Skip to main content

Academic Calendar

The Academic Calendar is the backbone of your school's scheduling in Tawaasal. It defines the academic year, terms, holidays, and important events that drive scheduling, attendance tracking, and reporting across the platform.

Accessing the Academic Calendar​

  1. Log in as a school administrator.
  2. Navigate to Academic in the sidebar, then select the Calendar tab.
View vs. Manage

All users can view the academic calendar at Calendar in the sidebar. The Academic > Calendar page provides full management capabilities that are only available to school administrators.

Setting Up an Academic Year​

  1. Open Academic in the sidebar.
  2. Select the Calendar tab.
  3. Switch between Years, Terms, and Holidays here.
  4. New Academic Year opens the creation form.

An academic year is the top-level time period for your school. To create one:

  1. Click New Academic Year.
  2. Enter the year name (e.g., "2025-2026").
  3. Set the start date and end date.
  4. Click Save.

You can have multiple academic years defined, but only one should be marked as the current active year.

Managing Terms​

Each academic year is divided into terms (also called semesters or trimesters, depending on your school's structure):

  1. Open the academic year you want to edit.
  2. Click Add Term.
  3. Enter the term name (e.g., "Term 1", "Fall Semester").
  4. Set the start date and end date — these must fall within the parent academic year.
  5. Click Save.
Term Dates

Term dates cannot overlap with each other within the same academic year. Make sure to account for breaks between terms.

Adding Holidays and Non-School Days​

To mark days when school is not in session:

  1. Open the relevant academic year or term.
  2. Click Add Holiday.
  3. Enter the holiday name (e.g., "National Day", "Winter Break").
  4. Set the start date and end date.
  5. Click Save.

Holidays automatically exclude affected days from attendance tracking. Teachers will not be expected to mark attendance on holiday dates.

Creating Events​

School events such as open days, sports days, or examination periods can be added to the calendar:

  1. Select Events in the sidebar.
  2. Create Event opens the event type picker.
  3. Filter the list down to one event type.
  4. Search events by title.
  1. Navigate to Events from the sidebar.
  2. Click Create Event.
  3. Fill in the event details:
    • Title and description
    • Date and time
    • Location (optional)
    • Target audience — Choose which roles can see the event
  4. Click Save.

Trips​

Trips are a special type of event that include additional features:

  1. Request Consent sends the guardian consent form.
  2. Manage Attendees marks who attended the trip.
  3. Filter the attendee list by consent status.
  • Guardian consent forms — Guardians can approve or deny their child's participation online.
  • Attendance tracking — Mark who attended the trip.
  • Trip dashboard — View consent status and attendee lists at a glance.

Parents Evening Events​

Parents evening events are managed through the Events system with additional scheduling features:

  1. The parents evening event being scheduled.
  2. View Schedule shows the full appointment timetable.
  3. Manage Availability lets a teacher set their own bookable time slots.
  1. Create a parents evening event.
  2. Teachers are assigned time slots.
  3. Guardians can book appointments with their children's teachers through the online booking interface.
  4. Teachers and school admins can view the full schedule.

Calendar Views​

The academic calendar supports:

  • Year selector — Switch between academic years.
  • Term Overview — See every term in the selected year at a glance, with the current term highlighted.
  • Month calendar — Browse events, holidays, and key dates day by day.

Events, holidays, and key dates are color-coded for easy identification.

Tips​

  • Set up the calendar early — Many features (attendance, grading periods, report cards) depend on having a properly configured academic calendar.
  • Review term dates carefully — Once attendance data and grades have been recorded for a term, changing its dates may affect historical records.
  • Use events for communication — Adding events to the calendar ensures all relevant users are informed automatically.

Applies to Tawaasal 2.5.0