview in the table recalculates instantly, so you can see exactly how the whole day shifts before saving anything.
Bulk Duration Tools
To avoid entering the same value repeatedly, two quick-apply tools are available for the currently selected grade and category:
| Tool | Effect |
|---|---|
| Set All Periods Duration | Immediately applies one duration to every period, on every day, for the selected grade and category. |
| Set All Break Durations | Immediately applies one break duration to every day's break slot for the selected grade. |
Both take effect right away (they don't require a separate save step) and the table refreshes automatically afterward to reflect the change. Durations are limited to a sensible range and are automatically corrected if you enter something invalid or excessive.
Copying Settings Between Grades
The Copy From Grade tool lets you copy an entire period structure and its settings from one grade to another, for the currently selected category — useful when several grades should share an identical daily rhythm.
[!IMPORTANT] This Overwrites the Target Copying completely replaces the target grade's existing period structure and settings for that category. A confirmation message clearly warns about this before the copy proceeds, since it can't be undone from within the screen.
School-Wide Settings
Two settings apply across the entire school rather than to a single grade, and are saved independently with their own buttons:
| Setting | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Global Students Start Time | The clock time the first period of the day begins. This is the anchor used to calculate every time-range preview shown in the periods table. |
| Max Weekly Sessions Per Teacher | The default cap on how many periods a week any one teacher can be assigned. This same limit is what the Teacher Setup screen uses to warn when a teacher is being over-assigned, so changing it here affects that capacity checking school-wide. |
Saving
Clicking Save All Settings gathers every period duration and break setting currently shown in the table for the selected grade and category, and saves them together in a single step. If anything fails partway through, none of the changes are kept, so the saved settings are never left in a half-updated state. A confirmation message appears once everything has saved successfully.
[!NOTE] The bulk tools (Set All Periods Duration, Set All Break Durations, and Copy From Grade) take effect immediately on their own and don't require a separate Save All Settings click — only manual edits made directly in the table need to be saved that way.
Permissions
The reviewed setup does not show a dedicated permission separate from general access to this section. Access is governed by whatever role or menu permission controls this area for your school — confirm with your system administrator if you need to restrict who can view or change period settings.