Closing the term

Deciding what happens to every pupil, enrolling them into the next term, and rolling the school forward.

Closing a term is the single action that moves your school into the next one. It records a decision for every pupil and creates the enrolments the next term’s billing will read.

Before you close

1. Publish the term's report cards

   Closing does not publish them, and an unpublished report card is not visible to pupils. See Report cards.

2. Settle what can be settled

   Arrears follow a pupil forward, but it is far easier to resolve a disputed charge while the term is fresh.

3. Create the destination term

   You are closing into somewhere. The next term must exist, with its dates and calendar. See Academic year and terms.

Preview first

The close has a preview showing what will happen to every pupil before anything is written. Read it. It is much easier to correct a promotion decision here than to unpick a wrong enrolment after next term’s billing has run.

The five outcomes

Every pupil gets exactly one:

Outcome	Meaning
Continued	Moving to the next term in the same class — a Term 1 to Term 2 move
Promoted	Moving up a class, at the end of the year
Repeated	Staying in the same class for another year
Graduated	Completed JHS 3 and leaving
Withdrawn	Leaving the school

Continued and Promoted are different: a pupil moves through three terms in one class before being promoted out of it. Choosing Promoted between Term 1 and Term 2 would advance the whole school a year early.

What the close records

The closure records the source and destination terms, the count of each outcome, any notes, and who closed it. Each pupil’s individual decision is kept as well, so a question about why a particular pupil repeated has an answer.

The source and destination must be different terms — you cannot close a term into itself.

Fee categories do not follow automatically

A pupil’s discount is attached to their enrolment for a term, not to the pupil. It does not carry into the next term on its own.

Review concessions as part of closing. This is the moment a staff child whose parent has left, or a one-term bursary, should stop — and the moment it is easiest to miss.

After closing

1. Check the new term's enrolments

   Every pupil who should be billed needs one.

2. Set the new term's fee matrix

   A new term starts with an empty grid rather than inheriting the last one. See The fee matrix.

3. Set feeding rates and plans

   Also per term. See Feeding rates.

4. Make the new term current

   Everyone’s screens now default to it.

5. Run billing

   See Running term billing.

Who can do this

The edit_academics permission, alongside edit_students for the enrolment changes it makes.